Ayanda Kota

The Marikana Mine Worker's Massacre – a Massive Escalation in the War on the Poor

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Klicken Sie hier für den deutschen text.

8 August 2012

The Marikana Mine Worker's Massacre – a Massive Escalation in the War on the Poor

by Ayanda Kota

It’s now two days after the brutal, heartless and merciless cold blood bath of 45 Marikana mine workers by the South African Police Services. This was a massacre!

South Africa is the most unequal country in the world. The amount of poverty is excessive. In every township there are shacks with no sanitation and electricity. Unemployment is hovering around 40%. Economic inequality is matched with political inequality. Everywhere activists are facing serious repression from the police and from local party structures.

Release Ayanda Kota Now!!!

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Update: Ayanda Kota was released at 14:45 this afternoon on a bail of R500. There were visible marks from the assault on his head, arms, chest and back. His clothes were torn and blood stained. He will be laying criminal and civil charges against the officers who assaulted him.

The original UPM statement is here, the SSJ statement is here, the DLF statement is here and the Mandela Park Backyarder's Statement is here.

Ayanda Kota Assaulted in the Grahamstown Police Station - Under Arrest

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12 January 2011
Unemployed People's Movement Press Statement

Ayanda Kota Assaulted in the Grahamstown Police Station - Under Arrest

About 40 minutes ago Ayanda Kota was seriously assaulted by a group of police officers in the Grahamstown police station. He was dragged, bleeding from at least two wounds, and with his clothes torn from his body, to the holding cells.


For some months he has been under open police surveillance and at times has been threatened and insulted by the police. The police have been watching his mother's house and have searched it looking for him. Their behaviour has been very rude, threatening and aggressive.

Julius Malema is a Demagogue

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Julius Malema is a Demagogue and his Nationalization Would be Nothing but a Massive Public Subsidy for the Rich

by Ayanda Kota, Chairperson of the Unemployed People's Movement, Grahamstown

The mass movements that have raised progressive governments to power in Latin America, the global financial crisis, the recent uprisings in the Arab world and the ongoing rebellion of the poor in our own country have all created more space for the left. The days when so many people believed that there was no alternative to capitalism and imperialism are passing. Socialism is back on the agenda. It is clear to many people that we cannot continue to organise our economy around the interests of big capital while leaving the people to suffer as they are.

Not Yet Uhuru

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This letter has now been published in the Mail & Guardian as an article.

NOT YET UHURU

Dear Editor

On the 27th of April 1994 the people of this country stood in long queues for many hours, waiting to cast their vote for the first time. In some parts of the country the weather was indeed hostile, freezing cold, while in other parts of the country it was scorching hot. Our people were voting for the first time, voting for an end to racism and for democracy and a better life - for jobs, free education and decent housing. Over and above their vote for their material needs to be met they were voting for their freedom. Or so they were made to believe!

KPFA 94.1 FM: Interview with Richard Pithouse & Ayanda Kota on the Marikana Massacre

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Africa Today - October 1, 2012 at 7:00pm

Das Massaker an den Minenarbeitern von Marikana – eine massive Eskalation des Kriegs gegen die Armen

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http://akkrise.wordpress.com/2012/08/19/upm-statement-18-8-2012/

UPM-Statement, 18 August 2012, Ayanda Kota, 078 825 6462

Das Massaker an den Minenarbeitern von Marikana – eine massive Eskalation des Kriegs gegen die Armen

Zwei Tage sind nun vergangen seit dem brutalen, herzlosen und erbarmungslosen kalten Blutbad an 45 Minenarbeitern in Marikana durch die südafrikanische Polizei. Das war ein Massaker!

Südafrika ist das am meisten ungleiche Land der Welt. Das Ausmaß an Armut ist maßlos. In jeder township gibt es Baracken ohne Sanitäranlagen und Strom. Die Arbeitslosigkeit liegt bei rund 40%. Die ökonomische Ungleichheit wird begleitet von politischer Ungleichheit. Überall sehen sich AktivistInnen ernsthafter Unterdrückung durch die Polizei und lokale Parteistrukturen ausgesetzt.

Ayanda Kota - brief biography

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Ayanda Kota

Ayanda Kota was born in Grahamstown in the Eastern Cape in February 1976 – the year of the national youth insurrection that began in Soweto. He joined the Black Consciousness Movement at the age of 15 years. Militants in the movement made a serious study of works by revolutionary thinkers like Steven Biko, Frantz Fanon, Paulo Freire, Vladimir Lenin, Leon Trotsky and Mao Zedong. In 1990 he was elected as a Class Representative and in 1995 he was elected as the Azanian Student Movement Chairperson in Cape Town. In the same year he was arrested and detained in the Cape Town police station for his role in Employ Black Teachers Campaign. The following year he was elected as the Azanian Students Movement National Political Education Secretary in Kimberly. In 2001 he was re-elected to the position of Political Education Secretary at a meeting at the University of the Western Cape in Cape Town. In 2003 he was elected as the Black Consciousness Youth of Azania National Secretary for Publicity and Information in Durban at a meeting at the Steve Biko campus of the Durban University of Technology.

Soccer an Expression of Love and Hope

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http://rhodespsf.org/2012/06/11/ayanda-kota-of-upm-condemns-safa-on-their-silence-on-mahmoud-sarsak-struggle/

Soccer an Expression of Love and Hope

by Ayanda Kota

The President’s Address to the Makana Local Football Association, Zondani Townhall, Grahamstown, Saturday 9 June 2012

James Kiawoin a Liberian first-year student at Colorado College recently wrote:

George Weah and his colleagues represented hope for Liberia during the peak of the civil war and bragging rights for Liberians whose identities were pegged with the brutal scenes relayed on the international media. Despite the financial hardship that plagued the nation, Liberians would flood the national stadium to watch their team play and many people were glued to their radios on the weekends to join in the spectacle that occurred in Monrovia. After every match, the city would not sleep because people would be up all nights in bars celebrating the unending victories. There were countless songs and T-shirts made to celebrate the team’s heroic performances and every Liberian (no exaggeration) knew the structure of the team. The team made it possible for Liberians to put aside their differences for ninety minutes and proclaim the greatness of their nation. The players received grand welcomes every time they came for international duties or won an away game.

Comments at the Memorial Service for the Late Comrade Mawande Jack

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Comments at the Memorial Service for the Late Comrade Mawande Jack

by Ayanda Kota

Mawande Jack was a lifelong Pan-Africanist. He never abandoned his ideals. And he never looked anywhere else other than the struggles of the people, the struggles of the poor, to realise his ideals.

He was a journalist. The media is one of the most important fields in the battle of ideas. Mawande was always willing to take a position in the media. He fought many battles in the newsrooms. He was always willing to work with poor people's movements and struggles and he was always willing to fight to give them space in the media. He worked for The Herald and was dismissed because of his political commitments. He then joined The New Age and had to resign due to the political pressure he confronted at work. This is the price that many of our comrades have paid for their activism.

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