17 April 2013
Abahlali baseMjondolo Movement Press statement

The suspect in the KwaNdengezi bush knife murders and Ward 12 Cllr Nqola Ngcobo return to Court

Abahlali bakwaNdengezi with the support of Abahlali baseMjondolo in general will be going to the Pinetown Magistrate’s Court today.

We will be protesting at the bail application of the accused in the KwaNdengezi bush knife murders. We will demand that bail be denied in the interests of the safety of the community and that there be a thorough investigation into these murders that looks closely at the motive for the killing. It will be remembered that last time the magistrate had ordered that the suspect‘s state of mind be examined by relevant doctors. The suspect had killed two comrades in one Abahlali family and then ran to another Abahlali family where he assaulted Mr Shozi. This was in a community where Abahlali members have been under serious intimidation, including threats of violence, for some time.

Abahlali baseMjondolo Press Statement
30 March 2013

Murder in KwaNdengezi

On Good Friday those of us who are Christians remember the murder of Jesus Christ who spurned the rich and walked with the poor. We never forget that Jesus Christ was murdered by the state for the crime of taking the side of the poor.

This year Good Friday in KwaNdengezi was marked with the blood, terror and grief of the poor.

At around 22:00pm on Thursday night Dumisane Mdletshe, a 31 year old man whose family live in KwaNdengezi although he no longer lives there, went to the home of a well known, well respected and brave AbM leader in KwaNdengezi. He kicked open the door and entered the home. He had a bush knife. He attacked her grandmother and her uncle and killed them both. They were both AbM members. He then asked for the AbM leader who had escaped in the dark. We are not giving her name until we have secured a safe house for her.

20 March 2013
Abahlali baseMjondolo Youth League Press Statement

Anti Wonga, Crime and Rape Protest in KwaMashu on 21 March 2013

As tomorrow is Human Rights Day the Abahlali baseMjondolo Youth League will be holding a protest on some of the issues that are concerning the youth.

The March Went Off Very Well - The Threatened Counter March by the Councillor Fizzled Out

Our protest will raise awareness and concern about the use of the drug called wonga that many of the young people had been involved into. This drug is a killer to our young people who are our treasure. We as the movement regard our young lions to be the future of our country. The most difficult thing is that once people crave this drug they committee crime like stealing things and sell them to get this drug. Once they consume this drug some people also commit other crimes like rape.

19 March 2013
Abahlali baseMjondolo Press Statement

Nigel Gumede Must Go

Everyone knows how serious the land and housing crisis is in Durban. According to the eThekwini Municipality there are more than 400 000 shack dwellers waiting for houses in the city. There are also 11 000 families rotting in transit camps. But the city is failing to build enough houses for the people. The Sunday Tribune reported that they only built 1 268 houses in the last financial year. And these houses are more like dog kennels than homes. Every year money from the housing budget is returned unspent. And after the scandals around the Manase report, Nqola and S'bu and Shauwn Mpisane everyone knows how bad the corruption is. Many people have been killed in struggles over housing. Cato Crest is just one example. We have also seen people being killed in places like KwaNdengezi and Uganda. Calls, letters and marches to the housing department go ignored. Court orders are also ignored. We have called for a public citywide list for the people in need of housing so that there could be transparency in the housing allocation. But the politicians refuse this idea so they can corrupt, monopolize and politicise housing delivery.

http://hir.harvard.edu/blog/visitor/the-dignity-of-the-poor-is-vandalized-from-many-quarters

The Dignity of the Poor is Vandalized from Many Quarters

by Abahlali baseMjondolo (KwaZulu-Natal), Rural Network (KwaZulu-Natal) & the Unemployed People's Movement (Eastern Cape, Free State & KwaZulu-Natal)

When black people rose up against apartheid, the government usually said that they couldn’t have organized themselves and that there must have been a white person making them resist. Some thought that only whites were capable of thinking, speaking, and acting for themselves. But it was not only the government that looked for conspiracies every time black people organized themselves. This also happened within the movement.

14 March 2013
Abahlali BaseMjondolo Press Statement

Victory for KwaNdengezi

Three comrades from KwaNdengezi had all charges against them withdrawn in the Pinetown Magistrate’s Court yesterday. Their arrest followed a protest against the alleged selling of RDP houses by Nqola, the Ward 12 councillor. Four comrades were arrested to shield Nqola’s corrupt allocation of houses and his attempts to intimidate comrades organising in the area. Mandla Hlophe, one of the four, had all charges against him dropped on the 28 February 2013, by the same court. The three comrades who had all charges against them withdrawn yesterday are Cde Ephrame Hlongwane, Cde Mndeni Nene and Cde Cindy Mabaso.

8 March 2013
Women’s League Press Statement
(See letter to the Municipality attached)

Letter to the Head of Community Participation in the eThekwini Municipality on International Women's Day

Today’s is the International Women Rights day, dedicated to affirming and demanding rights for woman around the world; we as the Abahlali BaseMjondolo Women's League do the same. It is nice that we have these rights on paper but it remains a shame in our country that such important rights are not respected and are routinely violated. It is disappointing that we as women have such rights, but are still abused by the government are forced to live without basic services like water, electricity and access to housing. Moreover, women and children being sexually and physically abused everyday.

6 March 2013
Woman’s League Press Statement

Abahlali baseMjondolo Women's League Marched into the Durban City Hall Today

Protocols are a waste of time for the poor; Appointments are delaying tactics while we suffer.

On Saturday 2 March 2013, Abahlali baseMjondolo Woman’s League had its General Meeting. The KwaNdengezi branch was present and shared their painful story of living under constant threat from their Ward 12 councillor and that they are not even sleeping in their own homes due to threats.

1 March 2013
Unemployed People’s Movement Press Statement

Thandiswa Qubuda has Died

Dark clouds are not strangers in our patriarchal society. They are gaining momentum. On Thursday night, 28 February 2013, Thandiswa Qubuda passed from this world. She had spent six weeks in hospital, brain dead, after she was savagely raped and beaten.

We ask ourselves why her story, such a painful story, is not getting media coverage and creating an uproar. The lives of poor people count for nothing in this country. There is no democracy for us.

After Andries Tatane, Marikana and now Mido Macia the whole world knows that we are oppressed by a police force every bit as savage as the police force under apartheid. But the evil is not only in the state. It is amongst us too. This is the truth that we must face. Our struggle to build a society in which every person counts is with ourselves as well as with the state and the capitalists.

28 February 2013
Abahlali baseMjondolo Press Statement

Launch of the Sweet Home Farm Abahlali baseMjondolo Branch

The Sweet Home Farm community will be launching its branch under the banner of Abahlali baseMjondolo Movement South Africa, this coming weekend on the 2013-03-02 @ 11:00 in their Local Community Hall next to St. Barnabas Anglican Church. One should remember that, this is a membership based organization struggling for the restoration of human dignity of the majority of poor South Africans. Sweet Home Farm is situated in ward (80) eighty, Philippi in Cape Town, a place where people live in shacks .