Protest Today in Pinetown

Abahlali baseMjondolo Press Statement
Wednesday, 19 October 2011

Abahlali baseMjondolo take to the Streets, demand end to vicious evictions in eMmause

South Africa’s largest social movement calls for respect, and the right to decent housing and safety

Pinetown, KwaZulu-Natal

This morning, Abahlali baseMjondolo(AbM) members and allies will be joining a march from Shepstone Road to Tollage Road to call for an end to all demolitions and evictions in the eMmause community. Since late 2010, hundreds of people have had their shacks destroyed in Durban including some by the landlord, Mahogany Ridge 2 Property Owners Association. Hundreds more have been brutally evicted. The Mahogany Ridge 2 Property Owners Association is currently trying to evict people from a land occupation in eMmause. These actions by the landlord present a gross violation of people’s right to housing and safety. Today we are marching for land and housing in the cities.

We have a right to cities, a right which we are prepared to live for or die for. AbM is in over 64 communities nation wide and has over 10,000 active members.

The marchers will acting peacefully to bring attention to the desperately broken system of democracy that has developed since the end of apartheid. It is in reality a system that has, to put it simply, replaced one set of white elites with another set of black elites, all with little interest in real democracy. Democracy for the poor has meant being moved at the will of the rich, living in shacks and waiting decades for permanent housing. Democracy for the poor in this country has also meant being continually marginalized from conversations and tables where decisions are being made about our lives and the lives of our children and families. We are now in the middle of the census. But we are tired of having government officials coming to count us, talk to us and make empty promises. They want us to stop building shacks because they do not want us to help ourselves while they themselves are living in decent places.

Abahlali is calling for simple things: justice, housing as a human right, and the chance to be full participants in our lives without being threatened or attacked by political officials. Abahlali's aims are peaceful but have been met with disdain and brutality. Abahlali is calling for an end to the politically-motivated repression and fear mongering which we have been forced to endure at the hands of the government and its thugs.

The protest is also meant to highlight a recent series of disrespectful and dangerous interactions Abahlali has had with government officials. Indeed, despite more than six years of rallies, workshops, and community mobilization, Abahlali had until last week been repeatedly denied its democratic right to meet with and discuss its demands with elected officials.

Marchers will make their way to the offices of Mahogany Ridge 2 Property Owners Association where they will present a list of demands which include, that a hazardous electrical fence that was erected by the landlord be immediately removed, and that the land should rightly be given back to the relevant South Africans from whose grandparents it was stolen. This march marks the beginning of a series of protests that will culminate on December 3rd, the global day of action against climate change. We will claim the space as the masses on December 3rd. We are calling for justice, equality, human dignity. We call for the world not to stand aside and look on as we are being oppressed.

For more information please contact:

Muzi Mkhize Protest March Convener: 083 301 9856
Khanyi Dlamuka eMmaus Coordinator: 071 218 3007
AbM Office: 031 304 6420 (071 424 2815)

Memorandum of Demands to Mr. Glen Lion Demsy, Mahogony Ridge 2 Property Owners Association, Wednesday, 19 October 2011

We, the residents, men and women of Abahlali baseMjondolo Movement SA in eMmaus, in Pinetown, in KwaZulu-Natal are democrats committed to the flourishing of this country. We speak for ourselves and direct our own struggle. We have been mobilized by our own suffering and our hope for a better future. It is time to take seriously the fact that the distribution of land is a serious problem in our country and that land was stolen from our ancestors and that this has impoverished us. It is also time to take seriously the fact that land continues to be taken from the poor in the name of development and the market and that this continues to impoverish us.

For too long the commercial value of land here in eMmause, in nearby Motala Heights and in many other areas has been put before its social value. We demand that social value of land come before its commercial value.

For too long we have been living under constant threats of eviction in our own land. We demand an immediate and permanent end to all evictions. We demand land security.

For too long the right to cities has been denied to the shack dwellers and the poor in this country. We demand the right to live in the cities.

For too long the provision of basic services has been denied to us and the poor. We demand the provision of all basic services such as water and sanitation, electricity, road access, refuse collection etc to us.

For too long we have been fenced in the shacks and transit camps. We demand Mr. Demsey immediately remove the electric fence that has been installed on this land. We also demand the immediate removal of security guards from our community.

For too long the state and the business sector have united against the poor. We demand that the eThekwini municipality to stop sending Mr. Mdletshe to threaten us with eviction. We demand that Mdletshe stop himself from being used as the puppet of the eThekwini municipality and that he decide to work with the people of this city.

For too long our struggle has been redirected to courts because it is too expensive for us to struggle there. We demand that that you withdraw your court proceedings and negotiate a way forward with us.

If we are given no option to negotiate we are prepared to fight for this land and against all evictions and harassment in courts and in streets.

Land is not for sale in Africa. We demand that you return your money to those who sold this land to you and bring our land back.

Just as people around the city, the country and world are uniting in support of our struggle we express our support for our comrades elsewhere.

If this memorandum is received without conscious Abahlali baseMjondolo Movement SA will reconsider another plan B… We will not give up the struggle for this land or for the right of all people to live in peace and safety.

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To follow up Please contact Mr Muzi Mkhize on 083 3019856 or Miss Khany Dlamuka on 071 2183007