On October 11, 2012, United Workers, the Public Justice Center, Baltimore Occupy Our Homes, and the Baltimore Right to Housing Alliance hosted a screening in Baltimore of the new documentary "Dear Mandela." The film tells the story of Abahlali baseMjondolo, South Africa's shack dweller's movement, and their fight for their homes, challenging state evictions on the streets and in the courts.

After the screening, two members of Abahlali baseMjond

Abahlali baseMjondolo Western Cape
1 January 2012

Government policies are behind the shack-fire epidemic in Cape Town

As residents of QQ Section shack settlement and members of the movement Abahlali baseMjondolo, we would like to say that we are not happy about what happened early this morning across the street from QQ Section.

A massive shack-fire, which started at around 4am, swept through almost the entire shack settlement of BM Section leaving thousands homeless and at least three (but possibly as much as six) people dead. We have a few Abahlali members in the settlement and, as residents of QQ Section, we also have a large number of friends and family who also were affected by the fire. We therefore remain in living solidarity with all those affect by the fire in BM section and other shack fires in WD Section and in Du Noon.

25 December 2012
Abahlali baseMjondolo Press Statement

At around 23:00 last night a fire ripped through the Palmiet Road shack settlement in Durban. 85 houses burnt down, around 150 people have been displaced. 2 people were badly burnt and another was injured as she fell while running from the fire.

Shack fires are no accident. They are political - a direct result of the contempt with which poor people are treated in this society.

For comment please contact:

Mnikelo Ndabankulu: 081 309 5485
Ntombemhlophe Zothwa: 083 218 1934

Sunday 23rd December 2013
Abahlali baseMjondolo Press Statement

Shack Fire in the Kennedy Road Settlement

At around 4am a fire hit the eShishunqa section of the Kennedy Road settlement in Clare Estate in Durban. Around twenty shacks were gutted. There have not been any reports of injury or death.

One of the people whose home was destroyed was planning to return to her rural home tomorow and lost all the food and money for stokvel.

Shack fires are not just accidents or natural disasters. They are a result of the way in which we are forced to live. Our movement has been struggling since 2005 for shack fires to be recognised as a political crisis resulting from the contempt with which poor people are treated in this society. This struggle continues. Everytime there is a fire the police and munucipality issue statements blaming the fire on alcohol or what they call "illegal electricity connections". They say these things without making any attempt to find out the real cause of fires. The most common cause of fires is in fact candles. For this reason our struggle against the fires has always included a struggle for the immediate electrification of all shack settlements. When we started our struggle the eThekwini Municipality refused to electrify shack settlements and sent out armed men to disconnect people who connected themselves. As a result of our struggle this inhumane policy has being overturned and a start has been made with electrifying shack settlements in Durban. However the process is too slow and like everything else in this municipality it is being channelled through the local structures of the ruling party rather than being developed as a universal right for all residents.

1 December 2012
Abahlali baseMjondolo Press Statement

Protest at Government Failure to Assist Shack Dwellers After the Storm

The huge storm that hit Durban last night has left several communities reeling. People's homes have been flooded and some have been washed away.

As always shack dwellers we are more vulnerable to these disasters than most other people. For years we have been trying to engage the eThekwini Municipality around both their failure to take adequate measures to protect shack dwellers from disasters like fire and floods and to offer proper support to shack dwellers after disasters. But the municipality only gives its time for the people for political issues and not ever for issues of development.

The community of Sweet Home near Cape Town have been lobbying for better living conditions for much of 2012. Claudia Dijkkamp investigated.

7 December 2012
Abahlali baseMjondolo Press Statement

March Gets Underway Despite ANC Intimidation in Clare Estate this Morning

From early this morning Ward 23 councillor Themba Mtshali went from shack settlement to shack settlement in Ward 23 intimidating people and warning them not to participate in today's march - which was been unlawfully banned by the local SAPS. Mtshali was accompanied by his BEC and his (always armed) bodyguards.

There was also a large police presence in the area. The police were heavily armed and had two water cannons. In light of the fact that it was the police that unlawfully banned the march and their history of violence against our movement - and their support of violence against us from the ruling party - their presence there may also have been a form of intimidation. We know that their work is often to protect the politicians - not the people or what's left of our democracy. However the marchers were able to assemble and to begin the march. The police did not try to disperse them so it seems that they have backed down from their ban in face of the pressure. There is also a strong media presence. However ANC supporters have massed at the councillor's offices and are saying that they will block us from delivering our memorandum.

6 December 2012
Abahlali baseMjondolo Press Statement

Threats of Violence Against Tomorrow's March

Our movement often gets reliable information from within the ANC and government structures from people that are sympathetic to our movement and our struggle. Today we have been informed by a number of highly credible sources that the Ward 23 Councillor, Themba Mtshali, and the chairperson of the local BEC of the ANC, have been mobilising people to disrupt our march tomorrow. We have been told that they aim to prevent the march from going ahead and to use their own violence to justify the illegal ban on our march.

Memorandum of Demands to the Premier of the Province of KwaZulu-Natal Dr. Zweli Mkhize and Cllr Themba Mtshali - Delivered by a March on the Offices of Themba Mtshali on Friday, 7 December 2012

We, the residents, men and women, of Ward 23 and members of the Abahlali baseMjondolo Movement SA in KwaZulu-Natal are democrats committed to the flourishing of this country. We speak for ourselves and direct our own struggle. We have been mobilized by our own suffering and our hope for a better future.

It is time to take seriously the fact that land is a serious problem in our country. It is time to take seriously that land was stolen from our ancestors and that this has impoverished us. It is time to take seriously that housing development in this city is a corrupt mess that does not just leave us without houses or services but has also terrorized our communities.

Abahlali baseMjondolo Press Statement
5 December 2012

SAPS Attempt to Illegally Ban Protest in Durban

The Abahlali baseMjondolo branch in the Palmiet Road shack settlement in Clare Estate, Durban, has decided to march on the Ward 23 councillor, Themba Mtshali. They have been supported in this decision by all other Abahlali baseMjondolo branches in the ward.

Mtshali is one of the shack dwellers who became a councillor in the last local government elections as part of the ANC's strategy of trying to contain our movement – a strategy that has included serious repression and intimidation, attempts at co-option, channelling our victories through ANC structures and bringing non-AbM shack dwellers into positions of leadership in the local party structures. However like all other councillors Mtshali is remoted from above and is only an instrument for implementing top down decisions by the party and municipal structures. He does not engage people democratically. In fact it is impossible to even arrange a meeting with him. He has failed the people of Ward 23 and in particular he has failed the poor of Ward 23. Even though he was poor himself a few years ago he is now a councillor and so, as with all councillors, we are not worthy of respect in his eyes because we are poor.