24 June 2008
Statement from Abahlali baseMjondolo bakuAsh Road

Sekwanele! We are fed up and cold here in the tents

The tented 'transit camp' into which some residents of the Ash Road settlement in Pietermartizburg have been forced.

We see many things planned for us, promised to us, and written about us in the newspapers but there is never our voice - always it is the words and the empty promises and the visions of the politicians, the so-called leaders, and the Municipality. It is not right for outsiders and 'leaders' who are not forced to be living in tents in the winter to be the only ones who speak and act. They tell us again and again in different ways the same thing – “be silent, be patient, we are making plans and visions for your future”. For us who are living here, this makes us to see that we are treated as if we are not people. We are human beings and now we are saying No! No more of this disrespect and lying. We are fed up; the time has come for the world to know that we think, we speak, we act. Councillor Green and his family have not been living in the tents. As far as we are concerned he must therefore shut up.

Update: Ash Road burned too... On the same night at the second Kennedy fire in two days 20 shacks burnt down in the Ash Road settlement in Pietermaritzburg. The City is, following the Jadhu Place model and the previous misuse of minor flooding in Ash Road, refusing to allow people to rebuild and trying to force them to accept 'transit camp' accommodation. The Cities create disaster by refusing to invest in shack settlements and then misuse those disasters to legitimate their agenda to eradicate shacks (i.e. to push the poor out of the cities).

You can also read this statement in isiZulu, Türkçe, Português, Deutch and Afrikaans

Wednesday, 21 May 2008
Abahlali baseMjondolo Press Statement

Unyawo Alunampumulo

Abahlali baseMjondolo Statement on the Xenophobic Attacks in Johannesburg

There is only one human race.

Our struggle and every real struggle is to put the human being at the centre of society, starting with the worst off.

Abahlali baseMjondolo Press Release
Tuesday, 13 May 2008

Motala Heights Crisis Deepens as Violent Intimidation Against the Strong Poor Continues

Gangster Landlord Continues Campaign of Intimidation with the Support of the Pinetown Police; James Pillay arrested on trumped up charges

James Pillay (centre), 'Meeting of the Poor Against the Rich', 17 November 2007

The community of Motala Heights, set on the edge of Pinetown between the factories and the hill that runs up to Kloof, dates back to the early years of the last century and has a rich history. For the last three years it has been under sustained and violent attack from a local gangster businessman who seems to be able to direct the local state, including the police and the Municipality's Housing Department, at will.

Abahlali baseMjondolo Press Release
Monday 21 April 2008

Abahlali baseMjondolo to Mourn UnFreedom Day Once Again

Time: 9:00 a.m., Sunday 27 April 2008
Venue: Community Hall, Kennedy Road Shack Settlement, Clare Estate, Durban

On Sunday it will be Freedom Day again. Once again we will be asked to go into stadiums to be told that we are free. Once again we will not be going to the stadiums. We will, for the third time, be mourning UnFreedom Day. Since the last UnFreedom Day we have been beaten, shot at and arrested on false charges by the police; evicted by the land invasions unit; disconnected from electricity by Municipal Security; forcibly removed to rural human dumping grounds by the Municipalities; banned from marching by the eThekwini City Manager; slandered by all those who want followers not comrades; intimidated by all kinds of people who demand the silence of the poor; threatened by new anti-poor laws; burnt in the fires; sick in the dirt and raped in the dark nights looking for a safe place to go the toilet.

Update: Sunday, 17 February 2008 As predicted there was a serious fire in Kennedy Road following the mass disconnections. It began in one of the shacks disconnected from electricity on Thursday. S'bu Zikode's response to the tragedy of being proven right so quickly is here, Phili Mjoli's article in Isolezwe is here and David Ntseng's photographs are here.

Friday, 15 February 2008
Abahlali baseMjondolo Press Release

City Escalates Its War on the Poor