Sunday Tribune
1 August 2010

* ZODWA NSIBANDE AND S’BU ZIKODE Abahlali baseMjondolo Movement SA

Shack dwellers unbowed in a righteous struggle

SOUTH Africans have been asking the leaders of Abahlali baseMjondolo why the government continues to ignore the demands of shack dwellers.

They have been asking why after all the marches, statements, reports and meetings, the Kennedy Road settlement continues to get burnt down in fires, such as the one on Sunday, July 4, that took four lives and left more than 3 000 people displaced and homeless.

We have replied that the shack dwellers of South Africa are serving a life sentence. We have been sentenced to permanent exclusion from society. We are the people who do not count.

Over the years it has been made clear that the cities are not for us, that the good schools are not for us and that even basic human needs, such as toilets, electricity, safety from fire and safety from crime are not for us.

When we ask for these things, we are presented as being unreasonable and even a threat to society.

If we were considered as people who count, as an equal part of society, it would be obvious that the real threat to our society is that we have to live in mud and fire without toilets, electricity, enough taps and with no dignity.

When “delivery” comes, it often makes things worse by forcing us into government shacks that are worse than those we have built ourselves and are in human dumping grounds far outside of the cities.

We have not only been sentenced to physical exclusion from society and its cities, schools, electricity, refuse removal and sewerage systems; our life sentence has also removed us from the discussions that take place in society.

Everyone knows about the repression that we have faced from the state and now, also, from the ruling party.

Everyone knows about the years of arrests and beatings that we suffered at the hands of the police and then the attack on our movement in the Kennedy Road settlement.

We have always said that in the eyes of the state and the ruling party our real crime was that we organised and mobilised the poor outside of their control.

We have demanded that the state include us in society and give us what we need to have for a dignified and safe life.

We have also done what we can to make our communities better places. We have run crèches, organised clean-up campaigns, connected people to water and electricity, tried to make our communities safe and worked hard to unite people across divisions.

We have always tried to ensure that in all of this work we treat one another with dignity.

The self-organisation of the poor by the poor and for the poor has meant that all of those who were meant to do the thinking, discussions and take decisions on our behalf – for us but without us – no longer have a job.

‘Regressive left’

Some of the people who have refused to accept our demand that those who say that they are for the poor should struggle with and not on behalf of the poor are in the state. Some are in the party.

Some are in that part of the left, often in the universities and NGOs, that sees itself as a more progressive elite than those in the party and the state and which aims to take their place in the name of our suffering and struggles.

We call this a regressive left. For us any leftism outside of the state that, just like the ruling party, wants followers and not comrades, and which is determined to ruin any politics that it cannot rule, is deeply regressive.

We have always resisted its attempts to buy our loyalty, just as we will always resist all attempts by the state and the ruling party to buy our loyalty.

We will also resist all attempts to intimidate us into giving up our autonomy. We will always defend our comrades when they are attacked.

Our movement will always be owned by its members. We negotiate on many issues. Where we have to make compromises to go forward, we sometimes do so. But on this issue there will never be any negotiation.

It seems that some regressive leftists, NGOs, academics and individuals are working to destroy our movement.

Heinrich Böhmke has made it clear that he will not rest until he sees our movement’s history and integrity come to nil. He has learnt and studied hard to obtain his university degree and is now working just as hard to undermine and destroy any efforts by the poor to think about our own struggles and take our own place in the discussions about our future and the future of this country.

Ever since his offers of money to us and to the Abahlali baseMjondolo isicathamiya choir, the Dlamini King Brothers, were refused in 2006 he has been attacking our movement and all those who have spoken up in support of our struggle.

He aims to destroy the reputation of comrades and our movement. He does not want an honest, open discussion about the best way forward.

The truth about the attack on our movement is unchanged. We cannot comment publicly on matters that are sub judice, but our demand for an independent commission of inquiry that will bring the whole story into the light remains unchanged.

The movement insists that the people shall govern. This is what the famous Freedom Charter says. Abahlali holds on to that. We are compelled to strive for a just world, a world that is free, a world that is fair and a world that looks after all its creations.

We remain convinced that the land and the wealth of this world must be shared fairly and equally. We remain convinced that everyone has the same right to contribute to all discussions and decision-making about their own future.

We hope that South Africa will become one of the world’s caring countries. As Abahlali, we have committed ourselves to achieving this goal.

But right now we are serving a life sentence and fighting all those who are trying to keep us imprisoned in our poverty, all those who demand we know our place – in the cities and the discussions.

We have recognised our own humanity and therefore we remain determined to refuse to know our place.