Click here to read this essay in word and here to read it in pdf.

Grace, Truth and Development

From the Communist Party across to the corporate spin-doctors and
down to the Development Committees in the shack settlements,
more or less everybody in South Africa speaks the language of
development. In some ways this is a good thing. It indicates a hard
won agreement that the realities of inequality in our society are so

On the Arrest and Assault of Mzonke Poni

Mark Butler, 2 June 2009

“Mzonke Poni is under arrest and is currently being assaulted in the Macassar Village Police Station. ... Early this afternoon there was a vibrant protest by the occupiers. During the protest the police pointed out Mzonke Poni, chairperson of the AbM Western Cape, and threatened to arrest him. Some time after the protest, and well away from the scene of the protest, the police accosted Mzonke and threw him into the van. He was handcuffed, pepper sprayed in the eyes at point blank rage and badly assaulted. He is now in the Macassar Village Police Station”. (Emergency Press Release, 1 June 2009, Abahlali baseMjondolo of the Western Cape).

http://www.witness.co.za/index.php?showcontent&global[_id]=17064

All deserve to have electricity
09 Dec 2008
Mark Butler

In reply to the feature article in The Witness of November 24, “Double standards” by Paddy Hartdegen, the author makes two claims, both equally wrong.

Firstly, the author claims, on the basis of little more than guesswork, that Eskom’s shortages would be resolved “in the blink of an eye” if the state prevented shack dwellers from connecting to basic service supplies. The author provides us with no evidence to support this claim. Indeed, it is a reductio ad absurdum. This country effectively subsidises the cost of electricity to big industrial users (supplying the cheapest electricity in the world) while excluding shack dwellers from the grid. Excluded from safe and affordable energy, poor households self-connect so that they can eat warm food and see a little in the dark — that's hardly criminal. Even for those of us with little technical or scientific expertise, it should be clear that rational and humane solutions to the problems and complexities of national service provision are not through simply policing the poorest off the electricity grid.

Concept note: Willing seller – Willing buyer
Draft 1
June 2006

In the context of South Africa's failing land reform programme, the Willing seller – Willing buyer policy was problematic, and remains so1. It was/is one representation of how post-apartheid state policy structured and expressed power relations – in favour of market stability and capitalist relations over deep structural transformation in an overarching way; and specifically of (largely white) existing land owners over the rightful expectations the poor majority.

It is also important to recognise how it helped structure the poor too – in the name of a 'demand-led' policy approach, claimants had to identify and constitute themselves as some sort of entrepreneurial, legalistic and conforming unit entirely dependent on plodding through the bureaucratic processes decreed by the state systems.

A militarised state is no answer to xenophobia

The full version, with footnotes, is available here and attached below in a word file.

President Thabo Mbeki has deployed the army to help police in dealing with the violence against people born in other countries. Manala Manzini, director-general of the National Intelligence Agency (NIA), said at a conference in Cape Town, "We believe that as SA prepares for another national election early next year, the so-called black-on-black violence that was witnessed prior to our first election in 1994 has deliberately been unleashed and orchestrated."

Abahlali baseMjondolo, Abahlalism, Church

Notes after an Abahlali baseMjondolo meeting with church leaders, at Kennedy Road, 9 October 2007.

Preliminaries

This is a first draft. It seems very important to try and write down some of what is emerging – but somehow the writing seems very inadequate to capture the subtlety and wisdom of the encounter. I hope others who were there will take some time to add and correct this account. (It is not an attempt to write everything that was said.) I hope also that doing so feeds the movement - and perhaps helps church to be church.

A large and disciplined crowd of AbM, who had marched and assembled, were violently attacked by the police yesterday while waiting for the Mayor to receive their Memorandum. The attack, including water cannon, rubber bullets, stun grenades, and armed rampaging by 'public order' police, was unleashed on to an entirely peaceful gathering by the SAPS. There was no justification for the attack nor was there any warning that an attack was imminent or any or request to disperse before the attack.

The people were highly disciplined, and were well within the terms of the written permission that had been granted for the march. Indubitably, they were angry at the insulting attitude of the Mayor who, despite regular communication with his PA during the 30 days notice which he was given to come and receive the Memorandum, had nonetheless refused to come. But anger is hardly a crime and there was absolutely no justification for violence against the people. The police violence was clearly unprovoked and criminal.

Minutes of the Abahlali baseMjondolo meeting to Discuss Legal & Political Strategies to Oppose the Slums Bill

Held: Friday 13 July, 9:00 a.m., Kennedy Road Hall.

Abahlali baseMjondolo has decided to oppose the Slums Bill by all means necessary. A Slums Bill Elimination Task Team was elected to take the resistance forward. The first task was to lay a foundation for resistance by self-education about the Bill. This took the form of line by line readings and discussions. Everyone's input has been taken into serious account. The second step was to call a meeting of everyone opposed to the Bill. The meeting was scheduled for Friday 13 July, at 9:00 a.m. in the Kennedy Road Hall, Clare Estate, Durban. People came from all over Durban, Pinetown and Pietermaritzburg as well as from Cape Town and Johannesburg. People who couldn't attend in person sent written submissions. Everyone who wants to join the struggle against the Slums Bill was welcome to attend this meeting as well as the media. The following notes from that meeting were prepared by David Ntseng and Mark Butler.