Today the Azania land occupation was attacked again. Twenty-six homes that had been rebuilt after the last attack were demolished and the building materials burnt. Around one hundred and fifty people will have to sleep in the open tonight. The struggle to hold the land continues despite the repeated armed and violent attacks from the state.

We repeat that the ongoing attacks on the Azania land occupation are illegal and, in law, criminal acts perpetrated by an armed and violent state against impoverished people. The comrades will rebuild once again. The land will be held.

The ongoing attacks on the Azania land occupation are just part of a long history of state violence against our movement, and against other poor people’s struggles.

Since our movement was formed in 2005 our aspirations for justice, and our insistence on the recognition of our human dignity, have continually been treated as criminal by the state, and by some NGOs that prefer to speak for the poor rather than to the poor. For almost 15 years we have been subjected to regular violence from the national and municipal police, the Anti-Land Invasion Unit and municipal security guards.

We are expected to vote in elections but we not considered to be citizens in a democracy. The reality is that we are ruled by the gun, the rubber bullet, tear gas and the fist.

But we are not only subject to violence by the state. The ruling party, the ANC, also subjects us to regular intimidation and violence, including assassination.

Tomorrow we return to court for our damages claim against the police for their complicity in the violent attack by the ANC on our movement in the Kennedy Road settlement in 2009. The trial is scheduled to start tomorrow and to continue on the 21st.

S’bu Zikode 083 547 0474
Mqapheli Bonono 073 067 3274
Zanele Mtshali 062 437 9077