Category Archives: UnFreedom Day

Thousands ‘mourn’ their lack of freedom in Durban

On Sunday 28 April, the day after Freedom Day, shack dwellers’ movement Abahlali baseMjondolo held its UnFreedom Day rally on the Springfield campus of Thekwini TVET College in Durban to “mourn what was supposed to be freedom”.

“There’s no real freedom. There’s fake freedom,” Abahlali president S’busiso Zikode told the sea of red, made up of thousands of people who had come from rural areas, hostels and shack settlements in Gauteng, Mpumalanga, the Eastern Cape, the Western Cape and KwaZulu-Natal. Continue reading →

Abahlali to mourn the fraud of ‘Freedom Day’

Friday, 26 April 2019
Abahlali baseMjondolo Pres Statement

Abahlali to mourn the fraud of ‘Freedom Day’

Many South Africans will be celebrating ‘Freedom Day’ on 27 April as we mark the anniversary of the first time that our country’s black people voted in a democratic election. We always acknowledge and salute all the people that struggled for us to win this victory, including, especially, all those ordinary people whose names will never be known to history. Many of our own members carry scars from the struggle against apartheid. 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 →

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 →