Thursday, 29 September 2011
Berlin University, Germany

Upgrades v Evictions

I wish to thank Misereor and the Habitat Unit of Berlin University for inviting me to speak on 'Upgrading Urban Shack Settlements' at this meeting on people centered upgrading approaches. Abahlali baseMjondolo has a lot of experience on this important issue and I will do my best to share that experience with all of you here today.

Before I begin it is important for me, on behalf of Abahlali baseMjondolo, to thank Klaus Teschner and Misereor for their support when we were facing serious repression. One of the great weakness of our democracy is that the legal system is commodified. This is one reason why the state is often happy to force the struggles of the poor into the courts. It is very easy for the state and other elites to isolate the struggles of the poor by criminalising the struggles of the poor. If we enter the courts without good legal representation, which costs money, we are in a very dangerous situation. Misereor has enabled us to enter the courts with good legal representation and this has meant that we could get a fair hearing there. We also want to thank Klaus's comrade, Knut Unger, who has hosted our comrades here in Germany and done so much to organise political support for our struggles, especially when we are facing repression.

For the City of Cape Town to condemn people who occupy land is for the City of Cape Town to condemn the poor

We note that yesterday, the 25th September 2011, the City of Cape Town's reactionary and often violent Anti-Land Invasion Unit, with a help of Law Enforcement, Metro Police and South African Police Service demolished more than 100 structures at Kraaifontein. These structures had been erected by backyarders on an open field that had remained an unused piece of land for more than 17 years. In some countries unused land is considered to be public land. Here in South Africa the state will always attack any attempt by the poor to make good use of unused land.

24 September 2011
Abahlali baseMjondolo Press Statement

Activists in New Zealand Who Once Supported the Leadership of the ANC in the Struggle Against Apartheid are now supporting AbM's Struggle for Justice.

In the small country of New Zealand, with a population of about 4.5 million people nationally, the AbM President S'bu Zikode gave an inspiring and challenging speech to 300 people on 11 September 2011. These people were once strong supporters of the ANC during the struggle against apartheid. It is sad that the very same people who fought for the freedom of all South Africans have now been betrayed by the very same comrades who they once fought for to free the country from apartheid. “Since the end of apartheid the rich have gone richer and the poor have become poorer” the President told the assembled group. As he was going around New Zealand he also showed the comrades on that side something about the lives of the poor in South Africa by screening the film Dear Mandela. New Zealanders were stunned by the revelations in the film and the President's talks as they have 0% shacks in their country.

Wednesday, 21 September 2011

Dear Mayor de Lille

Thank you for the reply from your chief of staff to our letter dated 12 September. We have now had time to circulate it amongst our members and to discuss it carefully.

We do appreciate your invitation for the leadership of Abahlali baseMjondolo of the Western Cape to meet with the mayor. There has, after so many years of struggle in Durban, been no such invitation from any mayor in Durban and we note and appreciate your willingness to meet with us.

As we have previously stated we have no intereste in attending stage managed events that are designed for the media rather than to enable genuinely open discussion. We are committed to participatory democracy and to participatory budgeting and urban planning methods and would like to find forms of engagement that are genuinely participatory. As we have both noted in the past the current policies are failing to address the urban crisis in Cape Town. We cannot accept that so many of our people will live their whole lives in shacks. We need to find a new path and to advance down that path. This requires the development of a serious critique of the current policies and not just PR exercise in support of them. We want to build a people’s Cape Town in which all people count the same and everyone can live a life of safety and dignity. To us it seems logical that this will only be possible when people are put before profit and the social value of land is put before its commercial value.

Telling the untold stories: In West Bank

From 'Mazet', an Umhlali doing solidarity work in Palestine

This world is still cut in two: Palestine, 2011

There are 2,5 million Palestinian living in West bank, 150 settlements and 100 outposts. There are 500,000 Israel settlers, 125 residential areas and 25 Industrial areas. Israel has constructed by passing roads for Palestinians which they use to move from one are to another. 80% of the West Bank is a danger zone. Palestinians needs permits to live in their homes. To reach their land for 70% of the Palestinians in West bank which is 3km away from them is impossible. Most of the times Israelis deny Palestinian the permits, they say its for security reasons. This then restrict Palestinians from using their land for farming which is the on the other side of the village and they need permits to move. In side the West Bank check points are being removed. There are 63 Permanent check points. Two major roads are controlled by two check points and Palestinians are unable to move freely. Jerusalem used to be a cultural, spiritual and commercial center and now Palestinians need special permits to access the city.

Released earlier this year, Two Worlds is a documentary that according to its makers, "questions why South Africa has one of the greatest divides between rich and poor." Noting that inequality is no longer a phenomenon exclusive to the developing world and that poverty is now very much prevalent in the developed world, this 28 minute film uses South Africa as a case study to probe questions about inequality for a global audience.

Friday, 16 September 2011
Abahlali baseMjondolo of the Western Cape Press Statement

Eskom and the City of Cape Town in another Brutal Attack on the Poor

Yesterday Eskom and the City of Cape Town descended on RR Section in Khayelitsha with a heavy police presence. They removed safe insulated cables that people were running from shacks with legal electricity boxes into shacks without electricity. The people who were running the cables into their shacks were paying those with legal electricity to use their power. These negotiated connections between neighbours were not illegal. It is therefore the police, and Eskom and the City of Cape Town, who engaged in criminal actions (theft and assault) yesterday.

15 September 201
Abahlali baseMjondolo Youth League Press Statement

What is the Future for the Youth of South Africa?

The issues that are facing the youth are being ignored for eleven months of the year and only recognised on the youth month. But even on the youth month when the issues of the youth are being recognised there is a lack of seriousness about dealing with the crisis facing the current generation. There is a lot of talk and big speeches in stadiums and on TV but very little action.

The media are often confused. They often think that the tenderpreneurs really represent the youth when in fact they only represent themselves and their super-rich friends in business and politics. They are exploiting the crisis of the youth to advance their own interests.

S'bu Zikode's talk at the 30th anniversary of the 1981 protests against the Springbok tour of New Zealand

South Africa’s Great Change

I wish to thank Global Peace and Justice, in Auckland, for inviting me to New Zealand to speak on the progress of post-apartheid South Africa and the birth of Abahlali baseMjondolo Movement SA. I also wish to thank Abahlali baseMjondolo Movement SA, the movement that I am part of, for trusting me with the responsibility of representing it.

I also wish to extend our deepest gratitude to the anti-apartheid movement here in New Zealand who stood firm with the people of South Africa in the fight against apartheid. Many of our older comrades remember watching, on TV, the protests that you organised against the Springbok tour in 1981. There were thousands of you, many thousands of you. You were attacked by the police. Many of you were beaten and arrested. Your protests were a deep shock to the racists in South Africa. It made them realise that although Ronald Regan and Margaret Thatcher accepted their racism ordinary people in New Zealand did not. Your protests also gave courage to the people struggling against apartheid in South Africa. You were workers, priests, teachers, housewives and students. You were men and women. You were old and young. You were people in New Zealand who made people in South Africa know that they were not alone in this world. The comrades who were of that generation remember how your brave protests made their hearts sing with joy and hope back in 1981.

8 September 2011

Dear Mayor de Lille

I wish, at the outset, to make it clear that we, as Abahlali baseMjondolo of the Western Cape, and the many organisations in solidarity with us across Cape Town, appreciate some aspects of your speech yesterday.

We appreciate the fact that you acknowledge that shack dwellers, including backyarders, are living as we are as a result of a history of oppression and not because there is something wrong with us. Once this fact is acknowledged then it becomes obvious that we need justice and not charity to help us to survive poverty for another day or education to train us to accept our poverty. What is required is an end to poverty.