Abahlali civic leader in hiding from hitmen… again

At least 16 activists aligned to Abahlali BaseMjondolo have been killed since 2013, with seven shot dead between November last year and now.

Civic leader S’bu Zikode is in “exile” in his own country, in hiding for the second time in as many years.

The president of the Durban-based shack-dwellers movement, Abahlali baseMjondolo, and some of its other leaders live in constant fear as many of them have been gunned down over the years for standing for the rights of shack-dwellers and landless people in eThekwini and the surrounds.

Zikode fears he too may be murdered. Continue reading →

S’bu Zikode is Underground

Monday, 20 August 2018
Abahlali baseMjondolo Press Statement

S’bu Zikode is Underground

Our movement continues to be subject to regular threats, intimidation and violence in Durban, including constant telephonic death threats.

We have faced waves of serious repression over the years, including in 2009 and 2010, and again in 2013 and 2014. This repression has included armed attacks on the homes of our leaders, resulting in their destruction, sometimes while the police looked on, as well as arrests and detention on trumped up charges, torture, assault, death threats, and assassinations. Continue reading →

Amandla Awethu — “Power is ours”! Kairos visits Abahlali baseMjondolo

Kairos Centre

When you join a settlement with Abahlali baseMjondolo (AbM), “Residents of the Shacks,” South Africa’s powerful, 50,000 strong shack dwellers movement, you are given land to build a home. You are often given access to electricity and water, the “people’s connection,” which is bypassed electricity and water from resources provided to the non-poor. You are also expected to join the struggle.

N’dabo, a young leader with AbM who lives in and is the AbM Chairperson of a settlement called Cato Crest, told me that one of the first things that new members go through is an education process where they learn about why they are poor. The struggle of AbM is not simply to provide people housing, but to overcome a system that makes people poor and denies them basic human rights like housing. Continue reading →

Memorial Service for the Late Thabang Anthony Khamali

10 August 2018
Abahlali baseMjondolo Press Statement

Memorial Service for the Late Thabang Anthony Khamali

Our comrade Thabang Anthony Khamali has passed away. Thabang was a very good comrade, always putting his effort to the movement. He was elected to the Provincial Council in KwaZulu-Natal in 2015.

He was born in Matatiele in the Eastern Cape and was a member of the Ekuphumeleleni Branch of our movement in Durban. Continue reading →

Severe Police Assault, Evictions & an Arrest in Tembisa

Sunday, 5 August 2018
Phumula Mqashi Land Occupation Press Statement

Severe Police Assault, Evictions & an Arrest in Tembisa

This morning the Ekurhuleni Metro Police Department (EMPD) returned to the Phumula Mqashi Land Occupation in Tembisa. They destroyed the people’s shacks and burnt their building materials, as well as their mattresses and clothes. They assaulted six people, men and women, pointed Lerato Ramorei with a gun and beat him severely. They then arrested Lerato. We are extremely concerned about his safety. Continue reading →

Women are the Backbone of the Land Issue

Saturday, 04 August 2018

Abahlali baseMjondolo Press Statement

Women are the Backbone of the Land Issue

The Women’s League of Abahlali baseMjondolo is committed to building democratic women’s power in the struggle and in society. The Women’s League will hold a Women’s Day event on 5 August at the Cato Crest Sport Ground. The event will start at 10am and conclude at 3 pm. Continue reading →

Tembisa land occupiers accuse police of brutality

City says it is committed to building houses on the land

Bongani Siwela rebuilds his shack with paper after it was demolished by the Ekurhuleni Metro Police Department during an eviction. Siwela, who is unemployed, makes a living by recycling plastic and paper. He moved to this area because he could not afford the R750 rent which he was charged in Tembisa to stay in a backyard shack. Photo: Ihsaan Haffejee

By Nation Nyoka

3 August 2018

Land occupiers in Tembisa say they have been at the receiving end of violent, persistent and unlawful attacks by police, with the most brutal attack taking place on Monday, 30 July.

Shack dwellers on the land, which they have named Phumula Mqashi, were allegedly stripped naked and beaten by both Ekurhuleni Metro Police Department (EMPD) and South African Police Service (SAPS) members from Tembisa. Their makeshift shacks were burnt. Continue reading →

Death Threats Continue in Durban

1 August 2018
Death Threats in Barcelona 2

Death Threats Continue in Durban

Our chairperson in our Barcelona 2 transit camp branch in Lamontville, Mr Simbongile Jujebe, and some members of the local council in the area, have been threatened by unknown men who promised to ‘remove’ them if they continue to organise Abahlali in the area. The Ward Councillor has on many occasions said that she is “the only Councillor in the ward” and that she will “not tolerate people who are creating their own authority”. In an open community meeting the Councillor openly attacked our chairperson threatening him. Two days later the local council of Abahlali were threatened by men who said that they come from the notorious Seventeen Hostel in uMlazi. Continue reading →

Brutal Attack on the Phumula Mqashi Land Occupation in Tembisa

30 July 2018
Phumula Mqashi Land Occupation Press Statement

Brutal Attack on the Phumula Mqashi Land Occupation in Tembisa

The Phumula Mqashi Land Occupation in Tembisa on the East Rand was founded on 13 February 2018. It has been coming under sustained, illegal and often violent attack from the Ekurhuleni Metro Police Department (EMPD). Shacks and people’s possessions have been repeatedly burnt.

We have taken the EMPD a lawyer’s letter informing them that their actions are illegal but it has made no difference. They returned today, at around 10:00, and stayed until 12:50. They burned 266 shacks and assaulted almost everyone. They used tear gas and rubber bullets. They even chased elderly people and pregnant women. Many of us are injured. One person has been very badly assaulted. They undressed him and then started beating him up.They burnt all our belonging including mattresses, clothes and children’s stuff for school.

Continue reading →

Hope Meets Expectation

Sarah-Jane Cooper-Knock, SeaM

As I walked into Solomon Mahlangu settlement, Sne was driving posts back into the ground to rebuild the walls that the Land Invasion Unit had torn down. Still visible on one of the remaining boards was a sprayed number, the ubiquitous sign across eThekwini that the municipality had registered the dwelling, ahead of upgrading. Sne’s home bore testament to contradictions of the South African state, which carries with it the promise of provision and violence.

When they had arrived in the settlement three years ago, residents of Solomon Mahlangu had hoped for provision: for the fulfilment of the rights forged in the transition. Now, they expected violence. Continue reading →