http://hir.harvard.edu/blog/visitor/the-dignity-of-the-poor-is-vandalized-from-many-quarters

The Dignity of the Poor is Vandalized from Many Quarters

by Abahlali baseMjondolo (KwaZulu-Natal), Rural Network (KwaZulu-Natal) & the Unemployed People's Movement (Eastern Cape, Free State & KwaZulu-Natal)

When black people rose up against apartheid, the government usually said that they couldn’t have organized themselves and that there must have been a white person making them resist. Some thought that only whites were capable of thinking, speaking, and acting for themselves. But it was not only the government that looked for conspiracies every time black people organized themselves. This also happened within the movement.

1 March 2013
Unemployed People’s Movement Press Statement

Thandiswa Qubuda has Died

Dark clouds are not strangers in our patriarchal society. They are gaining momentum. On Thursday night, 28 February 2013, Thandiswa Qubuda passed from this world. She had spent six weeks in hospital, brain dead, after she was savagely raped and beaten.

We ask ourselves why her story, such a painful story, is not getting media coverage and creating an uproar. The lives of poor people count for nothing in this country. There is no democracy for us.

After Andries Tatane, Marikana and now Mido Macia the whole world knows that we are oppressed by a police force every bit as savage as the police force under apartheid. But the evil is not only in the state. It is amongst us too. This is the truth that we must face. Our struggle to build a society in which every person counts is with ourselves as well as with the state and the capitalists.

Wednesday, 27 February 2013
Unemployed People’s Movement Press Statement

It is Time for Real Action Against Rape

Thandiswa Qubuda was gang raped in the early hours of the 20th January 2013 at the corner of New Town and E Street in Grahamstown. She is 30 years old and the only one surviving in the family. Both her both parents have died and she was living with her aunt.

She was savagely beaten during the rape and is now permanently brain damaged and lying in hospital. Today at 12 noon the Revered Mzi Dyantyi, family members and the Unemployed People's Movement held a prayer and anointment in her ward.

Address by Bishop Rubin Phillip, Anglican Bishop of Natal(KZN) - at St Philip’s Anglican Church, Fingo Village in Grahamstown, 19th September, 2012.

Remembering Steve Biko: a Bright & Guiding Light in Dark Times

As the Unemployed People's Movement have noted we gather here in Grahamstown to honour the memory of Steve Biko, a man who was indeed a bright and guiding light, at a moment when a dark night is settling over our country. As the light of our democratic dawn dims we all have to look inward and find our courage, individually and collectively, for the struggles ahead. Make no mistake - the massacre at Marikana was a turning point and the path ahead will be difficult and will require real courage.

26 July 2012
Combined AbM & UPM Press Statement

Ward 88 BEC Refuses to Go to the People

For the past months the organised poor in Ward 88 in Durban have been fighting for their rights, and the resignation of Nomzamo Mkhize who is the current ANC Ward Councillor.

Their struggle has led to activists being arrested, shot at with real bullets by the police and threats and an assault at the hands of the councillor. Despite all these violations of their right to participate in decision making that directly affects them the activists in Ward 88 did not give up and have shown that they are prepared to continue their fight for justice and their human dignity to be installed.

18 July 2012
Combined UPM & AbM Press Statement

Update from Umlazi: Zwelethu Train Station Shut Down & Protest at the Police Station

At around 4:00 a.m. yesterday morning activists involved in the Umlazi Occupation and the ward 88 struggle closed down the Zwelethu Train Station. This action was in protest at the failure of the police to arrest the ward councillor, Nomzamo Mkhize, after she and her son assaulted an activist.

There was a stand-off between activists and the police at the train station following which the general secretary of the BEC of the local ANC branch, Sandile, tried to arrange an urgent meeting with Nigel Gumede. A meeting with Gumede has always been one of the demands of the Umlazi Occupation.

16 July 2012
Combined UPM & AbM Press Statement

ASSAULT AND INTIMIDATION OF ACTION BY UMLAZI COUNCILLOR

Yesterday at around 14:00 pm there was a mass gathering of the continuous occupation that is happening in the People's Office that has been set up next to the Councillor's Office, in Ward 88, Umlazi.

A report was given on how the struggle of Umlazi started and how it got the attention of the Branch Executive Committee (BEC) which had come with lot of promises like getting what the community have demanded from them which was a meeting with Nigel Gumede, the Chairperson of the Housing Portfolio Committee and Infrastructure also Willies Mchunu, the MEC of Safety and Community. The meeting of delivering by the BEC sat on Wednesday (04th of July) unfortunately they delivered nothing that was expected and which they had promised. Neither Gumede or Mchunu attended the meeting and the BEC offered nothing but sweet talk.

Thursday, 05 July 2012
Combined Abahlali baseMjondolo & Unemployed People’s Movement Statement

Occupy Umlazi!

The meeting between senior ANC representatives and representatives from the shacks in Ward 88, Umlazi, was supposed to start at 3:00 p.m. It ended up starting at 5:00 p.m. None of the senior ANC people that were expected pitched up. Only the ANC regional representatives came.

The ANC said that they needed a tangible reasone why the community representatives needed to see MEC Willies Mchunu. This was so clumsy! What could be more tangible than the fact that people are currently in hospital due to police brutality and shootings. They could also not give any good reason why Nigel Gumede was not at the meeting. They did not do what they had promised to do.

30 June 2012
AbM & UPM Press Statement

Update on Repression & Resistance in the Zakheleni Shack Settlement, Ward 88, Umlazi, Durban

At around 4:00 a.m. this morning a group of around 50 heavily armed police officers arrived at Bheki Buthelezi's shack in the Zakheleni shack settlement in Umlazi and demanded to search it. When confronted with the fact that they did not have a warrant they retired and then returned at around 4:50 with a document stating that they had a warrant to search the entire settlement. But they only searched Bheki's shack. They found nothing. During the search a helicopter with a search light hovered over the settlement. Ten activists, all of whom have become leaders in the rebellion in Ward 88, and all of whom have been warned that the police and local party leaders after after them, slipped away during the police raid and are now in hiding.

Wednesday, 27 June 2012
Unemployed People’s Movement Press Statement

Update from Ward 88 in Umlazi, Durban

In all the confusion and urgency last night it was impossible to meet and prepare a clear statement explaining events. We are now in a position to do so.

Noxolo Mkwayi was shot in her bed in Zakheleni

Yesterday the Unemployed People’s Movement called a meeting in Ward 88, Umlazi. At this meeting it was resolved to stage a peaceful occupation of the Ward Councillor’s offices. The offices were duly occupied and commissions were then set up to hold discussions on various matters. There was a commission on unemployment, on housing and on safety (crime and shack fires).