In a recent interview given to the Tricontinental Institute, the movement’s founder, S’bu Zikode, explained the origin of the movement, its modus operandi and the enormous challenges its members and leadership are facing
In the face of police brutality, targeted assassinations, death threats and criminalization, the shack-dwellers movement of South Africa – known locally as Abahlali baseMjondolo – has been at the forefront of pursuing the unfinished task of correcting the ills of the apartheid state, at the core of which is the land-question.
Apartheid South Africa, as a matter of policy, had ensured that the land in the prosperous economic heartland of the country was under the control of Whites, while Blacks were increasingly evicted and crammed into poorly planned peripheries, without rights and without the most basic of services like sanitation, electricity, etc. Continue reading
