Abahlali continue to resist on the Zikode Extension Land Occupation on the East Rand in Gauteng

13 May 2018
Abahlali baseMjondolo Press Statement

Abahlali continue to resist on the Zikode Extension Land Occupation on the East Rand in Gauteng

Abahlali baseMjondolo in Gauteng who are currently in occupation of formerly unused land in the East Rand continue to resist in the midst of the continuous demolishing of their structures by the metro police. Today the metro police arrived at the occupation and demolished and burnt again.

We continue to resist. We will not move. We are demanding to be addressed by the premier David Makhura. We have been promised this land by the then MEC of Human Settlements in the province, Paul Mashatile. We are sick and tired of empty promises. We want to hold the Gauteng government accountable for the land that they have promised to us. Continue reading →

A New Land Occupation in Germiston

12 May 2018

Abahlali baseMjondolo Press Statement

A New Land Occupation in Germiston

Last night more than two hundred people occupied unused land in Germiston, on the East Rand in Gauteng. We laid out our design for the occupation in the afternoon, built throughout the night and slept on the occupied land. Around 350 stands have been marked out via a democratic and carefully planned process. The new occupation has been named the Zikode Extension in honour of S’bu Zikode. Continue reading →

Unfreedom Day Rally: Freedom a figment of elite imagination, say 50,000 shack dwellers

Dennis Webster, Daily Maverick

Abahlali used its UnFreedom Day rally to repeat a call for progressive political movements in South Africa to transcend the limits of the factory floor or the shack settlement. 

Morakane Moloi left her home in Tembisa, Ekurhuleni at midnight on Saturday, 21 April, bound for Abahlali baseMjondolo’s annual UnFreedom Day rally more than 600km away.

Moloi was among Abahlali members who gathered for the rally at the foot of the now historic Kennedy Road shack settlement, outside Durban, where the shack dwellers’ movement began in 2005.

It was her first UnFreedom Day. She made the trip to Sunday’s rally at the Springfield Park sports ground together with the other members of a fledgling Abahlali branch in Vusimuzi shack settlement, east of Johannesburg. Continue reading →

Abahlali Continues to Grow and to Occupy and Hold Land

24 April 2018
Abahlali baseMjondolo Movement SA Press Statement

Abahlali Continues to Grow and to Occupy and Hold Land

Abahlali baseMjondolo Movement SA held a successful UnFreedom Day Rally in Durban on Sunday. Abahlali came in their numbers to mourn the freedom that was fought for so hard by millions of impoverished and working class people and yet now serves a small elite, including a few people who are connected to the ruling party. Continue reading →

Inkulumo ka Mongameli wa Bahlali baseMjondolo Movement SA, ye-Unfreedom Day Rally

Asikakhululeki
Isonto, Epreli 2018

Inkulumo ka Mongameli wa Bahlali baseMjondolo Movement SA, ye-Unfreedom Day Rally

ayethule ezinkundleni zemidlalo I Springfield TVET College, eThekwini

uS’bu Zikode

Mphathi wohlelo Cde Bonono, Bahlali baseMjondolo, yonke imiphakathi yabahlali ekhona phakathi kwethu, Bahlali baseGauteng, Bahlali base Mpumalanga, Bahlali base Eastern Cape, Bahlali baKwaZulu/ Natal. Mphathi wohlelo ngikubone kubalulekile ukwephula imigomo (breaking protocols) ngiqale ngokubingelela Abahlali uqobo ngigcine ngaba holi. Uthi Ubhishop Rubbin Phillip ngelinye ilanga “abokugcina bayoba ngabokuqala)” the last will be the first on the list”. Abaholi babahlali bukazwe lonke, Sekela Mongameli waBahlali cde Mdlalose, Shlalo kaZwe lonke mama wethu MaMkhize Nxumalo, Nobhala cde Mohapi, nabo bonke ubuholi. Ubuholi bezifundazwe bonke, ubuholi bama Branch Abahlali wonke. Ubuholi bezinhlaka za Bahlali zonke uPhiko lomama noPhiko lentsha yaBahlali. Amakhosi akhona phakathi kwethu nezi’ zinduna. Zonke izivakashi ezikhona nabangani bethu. Imibutho ekhona phakathi kwethu esuka eKapa, I Rural Network, Social Justice Coalition, Housing Assembly, MUC, I R2K, Ubunye Bama Hostela, Abadayisi basemgwaqeni, abasuka embonini yama Tekisi, u Streetnet. Abangani nama partners ethu: Church Land Program, Norwegian People’s Aid, Socio Economic Rights Institute of South Africa, AIDC. Cde Pithouse, Cde Desmond D’sa, cde Zackie, naMagoza amahle.  Continue reading →

UnFreedom Day 2018

20 April 2018

Abahlali baseMjondolo Press Statement

Unfreedom Day 2018

Abahlali baseMjondolo Movement SA will hold its annual Unfreedom Day Rally on 22 April 2018 at the Springfield Park Sports Ground from 10:00 a.m.

We reject any so-called ‘freedom’ without access to land; the right to the cities; basic services such as water, sanitation and electricity; decent housing; accessible quality education; safe and affordable public transport; proper health care; safety in the streets and in our homes; and the right to participate in all decision making that affects our lives and communities. Continue reading →

Forced Development, Demolitions, Flooding & Threats in Vusimuzi, Tembisa

Wednesday, 11 April 2018

Abahlali baseMjondolo Press Statement

Forced Development, Demolitions, Flooding & Threats in Vusimuzi, Tembisa

 Councillor Seloane in Ward 90 has forcibly imposed a reblocking project in the Vusimuzi settlement in Tembisa. This settlement has been seriously neglected by the state for years and years. People are living in inhuman and dangerous conditions. There are not enough toilets and taps, no drainage and uncollected refuse everywhere. People have to make their own electricity connections. The place is infested with rats.

But instead of the government working with the community, in a democratic and participatory way, to develop the settlement into a safe and well organised community Cllr Seloane has forcibly imposed a top down form of development that has divided the community, destroyed some people’s homes and possessions, and left many homes flooded in the recent rains. Continue reading →

ANC Government Forcefully Removes People in Tembisa

Sunday, 8 April 2018

Abahlali baseMjondolo Press Statement


ANC Government Forcefully Removes People in Tembisa

The community of Vusimuzi in Tembisa, Johannesburg, is facing a forced development by the Ekurhuleni municipality. The municipality is currently demolishing people’s houses in the name of development. The reblocking project that is underway has been forced on the community. There has never been any consultation with the community with regard to this so-called ‘development’. This is government thuggery against impoverished people. When a community is vandalised in this manner there is no chance for democracy. Is this the freedom which our people fought for? Is this this how the ANC honour the struggle icon Winnie Madikizela-Mandela?   Continue reading →

In the Ruins of the Present

by Vijay Prashad, The Tricontinental

Experiences of South Africa’s Abahlali baseMjondolo (AbM or the Shack Dwellers) and Brazil’s Movement dos Trabalhadores See Terra (MST or the Landless Workers Movement) as well as that of the Democratic Youth Federation of India (DYFI) as well as the All-India Democratic Women’s Association (AIDWA) – both mass organisations of the Indian communist movement – show the efficacy of building worker and peasant power in the areas where workers and peasants live.

Experiences from across the Global South show us that the Left will have to prove by its work in the arena of social reproduction that it is indeed a better alternative to religious and charitable organisations as well as the mafia. Left organisations are already working to create platforms to assist the working-class in its fights for water and electricity, housing and street services, schools and healthcare – but at the same time working alongside the working class as it begins to deliver these services in a relatively autonomous fashion. This is dangerous activity. It means undermining the gangs, the religious groups and the NGOs – all of whom have great stakes in this kind of work.

Attachments


In the Ruins of the Present

The Politics of the ‘Expropriation of Land without Compensation’ in South Africa

23 March 2018

The Politics of the ‘Expropriation of Land without Compensation’ in South Africa

S’bu Zikode, Urbanization: Impact of land availability – focus on land occupation Indaba organised by MEC for Human Settlements and Public Works, KwaZulu-Natal

I am honoured and humbled to be invited here at this land occupation Indaba. On behalf of Abahlali baseMjondolo Movement SA, the movement that has entrusted me with this responsibility today, we wish to express my gratitude to the MEC for the opportunity to be part of this event.  Continue reading →