We Demand that the Manase Report be Released

by Thinabantu Khanyile & Bandile Mdlalose

Everybody knows that in Durban housing development does not really operate to meet the needs of the people. In reality it has three main objectives. One is to remove the poor from the city to the human dumping grounds. The second is to make poor people dependent on the state and thereby the ruling party. The third is to enrich people that are loyal to the ruling party. Everybody knows that corruption is rampant in housing from the top to the bottom. Low-cost housing has made some people millionaires. Everybody also knows that housing and other services are going to party members. This, along with repression and co-option, is one of the main ways that the ruling party tries to break independent organiszation. For instance if there is a fire they often try to prevent people from rebuilding on their own and then replace the people’s shacks with government shacks (amatins) which are only given to party members.

Marikana shows that we are Living in a Democratic Prison

by Bandile Mdlalose

South Africa has the most beautiful Constitution amongst all countries. Its beauty is well documented and respected. But we are living in a Democratic Prison.

We must acknowledge the fight of Doctor Nelson Mandela, Steve Biko and the community struggles of the 1980s, the youth of 1976 and the workers of 1973. The struggles of the past defeated the White Boers and brought us democracy with all these beautiful rights on paper. We have so many documented rights, like the right to housing and to protest. But every day our rights are violated by the Black Boers. They vowed to protect our rights but the vow was a fake vow.

GOD IN MY STRUGGLE

I’m proud to be in an organization that fights for, protects, promotes and advances the dignity of the poor.

Our struggle is a struggle for respect which puts people first and is people driven. I’ve lately looked at how God plays a huge role in my struggle. If it wasn’t for God we wouldn’t be were we are today. It is true that God is always on the side of the poor.

Today we have bruises and scars from our fight for Human Dignity. Our government does not believe that the poor people’s dignity needs to be respected. If the government recognised our dignity we would be living an equal life. The fact that there is a huge difference between how the poor and the rich live and are treated shows that the government does not recognise us because we don’t have money.

Why Are We Still Living the Apartheid Life?

I sit back and fail to understand why there are people still staying in shacks. I fail to understand why there is so much separation in this country, why there are areas for the rich and the poor. I fail to understand why we are still living the same way that we lived in the times of the apartheid era. I fail to understand why out of all the things that we said we would have from democracy we can only point to and feel so few of them. Is this what Mandela stayed 27 years for in prison? Is that what so many people struggled for in the trade unions and in the UDF?

October 2011

Climate Change and Poor People's Struggles

Bandile Mdlalose

I wish to thank the World Development Movement for inviting me to speak about Climate Change and how the Abahlali baseMjondolo experience relates to this important topic. I also wish to thank Abahlali baseMjondolo Movement S.A, the movement that I’m part of, for trusting me with the responsibility to represent it here today. I have come here with a clear mandate to speak about the political challenges of linking different kinds of crisis together and to meet with poor people's organisations here in England, like the London Coalition Against Poverty, as well as our many comrades in London. I will report back on all the meetings here to my comrades in South Africa.

http://www.wdm.org.uk/blog/video-interview-bandile-mdlalose-abahlali-basemjondolo

CLIMATE CHANGE IN THE SHACKS

Climate change is one of the main issues facing the world at this moment. We all know that when things go wrong, like when there is an earthquake or a flood, or a drought, poor people are most vulnerable. And usually the response to these disasters is a second disaster for poor people. For instance in Sri Lanka the so-called ‘development’ after the Tsunami forcibly removed fisherfolk from their coastal land to give it to developers to build hotels. Sometimes the attempts to prevent disaster are also a disaster for the poor. In South Africa when it is acknowledged that we as a country are using too much electricity it is not the big companies or the rich that have the police and the security guards kick down their doors to disconnect them. In some other countries in Africa poor rural people are being forced off their land so that it can be used for bio-fuels. Maybe this will slow down climate change but why must it be the poor people in Africa that must pay the price for this? They are not the ones that caused the problem. The ones that caused this problem are the rich, especially in America and in Europe.