Category Archives: Nigel Gumede

Nigel Gumede Must Go

19 March 2013
Abahlali baseMjondolo Press Statement

Nigel Gumede Must Go

Everyone knows how serious the land and housing crisis is in Durban. According to the eThekwini Municipality there are more than 400 000 shack dwellers waiting for houses in the city. There are also 11 000 families rotting in transit camps. But the city is failing to build enough houses for the people. The Sunday Tribune reported that they only built 1 268 houses in the last financial year. And these houses are more like dog kennels than homes. Every year money from the housing budget is returned unspent. And after the scandals around the Manase report, Nqola and S'bu and Shauwn Mpisane everyone knows how bad the corruption is. Many people have been killed in struggles over housing. Cato Crest is just one example. We have also seen people being killed in places like KwaNdengezi and Uganda. Calls, letters and marches to the housing department go ignored. Court orders are also ignored. We have called for a public citywide list for the people in need of housing so that there could be transparency in the housing allocation. But the politicians refuse this idea so they can corrupt, monopolize and politicise housing delivery.

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M&G: Dlamini-Zuma report: Report puts KZN councillors in firing line

http://mg.co.za/article/2013-02-08-00-report-puts-councillors-in-firing-line

Dlamini-Zuma report: Report puts KZN councillors in firing line

by Niren Tolsi

Influential KwaZulu-Natal politicians have been implicated in a probe into election irregularities by Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma.

Powerbrokers in influential ANC regions in KwaZulu-Natal are likely to face the chop as councillors if the recommendations of the report compiled by current African Union chairperson Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma are acted upon.

Dlamini-Zuma’s report was initiated by ANC President Jacob Zuma to investigate allegations of irregularities in the list processes for councillors leading up to 2011 local-government elections. The ANC had opened up nominations to broader communities, rather than just party members, for the first time.  Continue reading →

Threats of Violence Against Tomorrow’s March

6 December 2012
Abahlali baseMjondolo Press Statement

Threats of Violence Against Tomorrow's March

Our movement often gets reliable information from within the ANC and government structures from people that are sympathetic to our movement and our struggle. Today we have been informed by a number of highly credible sources that the Ward 23 Councillor, Themba Mtshali, and the chairperson of the local BEC of the ANC, have been mobilising people to disrupt our march tomorrow. We have been told that they aim to prevent the march from going ahead and to use their own violence to justify the illegal ban on our march.

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SAPS Attempt to Illegally Ban Protest in Durban

Abahlali baseMjondolo Press Statement
5 December 2012

SAPS Attempt to Illegally Ban Protest in Durban

The Abahlali baseMjondolo branch in the Palmiet Road shack settlement in Clare Estate, Durban, has decided to march on the Ward 23 councillor, Themba Mtshali. They have been supported in this decision by all other Abahlali baseMjondolo branches in the ward.

Mtshali is one of the shack dwellers who became a councillor in the last local government elections as part of the ANC's strategy of trying to contain our movement – a strategy that has included serious repression and intimidation, attempts at co-option, channelling our victories through ANC structures and bringing non-AbM shack dwellers into positions of leadership in the local party structures. However like all other councillors Mtshali is remoted from above and is only an instrument for implementing top down decisions by the party and municipal structures. He does not engage people democratically. In fact it is impossible to even arrange a meeting with him. He has failed the people of Ward 23 and in particular he has failed the poor of Ward 23. Even though he was poor himself a few years ago he is now a councillor and so, as with all councillors, we are not worthy of respect in his eyes because we are poor.

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SACSIS: Keeping It Real

http://www.sacsis.org.za/site/article/1391

Keeping it Real

Richard Pithouse

The distance between the stated aspirations of a protagonist on the political stage and the realities of its actual practices can sometimes mark a genuine attempt at internal contestation. It would, for instance, be a good thing if a group of people in the ANC insisted that the party was seriously committed to the principle that every child has a full, equal and immediate right to an education that could nurture their talents and then backed this affirmation up with real action, including effective action against the people and interests within the party that are responsible for, and even profiting from, the education crisis. But when there is no real acknowledgement that stated aspirations mark out values and goals that are clearly different to those guiding the actions that are actually taken we are dealing with ideologies – ideas that legitimate rather than guide or question the exercise of power.  Continue reading →