21 December 2020
Abahlali baseMjondolo Press Statement

A Bleak Year for the Poor and the Working Class

The year 2020 has exposed the cruelty of the corrupt and capitalist ANC government, a repressive and predatory government that makes the political and economic elites richer while making the poor poorer.

During the lockdown poor and working-class black people were openly murdered in the streets by the army and the police. Our movement faced repeated illegal and violent evictions during the lockdown despite the supposed moratorium on evictions. Live ammunition was used against unarmed people. Most shack dwellers did not receive the Covid grant. Millions of people lost their jobs. Others were not able to continue with their livelihoods. Across the country people went hungry.   Continue reading →

14 December 2020
Abahlali baseMjondolo Press Statement

Building Autonomy & Solidarity from Below on the eKhenana Occupation

The eKhenana Occupation now has the Frantz Fanon Political School, the Thuli Ndlovu Community Hall, the Sifiso Ngcobo Poultry Solidarity Project and the Nkululeko Gwala Food Sovereignty Garden.

Since our movement was formed in 2005 we have been committed to building organic organising from below. Our movement was built settlement by settlement and occupation by occupation. From the beginning we also worked to build a living solidarity with other struggles. In the early years we offered solidarity to comrades in countries like Haiti and Zimbabwe. When our movement was under attack we received international solidarity from organisations as far away as the United Kingdom, the USA and Turkey.

During the last five years we have been sending our comrades to the MST political school in Brazil. Through working together with the MST comrades, and other comrades at the school, we have learnt the ways of organising in different countries. From the MST we have learnt about agroecology and the importance of making our occupations sites of production, as well as places to live, build community and access the cities.  Continue reading →

Friday, 27 November 2020
Abahlali baseMjondolo Women’s League Statement

Women’s Camp to Build Women’s Power in Struggle

The Abahlali baseMjondolo Women’s League will hold a camp from 18:00 on Saturday night to 6:00 on Sunday morning.

Camps are an important space for members of the movement to think together. This camp will create a space for us to cough out our experiences of suffering, to be in solidarity with each other and to think together about our lives and struggles in the context of the wider campaign of 16 days of activism.  Continue reading →

27 October 2020

Abahlali press statement

Abahlali to Picket outside the Durban City Hall to demand an End to Budget Cuts

Tomorrow morning Abahlali will join comrades in pickets to be held around South Africa to issue a clear rejection of the ongoing budget cuts by the national treasury. Austerity is not the solution to the economic crisis. We have seen, around the world, that austerity, which is a new name for structural adjustment, has had a devastating impact on the poor and the working class. What we need is massive investment in our people and in our society – investment in schools, libraries, hospitals, housing, community halls, safe houses for women facing abuse, grassroots urban agriculture and much, much more. Continue reading →

Friday, 16 October 2020
Abahlali press statement

Abahlali to march to the Premier of KwaZulu-Natal to demand an end to state corruption, forced evictions and violence

We as Abahlali baseMjondolo, as umbutho wabampofu, exist because we have a great responsibility. A responsibility to our members, a responsibility to our country and the world at large. Covid-19 has taken the world by storm and has shocked us all. Many lives have been lost and many economies have collapsed.

Huge resources have been invested to fight this pandemic and protect lives.

However in South Africa many thugs in suits and ties at high levels of government have seen this crisis as an opportunity to enrich themselves. They have stolen vast amounts of public money in broad-day light. There have been shocking media reports that R25 million allocated by the KwaZulu-Natal Department of Social Development to provide food relief to the poor has gone missing. It is reported that this money was meant to provide food relief to about 88 000 people in distress, and yet only 1 026 people benefited. We are not just calling for the investigation and prosecution of the culprits. We also demand that the Department of Social Development recover the money and redirect it to people who are still in need of food relief.  Continue reading →

Friday, 2 October 2020
Abahlali baseMjondolo press statement

Celebrating 15 years of Revolutionary Struggle for Land, Decent Housing and Dignity

Tomorrow, Saturday, 3 October Abahlali will be holding our first in a number of seminars and reflections under the theme Sifike kanjani la? (How have we come here?). The seminar will bring together 100 cadres from across the country where Abahlali has a presence. It will also bring together friends and comrades of the movement. The aim will be to reflect together on the 15-year revolutionary journey of our movement in order for to deliberate, learn and take stock of lessons of the last 15 years of organisation and struggle to prepare for the revolutionary journey ahead of us. This seminar is one of series of events that we will be holding to reflect on the past and prepare for the future. This process will be filmed and documented as a tool to help Abahlali, and comrades in other organisations in South Africa and across the world with the process of continuous collective reflection that is essential to any revolutionary project.  Continue reading →

Attachments

Abahlali baseMjondolo Movement Seminar on 15 Years

Wednesday, 30 September 2020
ESCR Session on the challenges facing residents of shack settlements

Opening remarks by S’bu Zikode delivered this afternoon to the opening of the 68th Session of the UN Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights

Thank you, Mr. Chairperson, members of the ESCR-Net and the Committee for the ESCR for affording us with such an important platform to express our concerns.

Across the world residents of the shack settlements, many of which are in fact land occupations, are not recognized as human beings who can think for themselves. We are not treated with respect and dignity, or taken seriously. We are treated as if we are beneath the law. The state often engages us with violence rather than discussion. Some NGOs and some media have presented us to the world as criminals.  Continue reading →

Monday, 28 September 2020
Abahlali baseMjondolo Women’s League

Tomorrow We Return to uMthwalume to Support Hlengiwe Gasa

Tomorrow morning Hlengiwe Gasa is scheduled to appear in the Umzumbe court again. The Abahlali baseMjondolo Women’s League will be there, one again, to support her, and uMthwalume Women.

After a number of women were raped and murdered in uMthwalume a group of women in the area formed a women’s organisation, uMthwalume Women, to work to ensure each other’s safety and to oppose violence against women. On 25 July a group of about 100 women from uMthwalume Women marched in protest at the terrifying levels of violence against women in their community. The purpose of the march was to show their concern to the world and to deliver a memorandum to the SAPS, calling on them to act as women in the community were being raped and murdered.  Continue reading →

24 September 2020

Isifundo sika Thuli Ndlovu

Mphathi wohlelo, baholi babahlali baseMjondolo kuwo wonke amazinga, omama, instha. Ngokukhethekile ngibingelele imindeni yamaqhawe ethu, mama Ndlovu, mama Mpeku, mama Ngcobo, mama Sizani, mama Dlamini,

Namhlanje usuku olukhulu nolubalulekile emlandweni woMbutho wabahlali lapho sikhumbula khona amaqhawe ethu anikela ngezimpilo zawo ukuze mina nawe nabantwana bethu siphile kangcono.  Continue reading →

Thursday, 24 September 2020
Abahlali baseMjondolo press statement

Abahlali baseMjondolo to hold Annual Thuli Ndlovu lecture

We will this morning hold our Annual Thuli Ndlovu lecture. The Thuli Ndlovu lecture is one of our revolutionary moment to honour and commemorate our fallen heroes.

Thuli Ndlovu was assassinated on 29 September 2014 at her home in KwaNdengezi while she was carrying her baby boy Freedom. Next to her was Sphe Madlala a teenager who was visiting Thuli’s daughter to help her with her school home work. Thuli was shot dead by a hitman. Sphe was also shot but survived with serious wounds. Continue reading →