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Friday, May 25, 2007
Abahlali baseMjondolo Press Release

ECUMENICAL PRAYER MEETING & DISCUSSION ON A LIVING THEOLOGY TO BE HOSTED BY ABAHLALI BASEMJONDOLO AT THE KENNEDY ROAD SETTLEMENT THIS SUNDAY

Abahlali baseMjondolo is a democratic, membership controlled movement of shack dwellers with members in almost 40 settlements in Durban, Pinetown and Pietermartizburg. On 4 November last year Abahlali set up a Churches Sub-Committee. This committee has worked to set up relations with churches and, also, to think about a theology of the poor to go together with all of the thinking that we do about a politics of the poor. The notes from the Committee’s first meeting are on our website at http://abahlali.org//////node/639.

Churches, in and out of our settlements, have given strong support to our struggle. They have given spiritual support when we have lost people in the fires and when our members have been beaten by the police and put in prison. They have also given more practical support in times of crises – especially fires, arrests and brutal police attacks on our movement.

On Sunday 27 May at 13:00 we will host church leaders from many different churches at the Kennedy Road settlement for a prayer meeting. One of the main purposes of the prayer meeting will be to provide spiritual support. We will offer this support to:

• All the people who suffered in the recent big fire at Kennedy Road and in all the other brutal fires in all the other settlements like Quarry Road, Lacey Road, Jadhu Place and others
• All the people who have suffered from police violence and wrongful arrest
• All the people who are living with HIV/AIDS and caring for people with HIV/AIDS
• All the people in our movement who are struggling every day for land, housing, water, toilets, electricity to keep us safe from fire, a police force that serves the poor and women, access to schools for poor children, safe child care, safety for women and the right to think and speak for ourselves

We have also invited people from Zimbabwe and we will pray for Zimbabwe. We will also pray for Haiti and for the shack dwellers and other people struggling for safety, dignity and a human life for human beings all over the world. We believe that God loves the poor and that he does not want us to suffer. We will pray for the success of these struggles. We will pray that they can be a home for the poor, a place where the poor can be respected and be strong, where women can be respected and be strong and where we can create a real democracy and a living politics that is of the poor and for the poor and is not above the poor and for the rich. We will also pray that these struggles will be able to change the world so that the poor are no longer exploited and excluded to make money and space for the rich. We will pray for a world where everybody is important.

We will also have a discussion with all the churches. This discussion will explore the meaning of a “preferential option for the poor” and of being church in the context of landlessness, poverty and state attacks on the poor in the form of illegal evictions and state repression. The support from the churches has been very important in our movement. It has given us hope and courage in hard times. It has given us dignity when those who want to think and speak for us lie about us. Some church people have said that our voice has been very important in their churches – that Abahlali is a prophetic voice in the churches – a voice for the renewal of the social gospel which is the true gospel. On Sunday we will discuss ways to develop and strengthen the relationship between Abahlali baseMjondolo and the churches in and outside of our settlements.

Everybody is welcome.

For further information and comment please contact:

Mzwakhe Mdlalose 0721328458
Anton Zamisa 07293801759
Thoko Zikode 0733777289