Click here to read the article in Isolezwe on the march.

Dear Mandela will be screened on the Mzansi Magic Channel at 3 p.m. on (un)Freedom Day, 27 April 2012

http://www.citypress.co.za/Entertainment/News/A-David-and-Goliath-tale-20120424

A David and Goliath tale

by Charl Blignaut

I’ll confess that I wouldn’t have gone out of my way to watch the documentary Dear Mandela if it hadn’t been nominated for an African Movie Academy Award.

I’ve sort of had my fill of Mandela-themed work and I took it to be another totally relevant exposé of injustice that leaves you feeling more depressed than the prime-time news.

Abahlali baseMjondolo Press Release
Wednesday, 25 April 2012

Unfreedom Day March – 27 April 2012

Friday is freedom day. This means that the time for annual lies to our democracy has come. The time to pretend that democracy and freedom came to everyone in 1994 has come. The time to escort tender entrepreneurs, their families and friends to the big stadiums has come. The time for the rich and powerful to take their platforms in those stadiums to tell the shack dwellers and other poor people that we are all free has come.

But winter is also here and once again the poor are burning. Kennedy Road has burnt. Jadhu Place has burnt. There will be many more fires before winter has passed. What kind of government leaves people to burn year after year? What kind of government rushes to tell the media, year after year, that fires are caused by ‘illegal electricity connections’ when we all know that it is candles and paraffin stoves that cause most fires? What kind of government wants to blame the poor for their suffering? What kind of government tries to depoliticise poverty by treating the poor as ignorant and criminal when in fact our problem is that we are oppressed?

'This is how we do it’
21 April 2012

Speech by Comrade Mzwakhe Mdlalose, delivered at The Foundry Theater, New York City

I wish to thank The Foundry Theatre for giving me this opportunity to share Abahlali‘s gift and contribution to our world. I also wish to take this opportunity to thank Abahlali baseMjondolo Movement SA, (the Shack dwellers Movement), the movement that has entrusted me with its mandate to share with you how shack dwellers in post-apartheid South Africa have struggled to survive neoliberalism which is a very modern kind of new apartheid. In this new form of apartheid we are still divided into those that count and those that do not, those who can live in the cities and those that cannot, those that are allowed to speak and those that are not, those that must burn and those that are safe.

Our Aims Will Never Be the Same

by Lindela Figlan

People are born not the same and they will die not the same. Although people got united to achieve one goal, which is an equal and democratic society, the gap between the haves and the have nots is not fading away. In fact it is growing.

People got united and we thought that we had the same purpose and aim but for sure there are some for whom their intentions were to make sure that their own plans are achieved. Those with their own intentions are not here to sustain what is making the people to be together. But on the other hand some are working tirelessly without even noticing that there is a wolf that is also waiting tirelessly and patiently for good results so that it can seize the victories for itself. People pretended as if they were freedom fights while they were freedom robbers. They were wolves wearing the attire of the Freedom Charter and so we thought that they were lambs. But no where are they? Some come rushing past us in their blue light convoys. We see some of them in expensive hospitals and in places like Qalakabusha waiting to restart their plans to destroy this country.

19 April 2012.
Abahlali baseMjondolo Movement Press Statement

Collectivism vs. Individualism

When our movement was started none of us knew that Abahlali would continue to grow and to become strong enough to be able to tackle issues of national interest. Abahlali like most social movements continues to face state repression, NGO repression, and repression from left academics who still believe that it is their duty to think, represent, and take decisions for the poor. We continue to resist all this pressure to accept that our place is in the shacks and nowhere else. We continue to voice our anger and our frustrations from the dark and confined corners of our universe. We also continue to take our place in our society. We occupy land and we occupy spaces in the media and in public discussions. Sometimes it is not easy. Sometimes it is dangerous. But when it is possible it is possible because we work together. If you are poor your strength can only come from your togetherness. That is all that you have. Without it you are isolated and vulnerable to all kinds of attack. This is why the philosophy of ubuhlali is a philosophy of collectivity and why we work so hard to prevent our movement from collapsing into individualism.

Monday, 12 March 2012
Abahlali baseMjondolo Press Statement

Abahlali Members who were Displaced in September 2009 Still Homeless

Two weeks ago IFP members fought with NFP members at Hostel 17 in Umlazi Township. That political violence left one person dead and it left some people homeless. The Minister of Safety and Security intervened to mediate between the two parties that were fighting. This is very good and is something which we welcome. We also acknowledge that the new Mayor of the eThekwini Municipality took the Umlazi violence into his attention and is working on it. However this activism of the Minister and the Mayor is raising so many questions.

Abahlali baseMjondolo (AbM) and Socio-Economic Rights Institute of South Africa (SERI)

PRESS RELEASE – 29 February 2012

eThekwini Municipality Disobeys Court Order to Provide Housing and Investigate Corruption

Residents go back to court to compel Mayor, City Manager and Director of Housing to provide houses or be held in contempt

In 2009, 37 poor families won the right to receive permanent houses in terms of an order issued by the Durban High Court. The families must now return to court to force the eThekwini Municipality to obey the order. The Socio-Economic Rights Institute of South Africa (SERI) and Abahlali baseMjondolo (ABM) are suing the Mayor of eThekwini on behalf the families, who now live in the Richmond Farm Transit Camp near KwaMashu, Durban.