Thursday, 2 April 2020

Abahlali baseMjondolo Youth League Press Statement

Stop the Abuse and Violence Against Poor Black People!

Since the coronavirus lockdown began our movement has been violently attacked by the eThekwini Municipality and Calvin Security on three separate occasions. The attacks on our movement continue even though we are all facing this virus that has caused havoc around the world. 

The National Command Council set up to deal with the coronavirus has mandated that there should be no evictions during the national lockdown. However, on each of the three times that we have been attacked our members’ homes have been destroyed, and their building materials broken into pieces and then burnt. Each of these attacks has been very violent and numerous people have been injured. Five people were badly injured in the most recent attack and required hospital treatment. They are Masheke Gumede, Nkwelo Namile, Ayanda Mbuthuma, Nangamso Jona and Xolani P. Mabona. One of the five is still in a very serious condition.

The violence that has been waged against our movement by the eThekwini Municipality does not come out of nowhere. When our movement was formed in Durban fifteen years ago, when Obed Mlaba was the mayor, violent evictions and forced removals were an everyday reality. When James Nxumalo took over as mayor repression became much worse and we lost five leaders. Today in our branches we have people who are living with bullets in their bodies as a result of these attacks. When Zandile Gumede became mayor the situation became even worse and the killings escalated. By the time Gumede was finally forced out of office for corruption we had lost a total of 18 comrades to the police, the izinkabi and the Anti-Land Invasion Unit. Illegal and violent evictions continue under Mxolisi Kaunda. Under all four mayors evictions have been carried out violently, and without court orders, making them illegal and criminal acts.

The national government has acted against the corruption in the eThekwini Municipality but they have not acted against the municipality’s repression and violence against poor people in general, and the organised poor, the strong poor, in particular. They are reluctant to act against the municipality’s well known and well documented history of repression. Their failure to act against the ongoing illegal and violent repression of the poor makes them complicit. If the national government wants to earn our trust in this time of crisis they need to act swiftly and decisively against the repression, violence and criminality with which the eThekwini Municipality engages the poor in general and our movement in particular. They also need to immediately suspend all operations by Calvin Security pending a full investigation into the activities of this notorious company.

There is also a national dimension to what is happening. Across South Africa impoverished black people are being humiliated, abused, assaulted and sometimes killed by the armed forces that have been sent into the townships, shack settlements and inner cities to enforce the coronavirus lockdown. We have received reports of similar situations from comrades in countries across the continent.

We support all measures backed by medical science to deal with this pandemic. However, we cannot accept that poor black people should be subject to these kinds of abuses. In fact, subjecting us to these kinds of abuse only makes the health situation worse. How can you stay at home when the government is sending out armed men to destroy your home? How can you trust the government when they don’t treat you as a human being? How can you be expected to respect the law when the police, soldiers and private security openly break the law in broad daylight?

In The Wretched of the Earth Frantz Fanon wrote that:

In the capitalist countries a multitude of moral teachers, counsellors and ‘bewilderers’ separate the exploited from those in power. In the colonial countries, on the contrary, the policeman and the soldier, by their immediate presence and their frequent and direct action maintain contact with the colonised and advise him by means of rifle butts and napalm not to budge.

The reality is that more than 25 years after the end of apartheid impoverished black people continue to be governed by colonial forms of policing. This is also true in countries like Kenya, Zimbabwe, Zambia and many others. This has to stop, and it has to stop now. Every person has a right to be treated with respect.

The coronavirus pandemic is a serious social crisis. The violence and abuse to which our movement is being subjected at gunpoint, and the violence and abuse to which poor black people are being subjected across the country, is also a social crisis. Our movement has clearly stated that as shack dwellers we also love our country and we are prepared to work with the government to prevent the spread of the corona virus. However, we cannot work with a government that is shooting at us with live ammunition and destroying our homes. If the National Command Council wants to win and keep the confidence of the people it must address this situation as a matter of urgency.

We understand that it is not possible to call large public meetings at the moment, and that not all communities currently have democratic structures. But in the future if the police, the army and private security are going to come into our communities they need to work under the authority of democratic community structures and to be accountable to the communities where they work. Where democratic structures do currently exist they must immediately be given oversight over all operations by the police, the army and private security.

We are issuing this statement to serve notice that we will not accept the ongoing evictions, and other forms of abuse and violence being directed against our movement, and against poor black people in general. If it continues we will have no choice but to resist.

Contact:

Busie +27 83 520 0384

Mfan’fikile +27 71 552 2010