Category Archives: Bandile Mdlalose
Statement from this morning’s road blockade in Siyanda
Update 20:34: Police bail was refused. A pro bono lawyer was secured but the prosector on standby had her phone switched off and so a bail hearing was made impossible. The three comrades will have to spend the weekend in the holding cells.
Update 10:10: The three comrades arrested today are are Themba Msomi, Thembeka Sondaba & Fikiswa Mgoduka.
Yesterday there was a blockade in Clare Estate. This morning there are blockades in iSiyanda and uMlazi. Three comrades, including the chairperson are under arrest in uMlazi. She still has her phone with her and she is strong. A police car turned over in uMlazi. This was because the driver failed to control it. We did not attack it. However we were attacked with tear gas and rubber bullets – the same bullets that killed Andries Tatane – in both iSiyanda and uMlazi.
uTata Nelson Mandela said that if the ANC does to us what apartheid did to us then we must do to the ANC what we did to apartheid. We are living in apartheid under black management. Therefore we are back to the streets. In these actions we are honouring Madiba.
The demands that are being issued on these blockades are clear. The first one is the same demand as the one issued in Cato Crest on Monday, in Clare Estate yesterday and in Clare Estate, iSiphingo and Cato Crest last week. That demand is that we want a full and proper response to the memoranda that we handed over to the Municipality on our march on 16 September. We have a new demand too now: Free Bandile Mdlalose!
Marikana Continues: Statement on the murder of Nqobile Nzuza
Thursday, 03 October 2013
Abahlali baseMjondolo Press Statement
Marikana Continues: Statement on the murder of Nqobile Nzuza
Two young women were shot in the back in Cato Crest on Monday. They were both shot in the back while running away from the police. Nqobile Nzuza was shot in her back and in the back of her head and died on the scene. Luleka Makhwenkwana was shot in her arm, also from the back, and was taken to hospital but has now been discharged. Police spokespeople Jay Naicker and Solomon Makgale have been telling the media all kinds of lies about these shootings.
We wish to make it clear that the police are lying just as they lied after the massacre on the mountain in Marikana last year.
Solidarity Statement from the International Alliance of Inhabitants
Dear Comrades
On behalf of the International Alliance of Inhabitants, I would like to extend our solidarity to the organisation during the current attacks upon your members. The viciousness of these is an indication of the real threat your voices pose to those elite interests who are more concerned with profits than the well-being of the citizens of South Africa.
The refusal of bail to Comrade Bandile is an outrage to justice. She is an outstanding figure in the fight for social justice whose only 'crime' is to organise against injustice and oppression. Our thoughts are with her and all the comrades of Abahlali. Abahlali baseMjondolo is a leading example of the power of independent peoples' organisations which do not allow their voices to be mediated or domesticated by NGOs or 'professionals'. We recognise the sacrifice of those whose voices have been silenced by murder, those whose bodies have been broken by thugs, and their families who have suffered for their principles.
Daily News: Mom cries as shack woman is held
Emotions were running very high after the illegal evictions, two assasinations, the murder of Nqobile Nzuza and the blatantly political arrest and denial of bail to Bandile Mdlalose.
http://www.iol.co.za/dailynews/news/mom-cries-as-shack-woman-is-held-1.1586019#.Uk2qRYbI2VI
By Nkululeko Nene
Durban – Abahlali baseMjondolo spokeswoman, Bandile Mdlalose, who is accused of causing public violence during a protest in Cato Manor, must spend a week in custody – her bail application has been adjourned until Monday.
Members of the shack dwellers’ movement who were at the Durban Magistrate’s Court on Tuesday shouted in dismay when magistrate Vanitha Armu announced her decision.
The crowd refused to leave the court when the court interpreter pleaded with them to go. They threatened her, saying she did not live in the building and would have to walk out after work.
Mdlalose’s mother, Busisiwe, cried hysterically inside court as she watched her daughter being led away to the court cells.
“I do not feel okay. I am very worried about her state of health.