Wednesday, 16 May 2018
Abahlali baseMjondolo Press Statement
Abahlali to present our views on the 2018 budget Dialogue to the Standing Committee on Appropriation
Abahlali will in this morning present our views on the budget as it relates to the landless and the homeless in this country. This is after an invitation by the Parliament of the Republic of South Africa’s Standing Committee on Appropriation. This will be the first time that Abahlali are ascending to the highest forum in electoral politics to express our views on the budget. None of the cities in which we have members have ever invited us to contribute to their deliberations.
Every year the budgets are made without our consultation and are imposed on us by government at all levels. We were surprised this time around, after 13 years of our struggle, including severe repression, when we received an invitation from Parliament to participate not when the budget is announced but where it is discussed. Every year government announce trillions of Rand in expenditure but there is never any participatory budgeting. Year after year huge amounts of money are spent and we remain impoverished, unemployed, landless and homeless. We always ask ourselves as to who benefits from the millions of rands announced year after year.
Last week, on Friday, 11 May, Abahlali were also invited to the KwaZulu-Natal Legislature by the MEC for Human Settlement and Public Works during his budget speech vote . While we have appreciated the MEC’s invite to our movement we have expressed serious concerns for just inviting us only when he delivers the budget, and not to discuss its formulation with us, so that we put our view on it. The difference between these two invitations was that the KZN invitation was merely an observer status. Here we were made to sit quietly while “clever politicians” were discussing our budget, for us and about us but without us saying a word. We have warned the MEC that we cannot continue to attend something that is not for us and that does not in any way change our lives for better in this so called Constitutional Democracy.
We are happy that the Standing Committee on Appropriation has finally recognise our voice. We hope that they will take seriously the fact that our Municipalities do not even invite us to participate but continue to claim that the budgets that they impose on us are ‘People’s Budget’s. We also hope that the Provincial governments will take our movement’s voice seriously to ascertain our priorities.
We have made the following budget contributions to the Standing Committee on Appropriation:
1. That land which we have occupied be released first, and that the budget, if communicated properly to us, will deal with security of tenure
– This could be in a form of certificates or documents which will free people from any possible eviction.
– If this is catered for people will start investing on the land and start developing it for themselves.
2. That serviced sites must be provided on well located land for those who may be able to build for themselves to do so.
3. That the state must urgently poll out interim services such as electricity, road access, refuse collection, water and sanitation while people wait for decent housing.
4. That there must be a proper budget for disaster management especial for shack fires, floods etc.
5. That there must be all open and free public participation in all matters relating to budgeting, and not just for ticking the box but genuinely democratic engagement.
– Abahlali are not consulted just because we are taken as the people who do not even count in our society.
– The authorities do not even respect us.
– In many instances the problems that we face are not just a question of budget constraints but how we are treated by the authorities
6. We are in most cases excluded from the IDP, even those of us who have had the opportunity to participate in IDP find that whatever we say is not taken into account. In Siyanda for instance, they pretended to be recording everything we have said as the community but come the IDP nothing that the community said was actually captured and reflected on the IDP. So, the question is what was the point of calling for public hearings when the community voice will not be taken seriously? Development is often undemocratic and sometimes even carried out at gunpoint. In Thembisa, Vusimuzi Section, the Ekurhuleni municipality and its councilor Cllr Sloane, in Ward 90 destroyed many homes in what he called re-blocking and development.
7. Our municipalities are very good at publishing the budgets only when it is time to announce it to public forums and not when they are being discussed. So, often the budget are imposed from above. They should use the same energy of announcing it to actual mobilize us to engage and give input to it.
In eThekwini, the eThekwini Municipality has consistently deliberately excluding Abahlali and shack dwellers in general not only in any housing development benefits but also from other benefits e.g. EPWP as a form of punishment for our activism against corruption, inequality and injustices. We want the Parliament to investigate the systematic exclusion of impoverished South Africans from decision making and to ensure there is a real commitment to redistribute urban land on the basis that puts people before profit. The social value of urban land must come before its commercial value.
We would like to express our full solidarity with our comrades on the Zikode Extension Land Occupation in Germiston on the East Rand. They are now in the 6th day of their occupation and are struggling courageously for land. Inkani iyo ezovula ndlela.
We would also like to express our full solidarity with the people of Palestine and our outrage at the mass murder that has been perpetrated by the Israeli state.
Finally we would like to express our full solidarity with migrants facing renewed xenophobic intimidation in Inanda, Ntuzuma and KwaMashu.
An injury to one is an injury to all!
Contact:
Thapelo Mohapi: 062 892 5323
Mqapbeli Bonono: 073 067 3274
S’bu Zikode: 083 547 0474