An Invitation to all Political Parties except the ANC

Wednesday, 23 April 2014

Abahlali baseMjondolo press statement

An Invitation to all Political Parties except the ANC

Abahlali baseMjondolo has boycotted every election, local and national, since

2006 as part of the ‘No Land! No House! No Vote!’ campaign. We made it clear

that we were not interested in being used as ladders for any political parties

or any politicians, that we were aware that no political party is prepared to

form a genuine partnership with the poor and that no political party had a

progressive position on shack settlements.  We understood clearly that poverty

is a question of power and that we therefore had to build our own power

through organising ourselves as the strong poor and to be very careful not to

give up our power to any political party or politician (or NGO).

Before every election we discussed our position carefully and in every

election from 2006 till 2011 it was clear that our members did not want to

vote. This year we have again had a series of discussions about the General

Election on the 7th of May 2014. This year our members came to a different

conclusion. This year our members came to the conclusion that it is no longer

enough to withhold our vote from the ANC.

The ANC attacked us in Kennedy Road in 2009. They murdered the striking miners

at Marikana in 2012. They have murdered many unarmed people on protests. Last

year they murdered three activists in Cato Crest. Their security guards and

Anti-Land Invasion Unit shoot us when they come to disconnect us and evict us.

They openly threaten us with death. It is not enough to withhold votes from a

party that is killing us when we stand up for our humanity. Such a party is a

serious threat to society and it must be removed from office as soon as

possible. For this reason we have invited all political parties other than the

ANC to come and address us so that we can decide which party or parties to

support against the ANC.

There was a long debate about whether or not we should invite the DA to

address us. We all know that they have been illegally evicting our members and

other poor people in Cape Town and that, like the ANC, their politic is highly

anti-poor. Also, like the ANC, they can’t understand that democracy is about

more than voting and think that there must always be some other force behind

our struggles. They do not understand that poor people think and organise

their own struggles. However in the end, and after a long discussion, we

decided that while we will ask the DA a long list of questions about their

conduct if they do come to our meeting the meeting will be open to all

political parties except the ANC because as much as the DA are oppressing our

comrades in Cape Town they are not murdering our comrades.

We understand clearly that there is no political party that supports our

programme. We are also very clear that we will not give up our autonomy to any

political party. We will continue to insist that all members elected to

leadership positions in our movement must refuse membership of political

parties. However we cannot allow a government that kills its people when it

stands up for their humanity to be recognised to remain in office. We are

therefore willing to make a tactical vote against the ANC.

Before we make any decisions about which party to support we would like to put

the following ten questions to all political parties:

1. Can you guarantee that you will actively and seriously oppose all forms of

state repression and that you will support our right to organise independently

of all political parties? This must include a serious commitment to house all

those driven from their homes by the ANC in Kennedy Road in 2009 and for a

serious criminal investigation to be undertaken with regard to the violence in

Kennedy Road in 2009, Marikana in 2011, Cato Crest and KwaMashu in 2013, all

the murders on protests over the years as well as all the violence, including

murders, by municipal security guards and Anti-Land Invasion Units during

evictions and disconnections.

2.Can you guarantee that you will actively and seriously oppose all evictions?

This must include a serious commitment to provide housing for all these

evicted in Ridge View and Hillary in 2012 and 2013 and in Cato Crest in 2013.

3.Can you guarantee that you will act to put the social value of urban land

before its commercial land? This must include a serious commitment to the

immediate transfer of the ownership of all occupied land to the occupiers of

that land.

4.Can you guarantee that no child will be excluded from school, or treated

badly at school, because their parents are poor?

5.Can you guarantee that there will be effective and democratic land reform in

rural areas that puts land in the hands of the people, including women?

6.Can you guarantee that there will be an end to corruption? This must include

taking serious and effectively against all corruption within your own

organisation.

7.Can you guarantee that all shack settlements will get services while they

wait for their settlements to be upgraded with formal houses?

8.Can you guarantee that the upgrade of settlements will be planned with their

residents and that upgrades from shacks to formal housing will be a undertaken

as an urgent priority?

9.Can you guarantee that you will take serious and effective steps to make

sure that the wealth of the country will be fairly shared?

10.Can you guarantee that there will be an end to all discrimination against

people based on race, their language, which province they come from, which

country they were born in or their gender and sexuality? This must include

taking serious and effective action against any racism, ethnic prejudice,

xenophobia, sexism or homophobia in your own organisation.

Twenty years of shack life is a disgrace for our democracy. We are highly

aware that no political party is currently taking the issues of shack dwellers

seriously. However we will consider the possibility of a tactical vote for a

political party that is willing to make the best commitments among the parties

on the land and housing crisis in our cities. Of course we will continue to

organise outside of the party system before, during and after the election.

Corruption is destroying everything and turning people against each other. We

cannot consider a vote for any political party that cannot show that it is

serious in opposing corruption including corruption committed by its own

members.

A state that kills people who stand up for their humanity is the end of

democracy. We cannot consider a vote for any political party that is not

willing to commit itself to actively and seriously opposing all repression.

We invite all political parties to join us at the Abahlali baseMjondolo

contact point. This will be a platform given to political parties not only to

engage with our movement but to seriously commit them to changing the lives of

the shack dwellers and the poor in South Africa. The ANC must be removed from

office and we invite all political parties except the ANC to meet with us so

that we can decide which party to support in this election. However we want to

make it very clear that we will not take membership of any political party,

that our vote will be tactical and that if we do agree to collectively vote

for one party, or to leave this decision to the conscience of each member as

an individual, we will continue to operate autonomously.

We want to bring new ideas to South Africans that people must vote for change

based on what political parties commit themselves to while not giving up their

political power to political parties.  We also want South Africans to put the

interest of the country first which means voting for the party or parties that

make the right commitments and not supporting the policies of a party just

because it is the party that you always supported.

We remain highly aware that most of what we need will not be achieved by

voting and we will continue to build our own power and to organised in our

communities and to confront all our oppressors in the streets, in the courts

and in the media.

Just as we currently organise against the ANC in Durban and the DA in Cape

Town we will continue to organise against any political party that oppresses

the poor after this election.

The meeting will take place at Diakonia, Durban  on Saturday 25 April at 1:00

p.m.

For further information and comment please contact:

Abahlali Head Office on 031 3046420

Thembani Ngongoma on 084 6139772

Nono Majola on 074 8031986

Zandile Nsibande on 074 7675706.

S'bu Zikode on 0835470474