Daily Maverick: We must build a powerful united front against xenophobia

Imraan Buccus, The Daily Maverick

The ongoing attacks on women and migrants have led to deep pessimism about the state of SA. Social cohesion and human rights seem like a distant dream, and it’s not just the president who has been absent. Civil society and trade unions largely seem missing in action too.

Alarmingly, one major civil society organisation issued a long statement on xenophobia which presented the crisis as one solely suffered by African migrants, and completely left out the fact that many migrants from Asia have also been attacked. This statement, with its crass disregard for Asian migrants was, itself, xenophobic.  Continue reading →

A Brief History of South Africa’s Industrial and Commercial Workers’ Union (1919-1931)

Tricontinental Institute for Social Research: Dossier No. 20

The Industrial & Commercial Workers’ Union (ICU) – a trade union, rural peasant movement, and urban squatters’ movement – formed on the docks in Cape Town in 1919. Within a decade, the ICU had expanded across Southern Africa without regard for national borders and counted people from various African countries and the Caribbean in its leadership, as well as people who were Indian and mixed race. The largely forgotten history of the ICU is well worth recovering in a time of escalating chauvinism and xenophobia.

In Durban the ICU was a shack dwellers’ movement with tens of thousands of members. It was strong in areas like Sydenham, and Cato Manor, where Abahlali baseMjondolo organises today, and had an office in Prince Edward Street, not far from the Surat Hindu Hall where Abahlali often meet today. Its colour was red.

Attachments


The ICU: A brief history

Abahlali baseMjondolo Condemns the Xenophobic Attacks

Wednesday, 4 September 2019
Abahlali baseMjondolo Press Statement

Abahlali baseMjondolo Condemns the Xenophobic Attacks

The recent attacks on our brothers and sisters in Pretoria and Johannesburg are a disgrace that needs to be condemned in the strongest possible way. Abahlali baseMjondolo have always condemned this kind of inhumanity. We have always understood that the old Bantustans, now turned into provinces, and the colonial boarders, were created by the colonisers to be able rule and control us. We have always understood that we were made poor by racial capitalism and that it is the alliance between the ANC and racial capitalism that keeps us poor.

Our movement was formed on the foundation of Ubuntu, where the spirit of community and working together is encouraged. Umuntu ngumuntu ngabantu. A person is a person whenever and wherever they find themselves, and must be respected as a person. A neighbour is a neighbour and a comrade is a comrade without regard for the province or country in which they were born, or which language they speak.  Continue reading →

Abahlali baseMjondolo’s Women Celebrate Women’s Month With A Show Of Solidarity

Note: The Prince Edward Hall is not a hotel.

The Daily Vox

On the 11th of August at least 500 women members of Abahlali baseMjondolo filled the Prince Edward Hotel in Durban to celebrate Women’s Day. Dressed in red and black, their bold printed T-shirts read: “Izindlu. Umhlaba. Is’thunzi” (Houses. Land. Dignity). Many of the women, are unlikely activists and are mainly from an older generation. Middle-aged women danced freely and sang along to struggle songs with passion and purpose cementing their commitment to their cause. By NOMATTER NDEBELE.

The women of Abahlali baseMjondolo strongly believe that they play an integral role in changing their communities and South African society more generally. “One day this country will be run by a woman, with or without the permission of men,” said  former chairperson of Abahlali Women’s League, Alice Caleni.

Abahlali a grassroots social movement, calls for the protection of land and housing rights for poor black people across South Africa. The name Abahlali baseMjondolo literally means “occupiers of informal homes”. A large majority of the organisations advocacy therefore focuses on people living in shacks in informal settlements. To date, the movement has 58,000 members of which 60% are women.   Continue reading →

Abahlali welcomes the KZN ANC decision to fire Zandile Gumede

Wednesday 14 August 2019
Abahlali baseMjondolo press statement

Abahlali welcomes the KZN ANC decision to fire Zandile Gumede

Yesterday the ANC Provincial Executive Committee (PEC) finally fired the long embattled mayor of eThekwini Zandile Gumede.

We wish to welcome this decision which is long overdue. Gumede is facing serious charges of corruption and irregularities. The charges relate to a R208 million Durban Solid Waste (DSW) tender to clean the city’s refuse. At least R37 million of that money was meant to provide water and sanitation to shack settlements in the city. It is alleged that Gumede has been interfering in the issuing of tenders in order to enrich herself. This is what the Nigel Gumede ANC told us in the past: that they will eat for us and on our behalf. They said as long as the ANC is in power Abahlali will get nothing from this government. We have seen that the Zandile Gumede ANC is the same as the Nigel Gumede ANC.  Continue reading →

Abahlali to celebrate Women’s Day Tomorrow

Saturday, 10 August 2019
Abahlali baseMjondolo

Abahlali to celebrate Women’s Day Tomorrow

As part of the celebration of the role that women’s power played in the realisation of our democracy, and the role that women’s power plays in our struggles to defend and advance that democracy today, the Abahlali baseMjondolo Women’s League will hold a Women’s Day Event at the Surat Hindoo and Association Hall in Prince Edward Street. The event will start at 10 am this Sunday.

Women in our movement have been always on the forefront of our struggle. Many of the women in our movement have made serious sacrifices in the building of this movement. Some women have given their lives to this struggle. We will honour all those women who have lost their lives in our struggle. Continue reading →

The Tembisan: A look at the Vusimuzi reblocking process

The Tembisan

Vusimuzi informal settlement was founded in 1995 and it has been seriously neglected by the government for years

A car drives past a reblocked street which is smaller than promised.

What started as a promise to deliver Vusimuzi shack dwellers from hardship, soon escalated into modern-day apartheid forced-removal tactics. In 2017, the City of Ekurhuleni came up with the reblocking programme, which came with the promise of a better life and development for residents living in informal settlements, such as Vusimuzi and Emandleni, located on the boarder of Wattville and Actonville in Germiston.  Continue reading →

Suspended eThekwini mayor returns to Durban Commercial Court on charges of corruption today

Thursday, 8 August 2019
Abahlali baseMjondolo press statement

Suspended eThekwini mayor returns to Durban Commercial Court on charges of corruption today

The eThekwini mayor, Zandile Gumede will today appear before the magistrate, along with the chairperson of the ANC in eThekwini Region. This follows her arrest and serious charges on corruption. The charges relate to a R208 million Durban Solid Waste tender. She was released on R50 000 bail few months ago.

It is alleged that at least R37 million of that money had been set aside to provide water and sanitation to shack settlements. However it is alleged that Gumede, Mondli Mthembu who is the chairperson of Human Settlement in the City, and 7 more senior officials corrupted that money to enrich themselves.  Continue reading →

GroundUp: Abahlali leader blames government for baby’s death

GroundUp

12 July 2019   By Musa Binda

Sbu Zikode says that Khwezi Mlingo would have survived if Cato Manor’s shacks had water and electricity

The charred remains of the shack in which baby Khwezi Mlingo died on Monday. Photo: Musa Binda

Sbu Zikode, president of Abahlali BaseMjondolo, blamed the death of baby Khwezi Mlingo on government during her memorial service at eNkanini Informal Settlement in Cato Manor on Friday.

Khwezi was killed in a shack fire, caused by a candle falling, on Monday.  Continue reading →