UnFeeedom Day 2013 in Durban

Click here to see the Isolezwe article on UnFreedom Day and here to see the report on ENCA.

Friday 26 April , 2013
Abahlali baseMjondolo Movement SA Press Statement

UnFreedom Day in Durban

Abahlali baseMjondolo Movement SA, a democratic and membership based organization, has held its UnFreedom Day event in Durban every year since 2006. This year UnFreedom Day will be held in Durban and in Cape Town.

MEDIA STATEMENT
22 April 2013
Issued by:

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

Minister of Police to pay damages to Abahlali members for police brutality

Police ministry agrees to pay damages after police brutality against Abahlali baseMjondolo members in 2006

Today, the Durban High Court ordered the Minister of Police to pay a total of R165 000 in damages to two members of shackdwellers’ movement Abahlali baseMjondolo - Sbu Zikode and Philani Zungu – and one resident of the Kennedy Road informal settlement. The order, made by agreement, comes after officers from Sydenham Police Station illegally arrested and assaulted Zungu while he and Zikode were travelling to a radio debate with the then KwaZulu-Natal MEC for Housing, Mike Mabuyakhulu, in September 2006. Other officers from Sydenham Police Station then illegally shot a woman at the Kennedy Road informal settlement. The woman was part of a crowd which had gathered to demonstrate against the arrest of Zikode and Zungu.

20 April 2012
Abahlali baseMjondolo Press Statement

Abahlali baseMjondolo case against the Minister of Police Returns to the Durban High Court on Monday, 22 April 2013

On the 12th of September 2006 S'bu Zikode and Philani Zungu, then the
chairperson and deputy chairperson of Abahlali baseMjondolo, were arrested on
their way to a radio interview and subject to severe assault in the Sydenham
Police Station. When people in the nearby Kennedy Road shack settlement
rallied in support of Zikode and Zungu they were attacked by the police and
Nondumiso Mke was shot in her knee with live ammunition. The arrest and

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.

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.

1 February 2013
Abahlali baseMjondolo press statement

Abhalali baseMjondolo Non-Elective Annual General Meeting

Abahlali baseMjondolo Movement SA will be holding its Annual General Meeting tomorrow at the St. Paul's Church (Rubin Hall) in central Durban. The meeting will begin at 10:00pm tomorrow and finish after 2:00pm. The elective AGM will be held in October this year.

All branches and affiliated settlements in good standing have been invited to elect and mandate representatives to attend this meeting. Those representatives will then report back to the next meetings of their branches and affiliated settlements.

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