Re-Launching the Kennedy Road AbM Branch

Abahlali baseMjondolo Press Statement
2 September 2011

In September 2009 the Kennedy Road Development Committee, a structure that was
always subject to annual election with the right to recall ,and which was
working hand in hand with Abahlali baseMjondolo, was expelled from Kennedy Road
by armed members of the ANC. Willies Mchunu then imposed an ANC committee on
the community. He called this the ‘liberation’ of the settlement and said that
the elected structures were ‘illegitimate’ and that the unelected committee
imposed by armed force was ‘legitimate’. The committee imposed by Mchunu did
nothing for the community. Things went from bad to worse. The houses that the
ANC promised after the attack were never built.

Diary of Alfred Moyo from the Deposed Makause Development Forum

Abahlali baseMjondolo Statement

The Makause Informal Settlement Forum in Primrose, Ekurhuleni was overthrown today by the local ANC with the support of the SAPS. The Makause Forum is an independent structure that had been democratically elected to represent the community. Some individual members of the committee have links to the ISN but the committee as a whole remains independent. The overthrow of another community structure by an ANC mob, backed with police support, brings back painful memories for Abahlali baseMjondolo and we are in full solidarity with the Makause Forum. We call on comrades in Johannesburg to show active support to the comrades in Makause and for everyone in this country who calls themselves a democrat to insist that the poor have the full right to organise themselves autonomously from the ANC if that is their wish. This insistence remains useless for as long as it remains abstract and something spoken about in conferences. Solidarity must be concrete, a living force on the ground.

Text Message Diary of Alfred Moyo, one of the community leaders of Makause Informal Settlement Development Forum, Primrose, Ekurhuleni

– Course of events leading to the local ANC ousting the active community leadership, with the help of the police

30 May 2011 (evening) – I’m still well and alive. Thanks for the drafted message on AbM website, I had an early voice recorded interview with the AbM member and received a call from Kate (Tissington, SERI) after seeing it on AMB web. Thanks very much for the solidarity, support, assistance and any great efforts to aid is highly appreciated. ‘More Fire’ – Aluta Continua.

11 June 2011 (afternoon) – The struggle contin

The ANC’s fast and furious parliamentary deliberation over the Info Bill, going through the motions

In the face of sustained opposition to the Protection of Information Bill (better known as the “protection of information from investigative journalism bill”), the ANC is pushing the speedometer needle well into the danger zone as it chases deadlines at breakneck speed. But the question remains: Will it swap its Ferrari for its trusted bulldozer in the end anyway? By T O MOLEFE.

Operating under obvious pressure from above, ANC MPs grew increasingly agitated during Tuesday’s meeting of the ad hoc committee on the Protection of Information Bill. The source of their annoyance was the slow progress on deliberating clauses in the bill, and accused DA and ACDP MPs of intentionally delaying progress.

Invitation to All Those Seeking Political Office to Come Down to the People

Website: khayelitshastruggles.com or http://www.abahlali.org
Email: abmwesterncape@abahlali.org office admin: 073 2562 036/ 083 446 5081

On the 21 March 2011 Abahlali baseMjondolo Western Cape will have a mass rally at the VE shack settlement in Khayelitsha from 10:00 till 13:00. Representatives of 15 communities will attend this rally. The aim of the rally is to launch our campaign for the 2011 local government elections, which is: No Land! No House! No Water! No Electricity! No Jobs! No Freedom! No Vote!

As a movement we see no point in voting for political parties which are just competing for the right to oppress the poor. We do not see any political party taking the side of the poor. No political party stands with us when we are fighting shack fires, running crèches, occupying land or resisting evictions. Therefore we refuse to vote and instead focus on building our own power in our own communities so that the people can discipline who ever tries to use them as ladders to climb into office.

The ANC and the DA repress popular protest. The ANC can not escape the truth of Kennedy Road or eTwatwa. The DA can not escape the truth of Hangberg or Macassar Village. The ANC and the DA are not just anti-poor. They are both also anti any autonomous politics of the poor. Due to their history of repression neither the ANC nor the DA can be said to be democratic organisations.

Some civil society formations are playing the same game as the political parties and trying to divide the poor by criminalising popular organisations that organise independently of the ANC. Here in Cape Town TAC and their subsidiary organisations, which are aligned to the ANC, have even tried to blame the actions of the ANC Youth League on our movement! This allows them to let the ANC off the hook for the thuggish actions of its youth league while making us look like bad. Although we acknowledge the important work that these organisations have done in winning treatment for people living with HIV, supporting migrants after the xenophobic attacks in 2008, raising the issue of unequal education and so on we have to acknowledge the reality that many civil society organisations remain an extension of the ANC. With the exception of the South African Municipal Workers’ union, which has decided that it cannot in good conscience ask its members to vote for the ANC once again, COSATU is, while clearly the only progressive formation in the tripartite alliance, also an extension of the ANC.

The real opposition to the ANC and the DA is not COSATU or those civil society formations which criticise the ANC on some important points but still expect the poor to vote for their oppressors. The real opposition to the ANC is in the rebellion of the poor and the organisations and movements that have emerged from that rebellion.

We are clear that the ANC and the DA are our oppressors and that COSATU and some civil society formations are failing to take this reality seriously. However we are democrats. We always allow the parties to campaign freely in our areas. We are therefore extending an invitation to all those people who have ambitions to be elected by the votes of the poor to attend our rally on Human Rights Day. We are inviting Patricia de Lille, Tony Ehenrich, the ANC Youth League members that engaged in thuggery in TR section and that now want us to elect their leader as a councillor, the civil society organisations that continue to support the ANC and all other individuals and groups that want our vote to attend our meeting.

They will all be given a platform and the right to speak freely. They will be listened to respectfully. However they will all be asked the following ten questions:

1. Will they actively oppose all water and electricity disconnections?

2. Will they actively oppose all evictions?

3. Will they actively support the occupation of unused land to house the poor?

4. Will they actively support the right of all people to organise freely, including outside of and against political parties?

5. Will they actively provide non-party political support to community initiatives like crèches, food gardens and so on?

6. Will they actively support the demand for fair and effective policing to ensure the safety of everyone in poor communities?

7. Will they actively support the right of all communities to plan their own future by democratising development via mechanisms like participatory budgeting and popular urban planning?

8. Will they only take a basic living wage for themselves and put the rest of their politician’s salaries into community controlled projects in poor communities?

9. Will they take instruction from above, by party bosses, or from below, from their electorates?

10. Will they give the people that elected them the right to recall them if they do not allow the people to lead them from below?

For comment contact: Mzonke Poni ABM WC chairperson @ 073 2562 036

Direction to VE informal settlement: Take the Mew Way turn off to Khayelitsha from N2, on stop sign you turn right over the bridge (only if you are coming from Cape Town Direction, and you will turn left if you are coming from Somerset West direction) and go through the traffic light (Mew Way road) and over the bridge there is 4 way stop and you turn left. VE informal settlement is allocated along the road on your right hand side, is about 1 kilometer away from the 4 way stop.

Media: Ermelo residents see no reason to vote

Dianne Hawker – Sunday Independent

“We don’t care about Gucci and Prada. We just want delivery eKasi,” says a Wesselton resident after four days of heated, violent protests in the township near Ermelo, Mpumalanga.

It is Friday morning and he is one of scores of young, unemployed men walking the streets.

The anger in his voice is palpable. He spits the words “Gucci” and “Prada” out, referring to the penchant for fine things ANC politicians have acquired in their years of power.

Solidarity: The Kennedy 12 Case Postponed – the Jailed Comrades to be Released

Monday, 12 July 2010
Abahlali baseMjondolo Press Statement

The Kennedy 12 Case Postponed Until 29 November – the Five Jailed Comrades to be Released Tomorrow

The political interference around this case continued in the lead up to the start of the trial today. The prisoners were not brought to court and the state witnesses were not summoned to appear in court making it impossible for the trial to begin.

Neither the Investigating Officer nor the prosecutor could explain why the prisoners were not brought to the court or why the state witnesses had not been summoned to appear in court.

AbM: The Third Force is Gathering its Strength

Abahlali baseMjondolo Press Statement
3 March 2010

The goal that our attackers wanted to achieve when they ambushed us on the night of 26 September 2009 has not been achieved. A surprise attack was launched against our movement, the spontaneous resistance to the attack was broken by the police, our office was destroyed, hundreds of our members and supporters were chased from Kennedy Road, thirteen of our comrades were jailed and illegally detained and we have been banned from openly organising in the settlement where our movement was founded. But our movement was never just in Kennedy Road. Before the attack there were fifteen settlements affiliated to our movement in Durban and more than 50 branches across Durban, Pinetown, Tongaat, Howick, Pietermaritzburg and Cape Town. The goal of the attack was to destroy our movement to punish us for our victory against the Slums Act, to deny us the victory that we had won to have the Kennedy Road settlement upgraded where it is and to neutralise us before 2010. But our movement still exists. In fact it continues to grow. Since the attack we have launched four new branches and we will launch another four new branches soon.

In Kennedy Road there is no political freedom now.

Sikhula Sonke appalled by local ANC members in De Doorns call for a march to the refugee camp

21 February 2010

Sikhula Sonke has been shocked when we, while busy setting up to stay in Stofland for the evening heard local ANC members who went around with a bakkie and loud hailer instigating residents of Stofland to march to the refugee camp on Tuesday 23 February where Zimbabweans will be asked to leave the country.

Media: ANC denies knowledge of proposed march

22 February 2010 – EWN

De Doorns police said on Monday they had not received any requests from the ANC in the region to stage a protest march.

It is understood the party was planning a march to a safety site for foreigners in the town.

KRDC: Kennedy Road after the Attack on AbM

19 January 2010
Statement for the Kennedy Road Development Committee (K.R.D.C)

After the 26th September 2009 attack on Abahlali baseMjondolo in Kennedy Road by the shebeen owners and the ANC the life of the people has changed into misery. Everything is out of their control and some people are even abandoning the area due to a high level of crime activities making it unsafe. These activities are being started in the shebeens which are operating right through the night again.