A critical look at Human Rights Day in South Africa

Sex Rights Africa Network

A critical look at Human Rights Day in South Africa

Words by Busisiwe Diko

Celebrating Human Rights Day is not enough to make amends for the evils which led to it, it only makes a difference when we recall how this came to be. Let’s not forget that Human Rights Day came about because people believed in protecting our humanity – being human means to fight for these rights which we tend to abuse and violate now. There’s nothing more human than knowing and understanding the needs and concerns of those around you, the art of being there for each other, like a wolf pack, and protecting what’s of your people. What else is more human than the art of oneness and togetherness ? The art of Ubuntu is what reminds us what humanity is – not by the colour of our skin, but by what is human, even if there isn’t a guiding principle to accessing the humanness built in us. Continue reading →

Coronavirus: A Call for Solidarity in a Time of Crisis

Sunday, 22 March 2020

Abahlali baseMjondolo Press Statement

Coronavirus: A Call for Solidarity in a Time of Crisis

Abahlali baseMjondolo has held small meetings with elected leaders in all the provinces where we have members to discuss the coronavirus crisis. The best available scientific information has been shared with our members. We have decided to suspend our entire programme of meetings and protests until the crisis has passed. This includes our annual UnFreedom Day rally held each year in April, which usually attracts more than 5 000 people. Continue reading →

Frantz Fanon: The Brightness of Metal

This dossier offers a sparkling introduction to Fanon’s life and work, stressing the contemporary political traction of his radical humanism, and noting that his work carries an ‘irrepressible openness to the universal’ and an axiomatic commitment to ‘recognize the open door of every consciousness’. It examines, in particular, Fanon’s contribution as a theorist of praxis committed to move beyond the ontological and spatial ordering of oppression and undertake a form of insurgent and democratic praxis in which ‘a mutual current of enlightenment and enrichment’ is developed between protagonists from different social locations.

Attachments


Frantz Fanon: The Brightness of Metal

Assassinations Continue within the ANC in Durban

Monday, 2 March 2020
Abahlali baseMjondolo Press Statement

Assassinations Continue within the ANC in Durban

Today we received a call from Mthokozisi Mhlophe’s family. He was murdered on Wednesday last week at his house in Mayville, just opposite the eNkanini occupation. They called us because people don’t know what else to do when assassination tears into their homes and their lives.

Mhlophe was an ANC loyalist and led in various structures of the ANC. In this capacity he often engaged local leaders in Cato Crest like Thembinkosi Qumbela, who was assassinated in March 2013, and Nkululeko Gwala, the Abahlali leader who was assassinated in June 2013.  Continue reading →

Submission on Land Delivered at the Durban City Hall Today

Monday, 24 February 2020

Abahlali submission to the Ad hoc Committee on the Amendment of Section 25 of the Constitution of the Republic of South Africa, 1996. Handed over to the Chairperson, Honourable Dr. Mathole Mosthekga

Constitutionalise the Right to Land!

We, members and supporters of Abahlali baseMjondolo Movement SA, street traders, hostel dwellers and workers in South Africa are democrats committed to the flourishing of this country. We speak for ourselves and direct our own struggle. We have no hidden agenda. We have been mobilised by our own suffering and our hopes for a better future. It is time to take seriously that access to land is a serious problem in our country, that land was stolen from our ancestors and continues to be allocated and managed in the interests of elites and private profit, and that all this has impoverished us, and continues to impoverish us. It is time to take seriously that housing in Durban is a mess that has not just terrorised our communities but made us homeless. It is time to take seriously that raising questions about land and housing has led to us being murdered with impunity. In municipalities like eThekwini we have been murdered in broad day light. Continue reading →

Abahlali will march to the Durban City Hall to submit our proposals on the Amendment Bill.

Friday, 21 February 2020
Abahlali baseMjondolo Press Statement

Abahlali will march to the Durban City Hall to submit our proposals on the Amendment Bill.

The Parliament of the Republic of South Africa has called on all South Africans to comment on the Amendment of Section 25 of the Constitution of the Republic of South Africa, 1996. This follows a heated national debate on “expropriation of land without compensation”. A lot has been said by political parties and politicians on this important issue. We know that the land that is often talked about is commercial land used for business purposes, for private profit rather than public good. And we also know that a new programme of land reform driven by the elite, from above, will not benefit impoverished people. Continue reading →

Mob Violence in Vusimuzi, Tembisa

Monday, 3 February 2020
Abahlali baseMjondolo Press Statement

Mob Violence in Vusimuzi, Tembisa

There has been a long struggle against reblocking in Vusimuzi. It has been imposed in a top down way, with no democracy. Many people’s homes have been destroyed. The situation has been made worse by the local councillor, Councillor Seloane, who has exploited an already authoritarian process to try and weaken our movement and strengthen the ANC. Our members have been systematically disadvantaged by the process, and the mob violence has been encouraged against us from the ANC. At the time the local police have acted under the instruction of the councillor, ignored the law, and colluded in repression.  Continue reading →

Two Children Seriously Injured in a Fire in the eLindelani Settlement

Monday, 6 January 2020
Abahlali baseMjondolo Press Statement

Two Children Seriously Injured in a Fire in the eLindelani Settlement

The family of Mazeka in our Lindelani branch started the year 2020 in a very bad way. The family lost everything in a fire that broke out last night, at around 9pm.

The fire was started by a candle that fell on the bed while the eldest child was in the toilet. Two children aged 9 and 17 sustained serious burn in the fire. They have been treated at a nearby clinic where they are being taken care of. However, their lives will never be the same again. Their lives will be divided in to the time before and after the fire.  Continue reading →

Abahlali in ekuRhuleni are under attack

Tuesday 21 November 2019
Abahlali baseMjondolo Press Statement

Abahlali in ekuRhuleni are under attack

We, Abahlali, are fighting for better lives and for people’s rights. We are fighting for land and dignity. It is unfortunate and very disrespectful to see that our rights are violated each and every day by our government.

The government’s duty is to make sure that every human is satisfied with the realisation of every right written in the Bill of Rights. Our government is working to achieve the opposite of that.  Continue reading →

The City of Ekurhuleni violates a Court Order, and Melita Ngcobo is assaulted and arrested

Wednesday, 20 November 2019
Abahlali baseMjondolo Urgent Press Statement

The City of Ekurhuleni violates a Court Order, and Melita Ngcobo is assaulted and arrested

Melita Ngcobo, an Abahlali chairperson in Vusimuzi Section, Tembisa, has just been arrested for questioning the brazen violation of a court order. She was assaulted before the arrest.

On 9 September 2019 the Gauteng High Court issued an interdict following a series of evictions carried out in the name of ‘re-blocking’ in Tembisa, Vusimuzi Section. For too long the Ward Councillor Selwana, together with the Members of the Mayoral Committee (MMC), have been violently and unlawfully been evicting this community in the name of ‘development’.  Continue reading →