Shack dwellers vow to fight government’s war on protest

Mphathi Nxumalo, The Daily News

Durban – Despite Community Safety and Liaison MEC Mxolisi Kaunda’s declaration of war against illegal protests, shack dwellers’ movement Abahlali baseMjondolo (AbM) plans to defy it, saying it was a war against the poor.

Kaunda promised to end these protests within three months.

At a media briefing held at the Department of Public Works’ offices in Mayville, Kaunda said in the past financial year there had been more than 530 public protests in the province, and 270 illegal ones in the past four months.  Continue reading →

Intimidation from Armed ANC Members on the East Rand

Monday, 23 July 2018
Abahlali baseMjondolo Press Statement

Intimidation from Armed ANC Members on the East Rand

Abahlali baseMjondolo in the Good Hope Settlement in Germiston, on the East Rand, have been engaging around budgets and urban planning for a long time now. At the same time this branch has also organised the Zikode Extension Land Occupation on a nearby piece of unused land. Despite repeated illegal evictions, and the repeated confiscation and burning of building material, the occupation will soon celebrate its first three months on the land.

Promises have been regularly made, by the ruling party and various levels of government, that development is coming to Good Hope. But we do not see any allocation for us in the relevant budgets documents.  Continue reading →

International Solidarity Meeting to be Held in Durban

Friday 20 July 2018
Abahlali baseMjondolo Press Statement

International Solidarity Meeting to be Held in Durban

International solidarity is vital to our safety, and our ability to continue to organise during periods of repression. The ANC is happy to allow the politic of blood to rule impoverished people in Durban but it wants to appear as a liberation movement to the world. When the ANC knows that the eyes of the world are watching they often move away from the politic of blood and back to the politic of negotiation.

For this reason our movement works hard to build relationships with radical popular movements around the world, and those few NGOs that understand the importance of popular organisation and respect the autonomy of popular movements. Continue reading →

The Kairos Center Stands in Solidarity with Abahlali baseMjondolo

The Kairos Centre

On July 7, 2018, the Kairos Center received notice of heightened attacks and threats against the leadership and members of Abahlali baseMjondolo (Facebook | Twitter), including an assassination attempt on the life of its president, S’bu Zikode. This follows as many as ten assassinations of its members over the past five years and numerous acts of violence by the police. The Kairos Center denounces this violence and defends the right of Abahlali to organize for its rights to housing, land and human dignity enshrined in the Constitution of the Republic of South Africa and the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.  Continue reading →

Abahlali Continues to Grow Despite Threats and Repression

Tuesday, 17 July 2018
Abahlali baseMjondolo

Abahlali Continues to Grow Despite Threats and Repression

Our leaders continue to live under threat and we continue to receive detailed information from multiple credible sources about plans within the eThekwini ANC to continue their campaign of serious repression, including assassinations, against our movement. In recent days unknown men have been driving around asking people where our General Secretary lives. Continue reading →

NUMSA Condemns Attacks on Abahlali baseMjondolo

NUMSA CONDEMNS ATTACKS ON ABAHLALI BASEMJONDOLO

16 July 20128

The National Union of Metalworkers of South Africa (NUMSA) condemns in the strongest terms the attacks against members of Abahlali baseMjondolo (ABJ). Members of Abahlali were allegedly attacked by Ekurhuleni Metro Police officers at a land occupation site on the 2nd and 3rd of July in Thembisa. According to Abahlali this site has been attacked 12 times since residents occupied the empty piece of land in February this year. Last week an attempt was made on the life of the president of ABJ Sbu Zikode, after his vehicle was allegedly maliciously tampered with. Continue reading →

The Twentieth Newsletter (2018): Assassinations.

Dear Friends,

Greetings from the desk of the Tricontinental: Institute for Social Research.

On Wednesday evening, in São Paulo (Brazil), I walked past a wall that had on it the slogan – Marielle Presente. This referred to the assassination of Marielle Franco in Rio de Janeiro on 14 March of this year. On Thursday, at 4pm, a march across Rio took place under the banner – Quanto mais tem que morrer pra essa guerra acabar? (How Many More Have to Die for This War to End?). It has been 120 days since the murder of Marielle Franco – a socialist, a bisexual black woman, a champion of the downtrodden in Brazil’s favelas. Under international pressure, the government in Brazil agreed to an investigation – which appears to go nowhere. There is no confidence that the investigation will develop. The lead prosecutor in the case – Homero Freitas Filho – said that this is a ‘complicated crime’ and that the ‘lack of information’ and the ‘real motivation of the crime’ are the ‘main difficulties’. It is hard to have confidence in such a process. This is the same judiciary that has been so cavalier with the facts when it comes to the incarceration of the left’s presidential candidate, Lula (please read the Tricontinental: Institute for Social Research dossier on the fight for democracy in Brazil). Continue reading →

Political Killings (Editorial in The Witness)

Our Viewpoint (10 July 2018)

 

Political Killings

There has been a brief respite in political killings in the province related to the internecine strife within the ANC. It is unlikely that things will remain so, and it is equally unlikely that the Moerane Commission of Inquiry’s report into these killings will deliver a usable verdict.
None of this is to say that all is quiet. It is important to pay attention to another persistent target, and that is the Durban shack-dweller movement, Abahlali baseMjondolo. It claimed last week that its president, S’bu Zikode, is “in grave danger” and that an attempt had been made on his life Continue reading →

Abahlali baseMjondolo leader S’bu Zikode’s life is ‘in grave danger’

The Daily Maverick

By Musawenkosi Cabe, Magnificent Mndebele and Dennis Webster• 8 July 2018

 S’bu Zikode

An attempt has been made on the life of Abahlali baseMjondolo president Zikode, according to a statement released by the shack dwellers’ movement on 7 July. 

A statement released by Abahlali baseMjondolo on 7 July 2018 claimed that its president S’bu Zikode’s vehicle had been maliciously tampered with and his life was “in grave danger”.

Continue reading →

The People Of Blinkbonnie Can Finally Call eNkanini Home

by Lizeka Mdaduna, The Daily Vox

Kids are running around playing, it’s the school holidays. Elderly women are sitting outside in the sun; they say inside their houses it’s chilly. Enkanini, which translates to ‘place of strong-willed’ in Blinkbonnie Road, Durban, has become their only home.

“We have settled here, this is now our homes and a community,” says a 58-year-old Noncedile Diko.

After months of restlessness and continuous court disputes over land with the municipality, the people of Blinkbonnie Road, a strip of land in Bonela have finally found ‘peace’. Diko, whose house was demolished several times says she in at peace now that she finally has a place to call home.  Continue reading →