Author Archives: Abahlali_3

The Politic of Human Dignity

The Politic of Human Dignity

presented by Lindela Figlan at the Anarchist Bookfair, London, 24 October 2012

The meaning of dignity is often misunderstood. Many people only think of dignity in relation to the economic status of those who are better off. This is understood to mean that a person with no money is taken as a person whose life and voice does not count and is therefore a person with no dignity. It is also understood that a person with money does count and is therefore a person with dignity. But no amount of money can buy dignity.

Money can buy many things. With money you can live in a house that will not be demolished without warning, that does not leak in the rain, that has water, toilets and electricity. With money you can even give your children their own rooms. With money you can buy your children education and know that if they fall sick or meet with an accident they well be well looked after.

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We Demand that the Manase Report be Released

We Demand that the Manase Report be Released

by Thinabantu Khanyile & Bandile Mdlalose

Everybody knows that in Durban housing development does not really operate to meet the needs of the people. In reality it has three main objectives. One is to remove the poor from the city to the human dumping grounds. The second is to make poor people dependent on the state and thereby the ruling party. The third is to enrich people that are loyal to the ruling party. Everybody knows that corruption is rampant in housing from the top to the bottom. Low-cost housing has made some people millionaires. Everybody also knows that housing and other services are going to party members. This, along with repression and co-option, is one of the main ways that the ruling party tries to break independent organiszation. For instance if there is a fire they often try to prevent people from rebuilding on their own and then replace the people’s shacks with government shacks (amatins) which are only given to party members.

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Guardian: Marikana: a cover-up for all to see

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2012/nov/06/marikana-cover-up-south-africa

Marikana: a cover-up for all to see

Greg Marinovich

The Farlam Commission into the Marikana mine killings continues to be the vehicle for revealing the most shocking information about what happened at the place called Small Koppie on 16 August.

On Monday, Captain Jeremiah Apollo Mohlaki, crime scene investigator, was presented with two sets of images taken at the scene. The first set was taken while there was still daylight and showed the dead miners, few of whom had weapons near them. The commission then presented corresponding images of the same miners with traditional and hand-made weapons close by, even on top of the dead strikers.

One really does not need Mohlaki's own admission – and that of the police counsel Ishmael Semenya – to understand that the police had doctored the crime. The police at the scene were trying to make their claim of self-defence plausible. One understands this behaviour, inasmuch as any perpetrator will lie about their crimes.

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