Should no land! No house! No vote! battles take place in the 2014’s elections?

By Sthembiso Shozi

This was the main topic and question raised by the Former president of Abahlali baseMjondolo Movement, S’bu Zikode in a meeting held on the 20th of July, attended by members from different branches of the movement.

Under its banner, ‘No house! No land! No vote!’ the movement has been boycotting the elections in the past few years. The campaign suffered a severe subjugation from political parties and police; it was then barred by the Durban municipality.

Speaking in this meeting under the topic Zikode asked Abahlali to articulate their observations regarding to this campaign which resulted in an absorbing discussion. Abahlali uttered their diverse political charged views which ended with different views.

Stating their views, some were saying the battle is the only way ahead as they’ve been voting since 1994 and have seen no change for the poor but only deceit within the municipality of housing all over South Africa, “we vote for people who then come back to kill us. We have a preference of withholding our votes rather than wasting them.”, said one member.

However some were obstinate that Abahlali should vote but by only forming an alliance with one political party that they will vote for in the next year’s elections. “We should have an agreement with one political party that we’re going vote for as Abahlali”, said another member.

During the 2006 Local government election Abahlali adopted the ‘No land! No house! No vote!’ campaign. In 2011 the movement continued to boycott the the government election and was shown support by many other organisations such as the Western Cape Anti-Eviction Campaign, some in the Landless People’ Movement, Mandela Park Backyarders; conversely this battle has received a lot of disapproval from many government bodies including President Jacob Zuma himself. It all rests in the hands of Abahlali to settle on participating in the next year’s elections or hold their votes as customary. Zikode urged the members to also look at how the prior No Vote battles have assisted them.