Tuesday, 26 May 2020
Abahlali baseMjondolo press statement

Organise or starve

Since the outbreak of the Covid-19 pandemic social movements have been in the forefront of building networks of mutual aid and solidarity. In Brazil our comrades in the Landless Workers’ Movement, the MST, have already provided more than 40 000 food baskets to poor neighbourhoods. Here in South Africa our movement has been providing food to branches across the country, running community kitchens and growing organic and heathy food on occupied land in Durban. In Cape Town activists have formed Community Action Networks. Around the country there have been important local initiatives. Continue reading →

Monday, 25 May 2020
Abahlali baseMjondolo Press Statement

Celebrating Being African Means Opposing Xenophobia

Today is Africa Day. The same politicians that repress popular organisation and make deals with capitalism and imperialism are all making speeches. As they make these speeches they forget that Pan-Africanism was a radical movement, driven from below, with a vision of a united and free Africa in which wealth and resources are shared and people’s dignity restored. They forget that from Algeria to Zimbabwe it was ordinary people that made the revolutions against colonialism.  Continue reading →

Tuesday, 12 May 2020
Abahlali baseMjondolo

State Attacks Continue in Durban

Today the eThekwini Municipality’s notoriously violent Anti-Land Invasion Unit and the equally notorious Calvin & Family Security threatened residents in three occupations, and destroyed homes in two occupations. In all cases they were acting with the backup of the national and municipal police forces.

The eKhenana occupation

They first went to the eKhenana occupation in Cato Crest and threatened the residents. On 24 April we won an interdict against the Municipality preventing them for carrying out illegal evictions in this community.  Continue reading →

Friday, 1 May 2020
Abahlali baseMjondolo press statement

Abahlali baseMjondolo is in Solidarity with the Workers of the World

Our movement was started in 2005 as a movement of the poor. From the beginning we worked to build the power of impoverished people in order to confront and defeat the oppression that we faced. However, there is no strict line that separates the unemployed and people making a living through informal work from the formally employed working class. There are unemployed people, people working informally and formally employed workers in the same families and communities.

We have always tried to build solidarity with progressive groups of organised residents and informal and formal workers in South Africa and around the world. In recent years we have been very pleased to build a living solidarity with the Movimento dos Trabalhadores Sem Terra (MST) in Brazil and today we express our solidarity with the MST and all progressive formations in Brazil who are struggling against the dangerous far right-wing president of Brazil, Jair Bolsonaro. We express our solidarity with all our comrades all over the world, from America to Zimbabwe.  Continue reading →

25 April 2020
Abahlali baseMojondolo Press Statement

Impunity for Attempted Murder

Yesterday we secured an interdict against the illegal and violent evictions that the eThekwini Municipality has been carrying out in the eKhenana settlement in Cato Crest during the lockdown. We had previously secured an interdict against illegal evictions in this community in February 2019 but we had to return to court as the municipality was evicting in violation of this interdict, the law, the Constitution and the lockdown regulations.

Yesterday, immediately after we secured the interdict against the eThekwini Municipality, Mr. Mkhize, the leader of the city’s notorious Land Invasion Unit went to eKhenana to continue his attack on the community. Mkhize went wild in anger at Abahlali winning in court and fired live ammunition at the community. This is not the first time that we have been violently attacked after winning in court.  Continue reading →

Friday, 24 April 2020
Abahlali baseMjondolo Press Statement

Victory in Court, Blood in the Occupation

Thursday 23 April 2020
Abahlali baseMjondolo Women’s League Statement

Why this Suffering?

Blood is running like a river through our homes. We are under constant attack from Calvin & Family Security, the police, and the eThekwini Municipality. Sometimes the army is also there during attacks. Our children are beyond traumatized when they see their only homes being demolished. They are full of fear and anxiety when they see their parents being brutally attacked and hunted with live ammunition like wild animals.

When our homes are destroyed we are made more vulnerable to coronavirus and rape. Our phones and money are also stolen during these evictions. How are we supposed to care for our children when we have to sleep in the bushes and live with no money and no phones to call for help?  Continue reading →

Wednesday, 22 April 2020
Abahlali baseMjondolo Press Statement

Impi yokulwa nabampofu iyaqhubeka eThekwini

The war against the poor continues in Durban

At around 6:30 last night armed members of the notoriously violent Calvin & Family Security Company arrived at the eKhenana occupation in Cato Manor, Durban, and started taking photographs of people’s homes. The residents asked them to desist at which point they became aggressive and violent, and fired live ammunition at unarmed people. They were shooting all over. Doors were kicked open while old people and children were in their homes. People were insulted, assaulted, humiliated and robbed of cash and phones at gunpoint.  Continue reading →

Saturday, 18 April 2020
Abahlali baseMjondolo press statement

The eThekwini Municipality continues to attack the poor; victory for shack dwellers in Cape Town

The ANC led municipality in Durban, under Mayor Mxolisi Kaunda, continues to attack the poor in these difficult times.

Yesterday at 2:30 the notoriously violent Calvin & Family security company arrived at the Azania occupation in Cato Manor, in Durban, with the Anti-Land Invasion Unit. They destroyed 17 homes. Today they returned at 11:00, fired live ammunition to disperse the comrades gathered on the land, and then destroyed the 13 shacks that had been rebuilt after the eviction yesterday.  Continue reading →