Memorial service for Comrade S’fiso Ngcobo

1 May 2018
Abahlali baseMjondolo Press Statement

Memorial service for Comrade S’fiso Ngcobo

Today Abahlali baseMjondolo Movement will hold a memorial service for our fallen Comrade, and chairperson of eKukhanyeni branch, S’fiso Ngcobo. This is to honour our Comrade and to give him the respect and dignity that he was denied while he was still living.

The memorial service will be held at the eKukhanyeni branch where Comrade Ngcobo was assassinated outside his house by three unknown men on Tuesday 22nd May at 19:30pm. The service will begin at 3pm today, Thursday, 31st May 2018 Continue reading →

The Road Blockades are Up on the East Rand

28 May 2018
Abahlali baseMjondolo Press Statement

Road Blockade, East Rand

The Road Blockades are Up on the East Rand

For years we have tried to talk to the politicians and officials in the Ekurhuleni Municipality and Gauteng Provincial Government about our urgent need for land and housing. These attempts have been fruitless. Since we founded the Zikode Extension land occupation we have faced relentless illegal evictions as well as police violence and death threats. We went to court to try and stop the illegal evictions and were told that our concerns were not urgent. In the meantime, armed men have been looking for our leaders and we are getting sick after night after night in the open after our shacks have been demolished.

We have decided to organise a strike. This morning we have blocked a number of roads on the East Rand in protest against the ongoing illegal evictions, the police violence and the threats from local ANC leaders. We have not taken this decision lightly and we know that the blockades will result in more police violence. Continue reading →

Death Threats by Armed Men Against Leaders in the Zikode Extension Occupation

Saturday, 26 May 2018

Zikode Extension

Abahlali baseMjondolo Press Statement

Death Threats by Armed Men Against Leaders in the Zikode Extension Occupation

Today is day 16 of the Zikode Extension Land Occupation on the East Rand, between Boksburg and Germiston. Many of us are sick after 15 nights on the land. Some of us are still carrying wounds from the brutal police assault on 17 May. Our shacks have been repeatedly destroyed and the building materials burnt or confiscated. Cars used to transport the materials to the occupation have been impounded. We are also facing death threats. Armed men, unknown to us, are looking for our leaders. Continue reading →

Dying for Land – KZN assassinations continue

Greg Nicolson, The Daily Maverick

As the land debate rages and occupations continue across the country, two members of the shack-dwellers’ movement Abahlali baseMjondolo were shot this week. The group blames the ANC for failing to provide land and targeting those who take it. 

S’fiso Ngcobo was critical of the ANC when he addressed over 1,000 people at a rally on Saturday. Three days later the Abahlali baseMjondolo eKukhanyeni chairperson was shot dead while buying a cold drink metres from his home.

“This is political, we know very well,” said Thapelo Mohapi from the shack-dwellers’ movement. “In Abahlali we have a history of ANC people killing our members.”  Continue reading →

The Thirteenth Newsletter of the Tricontinental (Venezuela)

MAY 25, 2018 | 

Dear Friends,

Last Sunday, the Venezuelan people went to vote. It was a vote of great contention. A majority of people voted for the incumbent president Nicolas Maduro. Half the population did not vote. Many had been motivated by a boycott campaign engineered by the political formations close to the oligarchy and egged on by the United States and Canada. There was – to be frank – external interference in the Venezuelan elections. Both the oligarchy and the North American powers have tried – unsuccessfully – to break the tide of the movement inaugurated by Hugo Chavez inside Venezuela and in Latin America. Venezuela has been under siege for almost the past decade, ever since the United States and the Honduran oligarchy successfully undertook a coup in Honduras in 2009. That coup signalled the return of the United States to an active policy of destabilisation of progressive forces in Latin America. Continue reading →

SAFTU condemns assassination of S’fiso Ngcobo

25 May 2018

SAFTU condemns assassination of S’fiso Ngcobo

The South African Federation of Trade Unions strongly condemns the assassination of S’fiso Ngcobo, chairperson of the eKukhanyeni branch of community group Abahlali baseMjondolo, in Marianhill, KZN.

Just after he left an assembly on 22 May 2018, at around 7:30 pm, he stepped out of his home to buy a cool drink from a shop in a container just a few meters away. He was shot multiple times by a group of unknown men. The police were called but took more than three hours to arrive even though the local police station is nearby. Continue reading →