Suttner’s View: 20 Years of Democracy and the power of the ANC
Why Abahlali endorsed the DA: S’bu Zikode speaks to GroundUp
http://groundup.org.za/content/why-abahlali-endorsed-da-sbu-zikode-speaks-groundup
On 2 May 2014 Abahlali baseMjondolo (ABM) –a social movement of shack dwellers– endorsed the Democratic Alliance (DA) for the 2014 general elections. Abahlali baseMjondolo are better known for their protests against unlawful evictions and their advocacy for public housing and urban land for the poor. Sibusiso Tshabalala of GroundUp spoke to S’bu Zikode, leader of Abahlali baseMjondolo, to find out why they took this decision.
GroundUp (GU): Abahlali’s politics are fundamentally different to that of the DA. Why did you decide to endorse the DA?
S’bu Zikode (SZ): We [ABM members] have suffered under the ANC’s rule. The ANC has consistently demonstrated that it lacks the political will to take the issues of the poor seriously. Being a shack dweller is similar to being imprisoned. The only difference is that a prison sentence can be short-lived, but when you’re poor and have no guarantee of upward mobility, living in a shack can be a life sentence. How long should we, the poor, be confined to this shack sentence?
Here in Durban, many of our comrades continue to be assaulted by the ANC. We fear for our lives and assassination attempts are the order of the day.
As a movement of the urban poor, we think our priority is to vote out the ANC. We do not agree with the DA fundamentally on many core issues. This decision is not one that is based on ideology. Poor people do not eat ideology, nor do they live in houses that are made out of ideology.
So for this decision, we have decided to suspend ideology for a clear goal: weaken the ANC, guarantee the security and protection of the shack dwellers.
The Abahlali/DA pact: difficult situations require difficult decisions
by Raymond Suttner
In observing the current election campaigns one is struck by the lack of debate and vacuousness of ideas circulated in order to win votes. Silences may tell more than what is said.
Insofar as opposition parties present themselves as alternatives to the Zuma-led ANC, can they say they have addressed the most important features of that government they purport to oppose and ask us to entrust them with replacing? They have referred to some of the most glaring cases of corruption, as in Nkandla, but there has been little concern about the way in which the lives of people at a less visible, local level are affected.
Daily News: We will vote – but not ANC: Abahlali
http://www.iol.co.za/news/crime-courts/we-will-vote-but-not-anc-abahlali-1.1681690#.U2qGCvmSzY4
Nosipho Mngoma
Durban – Shackdweller movement Abahlali Basemjondolo will be taking to the polls for the first time in its nine-year existence, in a bid to topple the ANC.
Speaking at their Unfreedom Day Rally at the Siyanda Informal Settlement in KwaMashu on Monday, president Sbu Zikode announced that the movement would abandon their No Land, No House, No Vote campaign and cast a “strategic vote” in the May 7 elections.
The movement, which boasts a membership of thousands in 84 branches around KwaZulu-Natal and the Western Cape, has previously boycotted elections, saying voting only gave power to those who oppressed them.
Daily Maverick: Abahlali’s choice
http://www.dailymaverick.co.za/article/2014-05-03-5365753498943/
Political identity is a strange thing. In the run-up to an election, we are asked – over and over again – to identify ourselves with political parties. We are asked to remember our histories and follow our family’s old allegiances. We are instructed to forget those histories, and face the future. We are expected to identify with the faces on political posters and see ourselves reflected in them. On 2 May, the shack-dwellers’ movement of South Africa, Abahlali baseMjondolo, endorsed the Democratic Alliance in this week’s upcoming provincial elections. A storm of controversy has erupted. By JULIAN BROWN.
A large percentage of South Africans are unconvinced by this, of course. The major parties seem bankrupt, devoid of new ideas. Their claims on our identities are absurd and overblown. For many of us, the choice between parties is no choice at all: it is just a matter of preferring one tone of voice, one temperament, one set of berets, and one set of unconvincing promises over another.
eNsimbini Eviction: Picture by Rumana Akoob
Daily Maverick: On the outskirts of Durban, life among the eviction debris
The eThekwini municipality says it is determined to continue demolishing what it terms “illegal” settlements in and around Durban. But what about the people for whom these settlements are home? By Rumana Akoob for SOUTH AFRICA VOTES 2014.
Sixty-three-year-old Trevor Momepele has been on the streets since 1994. He says he hasn’t voted in his life and doesn’t see the need to. “Life has just started going down prior 1994, then I found myself sleeping on benches. I honestly thought there would be hope when the ANC came into power but I’m here, 20 years on, and I’m still on the street,” Momepele says.
M&G: People’s protest is being criminalised
http://mg.co.za/article/2014-05-01-peoples-protest-is-being-criminalised
by Jane Duncan
The South African Constitution guarantees the right to assemble, demonstrate and picket. But to what extent are South Africans able to practise this right?
Research undertaken into 12 municipalities suggests that, although this right is still being largely respected, there are signs that it is being eroded.
My research was precipitated by a pilot project on the Rustenburg municipality’s response to protests. The research found that, in 2012, the year that industrial protests peaked in the platinum belt, the municipality banned 53% of them, largely on the grounds that they were not recognised by the Regulation of Gatherings Act, which gives effect to the right.
Inkondlo
INKONDLO
Isihloko sithi izithembiso ezingafezekanga
Salinda! Salinda!
Ibanga elingaka sinomlando omngaka,
kuthina inkululeko ayifikanga, sikhathele
ilamaqabane azenza inkinga. Sicela inkululeko yethu ukuze
nelokishi lethu liphenduke UMhlanga Rocks.
Oyosikhulula siyomthanda njengo Rick Rocks
Abazi umnotho, kuthina bekungakaveli lutho.