Organising in the Shadow of Death

Saturday, 7 July 2018

Abahlali baseMjondolo Press Statement

Organising in the Shadow of Death

Since our movement was first formed in 2005 various factions of the elite – including in the ruling party, the government, NGOs and the universities – have considered the self-organisation of impoverished people in a democratic movement to be an illegitimate development.

All positions in our movement are subject to election, and the right to recall. We continually hold open and public meetings at which decisions are reached, usually by the process of continuing discussion until a consensus is developed. Yet despite this our decision to organise ourselves, and to speak and act for ourselves, has constantly been presented as an external conspiracy by elites who feel that they have a natural right to think for us, to speak for us and to represent us. We have regularly been presented as criminals. Continue reading →

Open Assembly in eKukhayeni on Saturday

Friday, 06 July 2018

Abahlali baseMjondolo Press Statement

Open Assembly in eKukhayeni on Saturday

Tomorrow our movement will hold an open, public assembly in eKukhayeni in Marianhill where S’fiso Ngcobo, our branch chairperson, was assassinated on 22 May 2018.

The ward councillor in the area, who is known as ‘Khekhe’, has vowed to destroy our movement. We have received numerous warnings, including from sympathetic people within the police and the ANC, that it will not be safe for us to go ahead with our meeting tomorrow.  Continue reading →

The People Of Blinkbonnie Can Finally Call eNkanini Home

Lizeka Maduna, The Daily Maverick

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 →

Illegal Attacks on the Phumula Mqashi Land Occupation in Tembisa

Phumula Mqashi Land Occupation

Friday, 6 July 201

Phumula Mqashi Land Occupation Press Statement

Illegal Attacks on the Phumula Mqashi Land Occupation in Tembisa

On 13 February 2018 a large tract of empty land was occupied in Tembisa, on the East Rand. During apartheid the land was used by the army. Since then it has remained unused. There were more than 700 occupiers and they were members of various organisations and came from a number of areas including Jiyane, Vusimuzi, Sivana, Welamulambo, Mgantsa and Thafani Section. Some had been renting shacks and others were living with their parents or grandparents in four room township houses. Sometimes there are ten or even fourteen people living in these four room houses. Young people need a place of their own to raise their children. Continue reading →

Abahlali to Support Street Traders in their Protest in Durban Tomorrow

Thursday, 05 July 2018

Abahlali baseMjondolo Press Statement

Abahlali to Support Street Traders in their Protest in Durban Tomorrow

The ANC in Durban continues to grow rich off impoverished people through corruption and political gangsterism. They continue to try and divide us by race and ethnicity. Death threats remain the order of the day whenever anyone stands up for honesty and justice. Our movement continues to face serious and credible threats.  Continue reading →

Homeless and hopeless after fire ravages Good Hope

GroundUp

“Why are people still living here despite the countless promises to move them?” asks activist

Photo of aftermath of fire

A shack fire in Good Hope settlement in Ekhuruleni left at least ten families homeless. Photo: Nation Nyoka/New Frame

By Nation Nyoka

5 July 2018

At least ten shacks have been destroyed, and one damaged, following a fire that spread from one shack to adjacent shacks in the space of an hour in Germiston’s Good Hope shack settlement on Wednesday.  Continue reading →

Politicians are ignoring shack fires – lobby group

The Citizen

Simnikiwe Hlatshaneni

The problem is ‘a lack of political will to give shack dwellers access to services and land’, with ‘hazards seen as tools for political point-scoring’.

Shack fires caused by unsafe heating methods are an unavoidable symptom of a greater social ill, a lobby group has said.

This as icy temperatures are expected to continue around the country.

Yesterday, at least one person died in Cape Town after fires spread through various informal settlements, and 40 shacks were destroyed in Johannesburg. But the yearly shack fire phenomenon was not merely about lack of access to electricity, according to shack dwellers’ lobby group Abahlali baseMjondolo. Continue reading →

Four-year-old child dies in Ekuphumeleleni, death threats continue

27 June 2018
Abahlali baseMjondolo Press Statement

Four-year-old child dies in Ekuphumeleleni, death threats continue

A four-year-old boy was tragically killed by electrocution on Monday in our Ekuphumeleleni branch. Khanyisani Dlamini was playing with his friends when he slipped and fell on a live electric wire. He died on the scene.

The community in Ekuphumeleleni occupied vacant RDP houses after there was gross corruption in the allocation process. The community took this decision after all attempts to address the blatant corruption in the allocation failed. After the occupation the Municipality refused to allow services to be provided so it was decided to make self-organised connections to water and electricity. The Municipality tried to evict the community but the movement was able to prevent the eviction.  Continue reading →

Bahlali Bayanda: Building ubuhlali in Gauteng

23 June 2018

Abahlali baseMjondolo Press Statement

Bahlali Bayanda: Building ubuhlali in Gauteng

Despite the attacks and repression that we face our movement continues to become a home for impoverished people. Our movement is growing and we have vibrant branches in a number of provinces.

Today we will embark on a mission of building ubuhlali in the province of Gauteng. Ubuhlali is our ideology that speaks about Living Politics. This is a politics that speaks to the fact that we do not have access to land, housing, water and electricity. It is a politics that speaks to the fact that we are purposely made to be poor. It is a politics that speaks to the restoration of dignity of impoverished people. It is a politics that starts from the realities of the everyday lives of impoverished people and remains under the democratic control of impoverished people. Continue reading →