Category Archives: Bandile Mdlalose

Record of information provided to a journalist taking discredited fraud and slander seriously        

Record of information provided to a journalist taking discredited fraud and slander seriously                                                                                                   

In November 2023 the movement held three long meetings to discuss a podcast by a journalist who took seriously the completely discredited fraud that emanated from within and around the Centre for Civil Society (CCS), an academic NGO previously headed by Patrick Bond, after our movement was formed almost twenty years ago. The bulk of the fabricated slander against our movement was produced by Heinrich Bohmke.

 Our process for preparing a letter to the journalist was to establish a committee to deal with the matter. That committee listened to the podcast together, taking notes and pausing the audio to discuss issues as they arose. We then produced a number of drafts of the letter, reading each draft out aloud line by line, discussing anything that anyone wished to raise and making any changes that were collectively agreed on.  Continue reading →

Abahali respond to allegations

6 June 2014

Dear Partners, Friends and Comrades,

Some of you have contacted us to ask what is happening in our movement after receiving emails from Bandile Mdlalose. It is unfortunate that the movement is under this type of attack from one of its former members. We wish to put the facts straight and to rest.

Repression & Living Politic

The first time that there was strain on the family feeling in our movement was after the repression in 2009. When people have been driven from their homes, have lost everything and are living under fear of death and all this is supported by the government it puts them under great strain. People can start to doubt each other and there can be conflict about how the movement decides on its priorities especially in terms of personal and collective security.

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The Housing List versus the Death List

The Housing List versus the Death List

We are supposed to be living in a democratic country, a country of justice, a country where everyone should be treated as one. Yet there is a huge inequality. That inequality is economic, it is spatial and it is political. We remain divided into rich and poor. We continue to be allocated to different kinds of places that are meant for different kinds of people with different kinds of opportunities, different kinds of lives and different kinds of rights. We continue to be divided into those that have the freedom to express themselves and those that face all kinds of intimidation and repression if we commit the crime of telling the truths about our lives.

For the poor this country is a democratic prison. We are allowed to vote for our prison warders and managers but we must always remain in the prison. We must remain in silence when our shack settlements are illegally destroyed leaving us homeless. We must remain in silence when we are forcibly removed to transit camps that are only fit for animals but not for people. We must remain in silence when we are told to return to Lusikisiki or taken to human dumping grounds far outside the cities. We must remain in silence when we are threatened, beaten, shot and killed. The politicians think that when we refuse to be silent, and when we resist repression, they can silence us by throwing some meat at us. After all these years they think that we are dogs. We are not dogs. We are people. We will continue to rebel until we are treated as human beings.

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Napoli Monitor: Sudafrica, la lotta dei baraccati a Durban

http://napolimonitor.it/2013/10/10/23388/sudafrica-la-lotta-dei-baraccati-a-durban.html

Magrissima, forse non arriva neppure al metro e cinquanta, Bandile Mdlalose è una delle attiviste più esili di tutto il movimento degli shack dwellers. È semplice e modesta e mai la crederesti una persona capace di farsi arrestare per un qualsiasi atto di violenza.

Bandile ha tre figli adorabili e la sua famiglia è con lei. La casa dei Mdlalose è di conseguenza il ritrovo di tutta la comunità della Sezione K della township di KwaMashu (Durban), ed è il luogo in cui si riunisce il movimento Abalhali, si cucina per le grandi occasioni o si programmano le riunioni. Sua madre, conosciuta da tutti come MaMadlalose, è una delle colonne portanti di tutta la comunità della Sezione K. Quando le cose prendono una brutta piega, le persone si rivolgono a lei per un consiglio o per una mediazione.

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