Abahlali baseMjondolo Press Statement: The ANC Must be removed from Office

For nine years our movement has boycotted elections. We have been clear that no political party represents the interests of the poor and that it was necessary for us to build our own power in order to present our own needs and demands to society. In these nine years we have won many victories but most of us remain in shacks. Twenty years of shack life is a disgrace in a democracy.

Corruption is also a disgrace. In Durban you get nothing without a membership card for the ANC. All development goes through the councillors and their ward committees and ANC branch executive committees. Development is there to make ANC leaders rich and to control the rest of us by only making it available to ANC members. Development is not for the people. This kind of corruption is a disgrace in a democracy.

But an even bigger disgrace is the repression that we have faced from the ANC, its members, its leaders and its assassins. They have banned our marches; attacked our marches; arrested us on trumped up charges; assaulted us in detention; used armed men to drive us from our homes with police support; used death threats, attacks in our homes and torture in police stations to intimidate people to manufacture evidence against us; detained us for months and months while we wait for a trial that gets thrown out of court because there is no evidence against us; used their anti-land invasion unit to evict us for political reasons and beaten and shot us in our communities. Senior members of the ANC and the Municipality have made public death threats against us. Two activists were assassinated in Cato Crest last year and another, an unarmed teenage girl, was executed by the police.

We cannot go on with this level of repression. As everyone knows we are not the only people who face this kind of repression. We all know about Andries Tatane and all the others murdered by the police on protests. We all know about the Marikana Massacre.

In Durban court orders are just ignored by the Municipality and so the courts cannot protect us. Mostly the media and civil society tend to agree that because we are poor and black we are automatically violent and criminal and too stupid to think our own politics and so we do not get that much protection from the media and civil society either. We have some valued comrades on the left among the middle classes but mostly this left just wants to bus us into its meetings so that it can look credible without having any interest at all in our struggles, our ideas or our safety. NUMSA asked us to support their march in Durban but they have not shown any concern to support us when we face repression. The EFF also asked us to support their march in Durban but, like NUMSA, they have not supported us when we face repression. So far our experience of both these organisations is that they are operating like the left NGOs – we are treated as if our only role is to provide the large numbers of people that they need to be bussed in to justify their politics.

Because we cannot carry on like this we took a decision to vote against the ANC. We did not want to split our vote. We decided to collectivise our vote in order to make it stronger. Our main priority was that the ANC must be removed from office. We knew that this will not happen in this election but we were still clear that if we can weaken the ANC then we must do that. Also we knew that if we collectivise our vote all the political parties will know that there is a large bloc of votes that will be available at the next election for the party that does the best job in opposing repression and takes the best position on shack settlements.

We decided that all political parties except the ANC would be invited to make a presentation to the movement. Some of our members did not want to invite the DA to make a presentation as they are known to represent the rich and, in Cape Town, they are no different to the ANC when it comes to illegal and violent evictions. However we debated this at length and decided to invite them to make a presentation on the grounds that the removal of the ANC was our first priority and the weakening of the ANC was our second priority.

The DA, EFF, NFP and WASP all accepted the invitation to make a presentation to our members at the Diakonia Centre on 25 April and they all came and made their presentations.

The delegates to that meeting then returned to their branches to discuss the presentations there. We met again on 2 May and held a general meeting. At this meeting the general leadership did not vote as their role was to facilitate the meeting. The rest of the delegates voted and the results were as follows:

2 - undecided
2 - WASP
16 - EFF
26 - NFP
146 – DA

The DA and the EFF returned to witness the voting. WASP did not return. The NFP arrived three hours late with lots of car, bodyguards and their senior people. But by that time we were already dispersing.

The whole meeting was recorded on video and this video can be made available. Even those who were very disappointed with the results agree that it was a highly democratic process. The collective discipline of a democratic organisation requires that we all accept this outcome. Of course this decision is only for this election and it does not bind our members in Cape Town. When the next election comes we will again decide whether or not to vote and, if so, which party to vote for.

The main reason why the majority of the delegates supported the DA was because they wanted to have the strongest possible opposition to the ANC to put the maximum pressure on the ANC and to prevent it from doing what it pleases – which includes murdering us. We negotiated a legal agreement with DA which commits them to support some of our more basic demands. We hope that they will stand up for these issues and that they, and all other parties, will realise that if they want the support of the shack dwellers they will have to support us rather than see us as a problem to be eradicated or forcibly removed from the cities and taken to the human dumping grounds.

We will vote, as one bloc, for the DA tomorrow. We will not take membership of the party, we do not endorse its policies and we will continue to insist that no one can hold a position as an elected leader in our movement if they join a political party. We do not love or trust the DA. Already they are telling lies about our choice and we are not surprised. We have made a purely tactical choice. We will certainly continue to organise against all and any attacks on the poor in Cape Town by the DA government there.

One of the lies that is being told is that the DA are saying that we have endorsed them for this election in the Western Cape. This is not true. Our Western Cape branch has endorsed our decision to make a tactical vote for the DA in KwaZulu-Natal. Our Western Cape branch has not decided to make any collective vote for any party in this election.

Over the last nine years we have protected our autonomy from NGOs very carefully even though we do work with some NGOs. Now that we feel that it is necessary for our safety and our ability to continue to organise to use our numbers to make deals with political parties we will protect our autonomy from political parties in the same way.

Our politics puts people first. We cannot do nothing but wait for socialism to come one day in the far distant future. Our children are dying from diarrhoea right now, our old people and disabled people are dying in shack fires right now, we are being evicted and disconnected right now and we are being beaten and shot during evictions and disconnections right now. We been repressed, and even murdered, right now. We have to act to do what we can to make our members’ lives better right now. We have to act to protect our ability to organise and to sustain our living politics right now. This does not mean that we have given up on our vision of a world where land, cities, wealth and power are shared fairly. We call this a living communism and we remain committed to it. But we also remain committed to the human beings that we are now and to our families, neighbours and comrades. We will make what deals we have to make to protect our politics and improve our members’ lives right now but we will not give up on our political vision. We represent thousands of people who live in shack settlements. Those people who sit in university offices and NGO offices only represent themselves. Their children are safe. Their lives are not at risk. They are free to put ideology before people because they are not accountable to oppressed people and because they are not themselves oppressed people. But the fact that we do not enjoy that freedom does not mean that we have given up our politics. It means that we are searching for a practical way forward in a difficult and dangerous struggle.

The new Abahlali electoral position has offered us a lot to learn about. There is a lot to learn about party politics and its dirty campaigning tactics. There is a lot to learn about the deeper politics of our time. And, yes, there is a lot to learn about who cares and doesn't care about the struggles of the poor and the working class.

Ideology and principle are vital but if they both fail to house the homeless and rescue the repressed and recognise the humanity of the inhumanized then the oppressed are not doing any harm to anyone in trying to emancipate ourselves by taking practical action now to keep people safe and to make their lives better while always keeping a bigger vision of freedom and justice in mind.

We share a sadness that we have had to make this decision. Very few people outside the movement have been witness to what we’ve been going through in the hands of the ANC. We do not have words to explain the pain many of us have gone through. We do not have words to explain our pain of twenty years of shack life and all the state repression that has come to us when we stood up for our humanity. Last year we came to the ceiling of hopelessness. It was clear that we are people that can be freely killed. The stress that this created led to some intense internal conflicts. We knew that we could not carry on with our old politics. Our new position has enabled us to rethink our struggle. It may not be the perfect way but it brought a robust discussion about us that was seriously trying to find ways of creating a new hope from no hope.

We are not surprised at the way some people on the so called left have reacted on our position. We are not surprised at the usual lies from the usual people on the internet. Many people and organisations on the left do not accept that we have the right to think our own struggle and to make our own decisions. They think that because they are on the left they have the right to tell us what to do. We do not accept this. These people see our decision as stupid and as a sell-out while they are nowhere to be seen in our times of great difficulty. It makes us to think that such people enjoy our suffering or even benefit from it. Why will people who claim to be in our support judge us instead of contacting us to first understand our decision? It may be a wrong decision but the reality is that we cannot deceive ourselves purposefully on our pain. Why should we be made to struggle in a way that is only designed to try and impress other people simple because they say that they are on the left? We will never do this. Our members must live in shacks and they must try and survive repression. Their organisation is theirs and it will be directed by their decisions. We have never compromised on this and for this we have always been attacked by the regressive left that only want us to take their money so that in exchange we can arrange for people to be bussed into their meetings. This is not emancipation. It is another kind of oppression.

Is the left doing enough to care about our struggle? Or do they see our struggles as projects from which they can prove and debate their findings and analysis rather than as a struggle to genuinely confront the forces of darkness? Our decision aims at trying to keep the space open for us to liberate ourselves by making a tactical move. We do not love the DA or agree with its policies. Why do people who failed to condemn the ANC attacks on us get so angry with us when we try to punish the ANC by making a tactical vote for its enemy? Maybe for these people it is better for us to be oppressed by the ANC than the DA. For us it is better not to be oppressed. Some of the left is just like some of the development NGOs and some of the state. They want to experiment on us, to use us for their own projects. We say no. On this there is no compromise. We continue to say ‘talk to us, not for us’ and ‘think with us not for us’.

Our position remains honouring those who have supported and who continue to support us. Since we all don't know the answers in this struggle to humanise the world we will keep hunting and trying. Sometimes we will make wrong decisions but at least we offer debate and learning for ourselves and all our friends and comrades.

The ANC are a serious threat to society and to right of the poor to organise freely in this society. They must be removed from office and until we can remove them we must do all that we can to weaken them.

For further information and comment please contact:

Mnikelo Ndabankulu on 081 263 3462
Zodwa Nsibande on 082 902 2960
Thembani Ngongoma on 084 613 9772
Nono Majola on 074 803 1986

Source: Abahlali baseMjondolo

Richmond Farm Transit Camp in KwaMashu

Mchunu and Others v Executive Mayor of eThekwini and Others ('Mchunu')

implementation of court order - Siyanda - Durban High Court

In this matter, SERI and Abahlali baseMjondolo (AbM) seek an order against the Executive Mayor of eThekwini (Durban), together with two other senior officials in their personal capacities, to take all the steps necessary to implement a court order requiring housing to be provided to 37 occupants of the Richmond Farm Transit Camp in KwaMashu. The occupiers were evicted from the Siyanda informal settlement in March 2009 in order to allow the construction of a road. One of the conditions of the eviction order was that the occupiers would be provided with permanent housing within a year. The deadline for doing so expired almost two years ago and nothing has been done to comply with the order.

This is an important case because it establishes whether individual officebearers can be held personally responsible for the state’s failure to perform on specific obligations. SERI served the application in February 2012, and filed a replying affidavit in May 2012. Heads of argument were filed on 4 September 2012, and the case was heard in the Durban High Court on 17 September 2012.

On 19 September 2012, Acting Judge Nigel Hollis granted an order and delivered an ex tempore judgment in the Durban High Court. His decision requires the Mayor of eThekwini, the City Manager and the Director of Housing to take all the necessary steps, within three months, to provide permanent housing to the 37 families. They are “constitutionally and statutorily obliged to take all necessary steps” to comply with the 2009 order. If they do not, they may be held in contempt and fined or imprisoned.

• SERI and Abahlali baseMjondolo media statement (19 September 2012) here.
• Draft order (19 September 2012) here.
• Occupiers' supplementary heads of argument (14 September 2012) here.
• Respondent's heads of argument (13 September 2012) here.
• Occupiers' heads of argument here and practice note (4 September 2012) here.
• Replying affidavit (17 May 2012) here. Annexure A here and Annexure B here.
• SERI and AbM press release (29 February 2012) here.
• Short film entitled "A Fish in a Tin" about the eviction and relocation to Richmond Farm Transit Camp here.
• Notice of motion (12 December 2012) here.

Source: SERI

All We Want is Justice

The Kennedy Thirteen were back at court on Friday for their 6th attempt at requesting bail. After two months in detention all charges were dropped against one of the thirteen, six were given bail and the other five were remanded in custody to give the police one more chance to bring some evidence against them to the court. The next court date has been set for 11 December 2009. This will be the 7th opportunity given to the police to provide some evidence of guilt.

As usual Jackson Gumede and Yakoob Baig were at the court and openly advising the prosecution. Gumede is the chairperson of the Branch Executive Committee of the ANC in Ward 25 and the man who seized control of the Kennedy Road settlement on 27th September 2009. Baig is the ANC Councillor for Ward 25 who said that 'harmony' had been restored after the attack on AbM. He was also at the settlement on 27th September and they both stood by while the homes of the Kennedy Road Development Committee and well known Abahlali baseMjondolo members were systematically demolished. Since the ANC seized control of the settlement extreme intimidation has continued in the settlement, including death threats and threats to demolish more people's homes. In fact another home was demolished yesterday, on Sunday 30 November. It is a crime to threaten to kill people if they are suspected of not supporting your political party. It is also a crime to demolish someone's house if they are suspected of not supporting your political party. But these crimes are not investigated. No one is arrested. It is clear that these crimes are carried out with the full support of the local police and the local ANC. Baig and Gumede are, at the very least, complicit with the ongoing and criminal political intimidation in the Kennedy Road settlement. Yet they are able to advise the prosecution. It is clear that the police and the court are there for the ANC and not for the people.

Source: abahlali baseMjondolo

Abahlali baseMjondolo Movement of South Africa & Another v Premier of KwaZulu-Natal & Others (Concourt)

Abahlali baseMjondolo Movement of South Africa, an organisation representing thousands of people who live in informal settlements, and its President, Mr Sibusiso Zikode, approached the KwaZulu-Natal High Court, Durban, challenging the constitutionality of the KwaZulu-Natal Elimination and Prevention of Re-emergence of Slums Act. The High Court dismissed the challenge.

The applicants made two contentions before this Court. They claimed first that the whole provincial Act was invalid because the KwaZulu-Natal legislature had no provincial power to make the law because it trespassed into land tenure a legislative competence reserved for the national legislature.

They also contended that section 16 of the Act was inconsistent with the Constitution and invalid. Section 16 gives the Member of the Executive Council of the province power to publish a notice in the provincial gazette determining a period within which an owner or person in charge of land or a building that is occupied by unlawful occupiers mustinstitute proceedings to evict the occupiers under the PIE Act. If the owner or person fails to comply, the municipality must bring proceedings to evict the occupiers.

Yacoob J, writing for a unanimous Court on the legislative competence issue, found that the Act was within the power of the province to pass laws on housing. He pointed out that the Act is not concerned with evictions alone but with the elimination of slum conditions by upgrading and relocation. He also pointed out that the Act placed detailed responsibilities on municipalities as well as the Member of the Executive Council responsible for housing in the province. A slum is a home in which people live. An Act concerned mainly with improving the circumstances in which people lived is concerned with housing. The Court therefore rejected the first contention and held that the provincial legislature had the power to pass the provincial Act.

On the constitutional validity of section 16 of the Act, Moseneke DCJ, writing for the majority (with Langa CJ, Cameron J, Mokgoro J, Ngcobo J, Nkabinde J, O'Regan J, Sachs J, Skweyiya J and Van der Westhuizen J concurring), held that section 16 of the Act is inconsistent with the Constitution and invalid.

Moseneke DCJ found that section 16 compels an owner of a building or land or the municipality within whose jurisdiction the building or land is located to institute eviction proceedings against unlawful occupiers even in circumstances where the requirements of the PIE Act, which protects unlawful occupiers against arbitrary evictions, may not be met.

Moseneke DCJ noted that section 16 of the Act will make residents of informal settlements, who are invariably unlawful occupiers, more vulnerable to evictions should an MEC decide to issue a notice under section 16.

Moseneke DCJ also concluded that the power given to the MEC to issue a notice is overbroad and irrational because it applies to any unlawful occupier on any land or in any building even if it is not a slum and is not properly related to the purpose of the Act, which is to eliminate or to prevent the re-emergence of slums.

Accordingly, the majority judgment granted an order declaring that section 16 of the Act is inconsistent with section 26 of the Constitution and invalid.

Yacoob J dissented on this second issue. He found that the contested provision could be read subject to all the safeguards provided by the Constitution and the PIE Act. He held that, on a proper construction of the Act, an owner or municipality had to comply with the PIE Act and all other relevant legislation before an eviction could be ordered.Neither the municipality nor the owner could evict unless the evidence at their disposal satisfied these requirements. The section was therefore consistent with the Constitution.

A copy of the judgment can be found here.

Source: Polity.org

Kennedy Road truth being hidden

African National Congress (ANC) stalwart and transport, community safety and liaison MEC Willies Mchunu has been sending out many press statements and holding a number of press conferences lately. The recurrent theme is that there is some sinister “forum” associated with Abahlali base Mjondolo president Sbu Zikode and that it was this “forum” that carried out the recent mob attacks in the Kennedy Road settlement in Durban, which killed at least four people and displaced as many as a thousand others.

The truth is that no such forum has ever existed at Kennedy Road, and that the term only began to be used after the MEC sent out a press statement on the 28th blaming the “forum” for the attacks. Instead of some forum, what existed before the attacks was the elected Kennedy Road Development Committee and its many subcommittees, including the safety and security committee. But this subcommittee was elected and it was not terrorising community members. Instead, this committee was carrying out the mandate of the concerned majority of Kennedy Road who wanted the illegal shebeens to close at 10pm rather than go on for 24 hours. I know that no sinister forum existed because I lived in Kennedy Road for weeks. I myself have had to listen to music blaring at 3am and worry about night-time shack fires caused by drunken patrons. After talking to numerous residents this past week, I can only conclude that Mchunu is either misinformed or straight-out lying — and that the eight people arrested this past week were innocent Abahlali leaders, many of whom were victims in the recent attacks.

It is obvious to anyone who has spent a lot of time at Kennedy Road and has spoken to the community itself that the MEC’s story makes no sense and that the only real explanation for the attacks was that they were orchestrated by the local branch of the ANC. It also follows that the MEC is either hiding this or was involved in the attacks in the first place. The MEC has demanded that the leaders of Abahlali baseMjondolo come to Kennedy Road for a meeting with “stakeholders”. However, many people I know have been told that if they return to Kennedy Road, they will be killed. How can people be expected to attend a meeting called by the very people who want them dead?

The only way out of this impasse is for the national government to call an independent investigation. This has already been demanded by more than 20 civil society organisations, but has been refused by the MEC.

Jared Sacks
Executive Director, Children of SA

Source: Business Day

South Africa's Poor Targeted by Evictions, Attacks in Advance of 2010 World Cup Democracy Now

Thousands of South Africans are being displaced in preparation for the 2010 World Cup. While Durban completes the finishing touches on its new stadium, thousands of the citys poor who live in sprawling informal settlements are threatened with eviction. On Saturday, an armed gang of some 40 men attacked an informal settlement on Durbans Kennedy Road killing at least two people and destroying 30 shacks. We speak to two South African activists who are fighting back.



Source: Democracy Now

Statement by Abahlali baseMjondolo President S'bu Zikode -- Sept. 30, 2009

A statement by Abahlali baseMjondolo President S'bu Zikode. S'bu and his family have been living as refugees since the recent mob violence targeting Abahlali leaders at Kennedy Road Settlement in Durban, South Africa. Here he appeals for continued support for the Shack Dwellers Movement in these dire times of government repression and lies. It can be said without exaggeration that it appears the so-called democratic government of South Africa is attempting to silence and disband the country's largest social movement of the poor. For more info go to www.abahlali.org

Source: You Tube

Violent mob attacks at Kennedy Road settlement target leaders of Abahlali baseMjondolo

In the early morning hours of September 27th, 2009 an armed mob of about 40 men unleashed a night of intimidation and terror at the Kennedy Road shack settlement in Durban, South Africa. The mob was armed with guns and bush knives and was calling out the names of the President and Vice President of the Abahlali baseMjondolo movement, threatening them with death. In the morning 3 were dead, many injured and over 1,000 of the residents fled the settlement with all they could carry.



Source: You Tube

Police task team for Kennedy Road on cards after weekend killings

The KwaZulu-Natal provincial government has moved swiftly to liberate a Durban community (Kennedy Road) that had been placed on an illegal curfew, wherein residents had been forced to stop watching television, walking or cooking after seven at night.

Matters came to head at the weekend when a group of men brandishing an assortment of weapons including assegais, knobkerries, spears and guns attacked and killed two people. Scores of others were injured.

The MEC for Transport, Community Safety and Liaison, Willies Mchunu visited the area yesterday. Mchunu directed that the South African Police (SAPS) provincial commissioner and the provincial Department of Community Safety and Liaison meet with the community (today) and find the root cause of the problems that led to the killing.

At a meeting held today, community members made impassioned pleas to the multi-agency provincial government team to liberate them from the clutches of a structure simple known as The Forum. Community members told the provincial team that The Forum had placed them under an illegal curfew. They also told the team of assaults, intimidation, and how a community hall had been hijacked. They also alleged that The Forum were responsible for the weekend attack. The Forum apparently has links with the chairperson of Abantu Basemjondolo [sic], Sbu Zikode

The KwaZulu-Natal provincial government team comprised of, the Deputy Provincial Commissioner, Bongani Ntanjana, Head of Department of Community Safety and Liaison, Yasmin Bacus, eThekwini Councillors, Yacoob Baig (ward 25) and Nelisiwe Nyanisa, eThekwini municipality Head of Community Participation Mina Lesoma, Senior Superintendent Msomi of Metro Police, Holson Mbhele of the Community Safety and Liaison Department, he is the Community Liaison Officer for eThekwini, Ishmael Nxumalo, the Director for Provincial Community Policing at the Department of Community Safety and Liaison.

At the meeting today, it was agreed as follows:

* The provincial commissioner’s office will set up a special police task team to hunt down the killers responsible for the weekend mayhem
* The Forum has no official standing, and shall disband
* The Department of Community Safety and Liaison through its head of community policing is to meet with all community structures including The Forum so as to set up a properly recognised community policing structure and encourage dialogue
* That, an illegal curfew is lifted with immediate effect
* That, Kennedy Road informal settlement is placed under 24 hour policing by teams from the Public Order Policing unit, and the Durban Metro Police,
* eThekwini municipality is to investigate ways of improving lighting in the area that may include installing flood lights
* eThekwini municipality shall without delay clear bushes and plantation that may impinge the work of police
* All crimes shall be reported to the new special task team
* A special focus will be placed on proliferation of illegal taverns. All legal taverns shall operate within the law including operating hours.

MEC Willies Mchunu said: “We condemn the killing of our people. It is absurd for any one to impose an illegal curfew on residents. We want to assure all Kennedy Road residents that, we stand ready to defend their freedoms including their right to freedom of association and the freedom of movement. Criminals, who are holding the Kennedy Road resident’s hostage, must be arrested without delay.

We want all Kennedy Road residents to be as free as any other citizen in a democratic society. All challenges in the community shall be addressed through dialogue within properly constituted community structures.

We have directed that the Department of Community Safety and Liaison through its Communities in Dialogue Programme shall assist the Kennedy Road residents to talk and solve all problems peacefully, in the meantime, police will be deployed in greater numbers, and killers hunted down.”

Deputy Commissioner Bongani Ntanjana said: “We want the community to know that as of today, they are free to walk, cook, and watch television as they so desire. No curfew. No forum has any authority to dictate how this community ought to live. Police are here to ensure your freedom of movement and association. Killers will be hunted down and jailed.”

Source: Department of Transport, Community Safety and Liaison, KwaZulu-Natal Provincial Government

'Attackers associated with ANC'

Local and international academics on Monday condemned attacks on a Durban informal settlement which claimed two lives and saw 30 shacks destroyed at the weekend. "We note with concern the reports of the violent attacks on members of the Abahlali baseMjondolo Movement (ABM) in the Kennedy Road informal settlement," said academics in a joint statement. Two people were fatally assaulted and stabbed, and scores were injured when about 40 men carrying assegais, knobkerries, spears and guns attacked them.

They attacked the settlement during a youth camp held by the Abahlali baseMjondolo (ABM) movement. Academics, who included Toussaint Losier of the University of Chicago, said the attacks were reportedly carried out by "people associated with the local branch of the ANC". The ANC was not immediately available to comment. Other academics who signed the petition included Steven Friedman, the director for the Centre for Democracy at the University of Johannesburg, and Henrike Donner of the London School of Economics and Political Science.

The academics also alleged that the attackers were actively supported by officers of the SA Police Service, a claim that police denied. "We note reports that the officers of the Sydenham Police Station were complicit in these attacks, were present at the scene, and did nothing to stop them," academics saidThey said ABM was a peaceful and internationally respected community-based organisation which worked to improve the living conditions of the shack dwellers.

ABM had also written a letter to President Jacob Zuma detailing how its members were attacked. "Reports from the informal settlement of seven thousand people indicate that horrors reminiscent of apartheid's darkest years are currently being perpetrated," the letter read. ABM said "thugs" had killed members of the local development committee and destroyed their houses.The letter states that the attackers uttered slogans such as:"The AmaMpondo are taking over Kennedy. Kennedy is for the AmaZulu". "With these words of hate, members of the development committee have been hunted and, in at least one case, killed. What appals us most about these attacks is that they appear to be happening with the support of local police and politicians."

By 18:30 on Monday, said KwaZulu-Natal police spokesperson Director Phindile Radebe, the situation was calm around the area where the attack took place. "We have deployed our members there to monitor the situation."

Source: News 24

The ANC Turns to Fascim in Durban

Abahlali baseMjondolo leaders have been subject to well organised violent attacks since last year. Now the movement has been attacked in a surprise ambush. At least three people are dead.

Last night at about 11:30 a group of about 40 heavily armed men attacked the Abahlali baseMjondolo office in the Kennedy Road settlement where the movement was holding an all night camp for the Youth League. The men who attacked were shouting: 'The AmaMpondo are taking over Kennedy. Kennedy is for the AmaZulu.” Some people were killed. We can't yet say exactly how many. Some are saying that three people are dead. Some are saying that five people are dead. Some people are also very seriously injured. The attackers broke everything that they could.

The Sydenham police were called but they did not come. This has led some people to conclude that this was a carefully planned attack on the movement and that the police knew in advance that it had been planned and stayed away on purpose. Why else would the police refuse to come when they are being called while people are being openly murdered? When the attack happened one officer from Crime Intelligence was there in plain clothes. This morning the police arrived under the authority of Glen Nayager and made arrests. As far as we can tell only members of the Kennedy Road Development Committee (KRDC) have been arrested. If this is true it indicates clearly that the police are part of this attack on the movement. It also seems that the police are only taking statements from the people that attacked us! Some of the people that they have arrested were not even at Kennedy Road when we were attacked. These arrests feel to us like the Kennedy Six scandal all over again.

We believe that this attack has been planned and organised by Gumede, from the Lacy Road settlement, who is the head of the Branch Executive Committee of the local ANC. There has never been political freedom in Lacy Road. Since 2005 we have been told that anyone wearing the red shirt of Abahlali baseMjondolo in Lacy Road will be killed. But anyone can wear any shirt of any politics that they like in our settlements. You will see COPE, ANC and SACP shirts in our settlements. We are democracts. Our politics is a politics of open and free discussion - not violence and intimidation. This is not the first time that our movement has been attacked. Last year both Mzonke Poni, head of AbM in the Western Cape, and S'bu Zikode, head of AbM in KwaZulu-Natal, were attacked and seriously beaten by well organised and mysterious groups of young men. These attacks happened a few days apart. The men who attacked Zikode also said that he was selling Kennedy to the AmaMpondo. Some time after the attacks on Mzonke and S'bu Mashumi Figland, Deputy President of Abahlali baseMjondolo and Chairperson of the Kennedy Road Development Committee, was also attacked and seriously beaten. Again the attack was very well organised and carried out by a mysterious group of young men. During the attack Mashumi, who is Xhosa, was told that the AmaMpondo must leave Durban and go back to the Eastern Cape.

Gumede, head of the local BEC of the ANC, has been trying by all means to undermine the movement for many years. He has failed. Every year we have open elections in Kennedy Road and ever year people vote for Abahlali baseMjondolo. We believe that Gumede, with the support of ward councillor Yakoob Baig, has tried to build a coalition against the movement in order to attack it violently. This coalition is now a milita. They have found 3 types of people that want to attack the movement:

1. People who want to follow an ethnic politics: The movement accepts all shack dwellers on an equal basis. We do not care where a person was born or what language they speak. This has caused those who want an ethnic politics to oppose us.

2. Criminals: We have a Safety & Security committee and we have been working to get the criminals out of our settlement. In recent months we have been working very well with the local police to get them arrested. We have also put a time limit on the shebeens saying that they must close at 10:00 p.m. so that people can sleep properly and that there is no violence, especially violence against women, when people get too drunk. The criminals and some shebeen owners do not like what the movement is doing to make the settlement safe for everybody.

3. People who want Gumede's patronage: Every time the movement wins a small victory, like getting toilets built or even cleaned, Gumede tries to ensure that the jobs go only to his people. We are opposed to development becoming misused for party politics. The people who want to get Gumede's jobs are also unhappy with what we are doing.

The next Kennedy Road AGM is coming soon. Once again the people of Kennedy Road can vote for ever they want to represent them. The people who attacked us last night do not want democracy. If they felt that they had support they could just have waited for the AGM and put up candidates. What Gumede, and Baig are doing is not just an attack on Abahlali baseMjondolo. It is also an attack on democracy. They have now set set up a militia to destroy the movement. We have no armed wing. We have never attacked anyone. Our politics is a politics of open meetings and popular democracy. It is a politics of debating and discussing together. The politics that is being used to attack us is a politics of war. We see no difference between what is being done to us and what the apartheid regime did with the Witdoeke in the shack settlements in Cape Town in the 1980s.

After what has happened many people are saying to us that they do not trust the police. They are asking for the army to be sent in as the army might be neutral. As we write the attacks and threats continue. We are under attack. We are not armed. Gumede and his militia are not just a threat to us and our community. They are a threat to democracy in South Africa. It is very clear that democracy is under attack. As we are sending this statement a helicopter and many more police officers are arriving. We hope that they will be neutral and follow the law – not Gumede's politics of war. But as far as we can tell the police that are here are just looking for statements against the KRDC - those who were ambushed in the night! The violence is continuing. Gumede's people are saying that if Mashumi Figlan returns to Kennedy he will be killed. We do not have confidence that he and others will be protected by the police.

Things are still confused. If there are any errors in this statement we will correct them when we can talk to everyone safely and send out a more detailed statement.

Source: anarkismo.net

CORRUPTION AND ARMED INTIMIDATION AS MOTALA HEIGHTS EVICTIONS CRISIS DEEPENS

On Saturday 17 June 2006 Ward Councillor Derek Dimba arrived at the Motala Heights settlement in Pinetown with municipal officials and 5 car loads of municipal security guards to mark out shacks that would then be destroyed by the militarised police Land Invasions Unit. They had probably chosen the Youth Day weekend thinking that many people would be away at their rural homes. They were wrong. The community was able to mobilise quickly and see off this first threat.

The Motala Heights Development Commitment spent the next day gathering detailed information from residents and preparing affidavits and were at the Legal Resources Centre first thing on Monday morning. They then moved on the Municipal offices in New Germany where they were able to win an unscheduled emergency meeting with Mr. Geoff Nightingale. Nightingale confirmed that the Municipality planned to move 63 families with ‘numbers’ to a new housing development at Nazareth Island and to evict the other residents. The Council’s ‘one shack = one house’ policy means that many families who are sharing shacks face eviction with no prospect of relocation. Nightingale also confirmed that Cllr Dimba had asked the Municipality to immediately destroy all new structures that had been erected. The eThekwini Municipality does not allow the construction of new shacks or the expansion or development of existing shacks. The Development Committee pointed out that all the new shacks and developments (all well made wooden cabins) had been built by long standing residents who needed more space for growing children, had got married, wanted to move out of over crowded shared shacks after finding work and so on.

On Women’s Day, 9 August 2006, Cllr Dimba returned with pistol holstered to each hip and flanked by his usual cohort of armed men. He summoned the community to a meeting where he began by gesturing to his weapons and promised to ‘chase away’ named individuals on the democratically elected committee. He then said, in a chilling echo of high apartheid language, that people in shacks without numbers would have to ‘hamba khaya’ and ‘go back where they came from’. He said that after those people with numbers were relocated to Nazareth Island on 27 August 2006 the houses of the others would be demolished.

The Motala Heights settlement lies amongst the gum tress on the hill behind Motala Heights suburb which is, in turn, just behind the many factories in Pinetown’s industrial area. It was founded in 1992 by Mr. Richard Nzuza and the residents mostly come from Zululand, the Eastern Cape and Ixopo although some are from as far away as the Free State. Almost everyone came here to work or to reunite families divided by migrant labour. Most of the men work in the nearby factories and most of the women work in the houses in the adjacent suburb. There is a school, clinic, library and shops within walking distance which means that living in Motala Heights has the tremendous benefit of radically cutting down the time and money that poor people usually have to spend on transport.

There are almost 300 shacks in the settlement. The land is owned by local tycoon Ricky Govender who has developed cottages for rent on adjacent land and also owns the local bottle store and supermarket as well as a trucking company amongst other businesses. It is rumoured that he has many government contracts too. People in the Motala Heights settlement have excellent relationships with most of the residents in formal houses. They often work in their homes and share the same taxis. The local taxi boss, just known as Leon, is widely respected in the settlement. But the conflict with the Govender family goes back to 1997 when Ricky’s father, Harry, used industrial earth moving equipment to dig up the road leading into the settlement. The shack dwellers responded by building their own road with their own tools and labour. It is now widely believed that Govender is aiming to extend his private development, including housing and a petrol station, up the hill in a large private development after the shack dwellers have been evicted. Cllr Dimba appears to report directly to Govender usually visiting him before and after his armed visits to the Motala Heights Settlement. The Housing Department have told the Motala Heights Committee that they cannot buy the land from Govender as he is demanding a completely unreasonable price. The Community is demanding the expropriation of the small section of Govender’s large land holding where they have built their community in order that there can be an upgrade where people are already living.

The 63 families scheduled to move to Nazareth Island would rather stay in Motala Heights where they are close to work, schools, the local clinic, shops and the other benefits of being near to Pinetown and where they are part of an established community. Many amongst them refused to register for the tiny badly built houses in Nazareth Island for these reasons and many also refused to register in solidarity with others who don’t have ‘a number’ and face eviction without relocation. Numerous people in the community allege that the ‘numbers’ of the people that didn’t register have been sold off to people from elsewhere, especially KwaMashu The Committee is currently making the arrangements to pursue vigorous legal action against this alleged corruption. The more than 200 families who now face eviction and the destruction of their community, their houses and their access to urban opportunity are determined to resist eviction by all means. They will explore all legal options but will also use mass mobilisation and will draw on the support of shack dwellers elsewhere to defend their homes, their community and their right to live near the city. The resistance is being organised by the democratically elected and mandated Motala Heights Development Committee which is affiliated to the Abahlali baseMjondolo movement.

For comment on the particular situation confronted by Motala Heights please contact the following members of the Motala Heights Development Committee:

Mr Bhekuyise Ngcobo 0769212891, Chair
Ms Lousia Motha 0781760088, Deputy Chair
Mr Alson Mkhize, 0827608427
Mr Sizwe Nkwanyana 0839951351

For comment on the general situation confronted by shack dwellers in the eThekwini Municipality as they face the onslaught of the Municipality’s looming mass evictions and forced removals under its World Bank/UN designed ‘slum clearance’ programme that aims to ‘clear the slums by 2010’ please contact the following members of the Abahlali baseMjondolo secretariat.

Mr S’bu Zikode 0835470474, Chair
Mr Mnikelo Ndabankulu 073565241, Media Liason
Ms Fikile Nkosi 0842501446

Mzuyanda Ngthobane (24), Nkosinathi Gabella (28) and Slethiwe Ngcobo (3) all confront eviction from their home in the Motala Heights Settlement. They are pictured outside Mr Ngthobane’s home. Mr Ngthobane is a long time resident of Motala Heights and has just built his own wooden home after years of sharing a shack with 6 others.

Mr. Richard Nzuza, founder of the Motala Heights Settlement.
“I will not be moved. I will die here.”

Source: abahlali.org