Solidarity from churches in Germany has made it possible for South African shackdwellers movement Abahlali baseMjondolo to elect a delegation to attend the World Urban Forum in Rio de Janeiro, the theme of which is ‘the right to the city’. In a preparatory meeting for the forum, Abahlali notes that 'if there is a "right to the city", it is a very difficult right to actually get. And it is we, the poor who struggle for it, who are paying the price for this right… For the right to the city to be real what will have to count will be people and not money.’

Sokari Ekine recently Abahlali baseMjondolo, Mnikelo Ndabankulu, a founding member and spokesperson, and Zodwa Nsibande, the general secretary of the Abahlali Youth League. In their interview they were joined by David Ntseng of the Church Land Programme, an NGO based in KwaZulu-Natal province which works on land rights issues. They discuss a range of issues from movement building and successes and the 2008 'Slums Act', to the decision not to vote in national elections and combating xenophobia in South Africa.

Abahlali baseMjondolo Statement on the Xenophobic Attacks

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.

An action can be illegal. A person cannot be illegal. A person is a person where ever they may find themselves.

If you live in a settlement you are from that settlement and you are a neighbour and a comrade in that settlement.

We condemn the attacks, the beatings, rape and murder, in Johannesburg on people born in other countries. We will fight left and right to ensure that this does not happen here in KwaZulu-Natal.

We have been warning for years that the anger of the poor can go in many directions. That warning, like our warnings about the rats and the fires and the lack of toilets, the human dumping grounds called relocation sites, the new concentration camps called transit camps and corrupt, cruel, violent and racist police, has gone unheeded.

Let us be clear. Neither poverty nor oppression justify one poor person turning on another. A poor man who turns on his wife or a poor family that turn on their neighbours must be opposed, stopped and brought to justice. But the reason why this happens in Alex and not Sandton is because people in Alex are suffering and scared for the future of their lives. They are living under the kind of stress that can damage a person. The perpetrators of these attacks must be held responsible but the people who have crowded the poor onto tiny bits of land, threatened their hold on that land with evictions and forced removals, treated them all like criminals, exploited them, repressed their struggles, pushed up the price of food and built too few houses, that are too small and too far away and then corruptly sold them must also be held responsible.

There are other truths that also need to be faced up to.

We need to be clear that the Department of Home Affairs does not treat refugees or migrants as human beings. Our members who were born in other countries tell us terrible stories about very long queues that lead only to more queues and then to disrespect, cruelty and corruption. They tell us terrible stories about police who demand bribes, tear up their papers, steal their money and send them to Lindela – a place that is even worse than a transit camp. A place that is not fit for a human being. We know that you can even be sent to Lindela if you were born in South Africa but you look 'too dark' to the police or you come from Giyani and so you don't know the word for elbow in isiZulu.

We need to be clear that in every relocation all the people without ID books are left homeless. This affects some people born in South Africa but it mostly affects people born in other countries.

We need to be clear that many politicians, and the police and the media, talk about 'illegal immigrants' as if they are all criminals. We know the damage that this does and the pain that this causes. We are also spoken about as if we are all criminals when in fact we suffer the most from crime because we have no gates or guards to protect our homes.

We need to be clear about the role of the South African government and South African companies in other countries. We need to be clear about NEPAD. We all know what Anglo-American is doing in the Congo and what our government is doing in Zimbabwe. They must also be held responsible.

We all know that South Africans were welcomed in Zimbabwe and in Zambia, even as far away as England, when they were fleeing the oppression of apartheid. In our own movement we have people who were in exile. We must welcome those who are fleeing oppression now. This obligation is doubled by the fact that our government and big companies here are supporting oppression in other countries.

People say that people born in other countries are selling mandrax. Oppose mandrax and its sellers but don't lie to yourself and say that people born in South African do not also sell mandrax or that our police do not take money from mandrax sellers. Fight for a police service that serves the people. Don't turn your suffering neighbours into enemies.

People say that people born in other countries are amagundane (rats, meaning scabs). Oppose amagundane but don't lie to yourself and say that people born in South Africa are not also amagundane. People also say that people born in other countries are willing to work for very little money bringing everyone's wages down. But we know that people are desperate and struggling to survive everywhere. Fight for strong unions that cover all sectors, even informal work. Don't turn your suffering neighbours into enemies.

People say that people born in other countries don't stand up to struggle and always run away from the police. Oppose cowardice but don't lie to yourself and say that people born in South Africa are not also cowards. Don't lie to yourself and pretend that it is the same for someone born here and someone not born here to stand up to the corrupt, violent and racist police. Fight for ID books for your neighbours so that we can all stand together for the rights of the poor. Don't turn your suffering neighbours into enemies.

People say that people born in other countries are getting houses by corruption. Oppose corruption but don't lie to yourself and say that people born in South Africa are not also buying houses from the councillors and officials in the housing department. Fight against corruption. Don't turn your suffering neighbours into enemies.

People say that people born in other countries are more successful in love because they don't have to send money home to rural areas. Oppose a poverty so bad that it even strangles love. Live for a life outside of money by fighting for an income for everyone. Don't turn your suffering neighbours into enemies.

People say that there are too many sellers on the streets and that the ones from outside must go. We need to ask ourselves why only a few companies can own so many big shops, why the police harass and steal from street traders and why the traders are being driven out of the cities. The poor man cutting hair and the poor woman selling fruit are not our enemies. Don't turn your suffering neighbours into enemies.

We all know that if this thing is not stopped a war against the Mozambicans will become a war against all the amaShangaan. A war against the Zimbabweans will become a war against the amaShona that will become a war against the amaVenda. Then people will be asking why the amaXhosa are in Durban, why the Chinese and Pakistanis are here. If this thing is not stopped what will happen to a place like Clare Estate where the people are amaXhosa, amaMpondo, amaZulu and abeSuthu; Indian and African; Muslim, Hindu and Christian; born in South Africa, Mozambique, Zimbabwe, Malawai, Pakistan, Namibia, the Congo and India.

Yesterday we heard that this thing started in Warwick and in the City centre. We heard that traders had their goods stolen and that people were being checked for their complexion, a man from Ntuzuma was stopped and for being 'too black'. Tensions are high in the City centre. Last night people were running in the streets in Umbilo looking for 'amakwerkwere'. People in the tall flats were shouting down to them saying 'There are Congelese here, come up!" This thing has started in Durban. We don't know what will happen tonight.

We will do everything that we can to make sure that it goes no further. We have already decided on the following actions:

1. We will resuscitate our relations with the street traders' organisations and meet to discuss this thing with them and stay in daily contact with them.

2. We have made contact with refugee organisations and will stay in day to day contact with them. We will invite them to all our meetings and events.

3. We have made contact with senior police officers who we can trust, who are not corrupt and who wish to serve the people. They have given us their cell numbers and have promised to work with us to stop this immediately if it starts in Durban. We will ask all our people to watch for this thing and if it happens we'll be able to contact the police that we can trust immediately. They have promised to come straight away.

4. We will put this threat on the agenda of all of our meetings and events.

5. We will discuss this in every branch and in every settlement in our movement.

6. We will discuss this with our allied movements like the Western Cape Anti-Eviction Campaign and the Landless People's Movement so that we can develop a national strategy.

7. In the coming days our members are travelling to the Northern Cape, the North West, Johannesburg and Cape Town to meet shack dwellers struggling against forced removal, corruption and lack of services. In each of these meetings we will discuss this issue.

8. We are asking all radio stations to make space for us and others to discuss this issue.

9. In the past we have not put our members born in other countries to the front because we were scared that the police would send them to Lindela. From now on we will put our members born in other countries in the front, but not with their fulll names because we still cannot trust all the police.

10. If the need arises here we will ask all our members to defend and shelter their comrades from other countries.

We hear that the political analysts are saying that the poor must be educated about xenophobia. Always the solution is to 'educate the poor'. When we get cholera we must be educated about washing our hands when in fact we need clear water. When we get burnt we must be educated about fire when in fact we need electricity. This is just a way of blaming the poor for our suffering. We want land and housing in the cities, we want to go to university, we want water and electricity – we don't want to be educated to be good at surviving poverty on our own.

The solution is not to educate the poor about xenophobia. The solution is to give the poor what they need to survive so that it becomes easier to be welcoming and generous. The solution is to stop the xenophobia at all levels of our society. Arrest the poor man who has become a murderer. But also arrest the corrupt policeman and the corrupt officials in Home Affairs. Close down Lindela and apologise for the suffering it has caused. Give papers to all the people sheltering in the police stations in Johannesburg.

It is time to ask serious questions about why it is that money and rich people can move freely around the world while everywhere the poor must confront razor wire, corrupt and violent police, queues and relocation or deportation. In South Africa some of us are moved out of the cities to rural human dumping grounds called relocation sites while others are moved all the way out of the country. Some of us are taken to transit camps and some of us are taken to Lindela. The destinations might be different but it is the same kind of oppression. Let us all educate ourselves on these questions so that we can all take action.

We want, with humility, to suggest that the people in Jo'burg move beyond making statements condemning these attacks. We suggest, with humility, that now that we are in this terrible crisis we need a living solidarity, a solidarity in action. It is time for each community and family to take in the refugees from this violence. They cannot be left in the police stations where they risk deportation. It is time for the church leaders and the political leaders and the trade union leaders to be with and live with the comrades born in other countries every day until this danger passes. Here in Durban our comrades to stand with us when the Land Invasions Unit comes to evict us or the police come to beat us. Even the priests are beaten. Now we must all stand with our comrades when their neighbours come to attack them. If this happens in the settlements here in Durban this is what we must do and what we will do.

We make the following demands to the government of South Africa:

- Close down Lindela today. Set the people free.
- Announce, today, that there will be papers for every person sheltering in your police stations.
- Ban the sale of land in the cities until all the people are housed.
- Stop all evictions and forced removals immediately.
- Do not build one more golf course estate until everyone has a house.
- Support the people of Zimbabwe, not an oppressive government that destroys the homes of the poor and uses rape and torture to control opposition.
- Arrest all corrupt people working in the police and Home Affairs.
- Announce, today, a summit between all refugee organisations and the police and Home Affairs to plan how they can be changed radically so that they begin to serve all the people living in South Africa.

*For further information please visit, or contact: S'bu Zikode: 0835470474; Zodwa Nsibande: 0828302707; Mnikelo Ndabankulu: 0797450653; Mashumi Figlan: 0795843995 Senzo (surname not given, he has no papers): 031 2691822

*Please send comments to [email protected] or comment online at http://www.pambazuka.org/

http://www.pambazuka.org/images/articles/365/47646slum.jpg Abahlali baseMjondolo, the South African shackdwellers' movement reminds us in this statement and call to action that the structures of apartheid are still thriving in South Africa.

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.

We have also opened an office with a library, launched many new branches, opened new crèches, successfully taken Ricky Govender and the eThekwini Municipality to court to stop evictions, taken the province to court to overturn the Slums Act, marched on Glen Nayager and Obed Mlaba, defended all of our members arrested for standing strong in the politics of the poor, organised in support of people struggling elsewhere, received powerful solidarity from other movements and some churches and thought and discussed how to make our own homemade politics, our living politics, into paths out of unfreedom.

It is clear that no one should tell someone else that they are free. Each person must decide for themselves if their life is free. Each community must decide on this matter for themselves. In each community women and men, the young and the old, the people born there and the people born in other places must decide on this matter for themselves.

In our movement we have often said that we are not free because we are forced to live without toilets, electricity, lighting, refuse removal, enough water or proper policing and, therefore, with fires, sickness, violence and rape. We have often said that we are not free because our children are chased out of good schools and because we are being chased out of good areas and therefore away from education, work, clinics, sports fields and libraries. We have often said that we are not free because the politics of the poor is treated like a criminal offence by the Municipalities while real criminals are treated like business partners. We have often said that we are not free because the councillors are treated like the people's masters instead of their servants. We have often said that we are not free because even many of the people who say that they are for the struggles of the poor refuse to accept that we can think for ourselves.

We have often asked that our settlements be humanized, not destroyed. We have often asked that city planning be democratized. We have often asked for an end to wasting money on stadiums and themeparks and casinos while people don't have houses. We have often asked that democracy be a bottom up rather than a top down system. We have often asked the Municipalities and the police to obey the law. We have often asked for solidarity in action with our struggles. We have often offered and asked for solidarity with the people of Zimbabwe and Haiti and Turkey and in all the places where the poor are under attack.

But freedom is more than all of this. Freedom is a way of living not a list of demands to be met. Delivering houses will do away with the lack of houses but it won't make us free on its own. Freedom is a way of living where everyone is important and where everyone's experience and intelligence counts. Every Abahlali baseMjondolo branch and every settlement affiliated to Abahlali baseMjondolo in Durban, Pinetown, Pietermartrizburg and Tongaat has had a meeting to discuss the ways in which they are not free and has written a letter to the whole movement explaining why they are not free. Many new and important issues have been raised. These letters are being collected into a pamphlet that will be distributed and discussed at UnFreedom Day. We invite everyone who wants to think about Freedom and UnFreedom in our country to attend our event.

We welcome the participation of Christian Aid from Wales who have come to learn about our struggle

We welcome the participation of the Western Cape Anti-Eviction Campaign, our comrades in struggle who are driving all the way from Cape Town to be with us.

We welcome the participation of Bishop Reuben Phillip and the other clergy who have bravely stood with us in difficult times.

At this time we express our solidarity with the people of Zimbabwe suffering terrible oppression in their own country and terrible xenophobia in South Africa. We also express our solidarity with the people battling eviction in Joe Slovo and Delft in Cape Town and the whole Western Cape Anti-Eviction Campaign as well as the Landless Peoples' Movement and all organisations, big and small, standing up for the right to the city, the humanisation of the rural areas and for justice for the poor across the country. We also express our solidarity with the 1 500 people left homeless in the Jadhu Place settlement on Sunday morning after another of the fires that terrorize our people. We condemn the attempts of the City & the Province to misuse this fire, as the flood in the Ash Road settlement in Pietermaritzburg was recently misused, to advance their shack 'elimination' agenda. We will resist this. We will resist all attempts to turn settled communities into transit camps.

We salute the South African Transport and Allied Workers Union and Bishop Reuben Philip for their active solidarity with the Zimbabwean people. We call on others to follow their example. We call on all clergy to stand with the poor. We call on the South African Municipal Workers' Union to refuse to carry out any instructions to evict the poor from the cities. We call on the Police and Prison's Civil Rights Union to refuse to carry out any orders to assault and arrest the poor for exercising their democratic rights to protest. Solidarity in action is our only hope.

No Land! No House! No Vote! Land & Housing in the Cities! Bottom Up Democracy not Top Down Rule by Councilors!

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

*For information or comment please contact: Mr Mnikelo Ndabankulu, Abahlali baseMjondolo Spokesperson, 0797450653 or Ms Zodwa Nsibande, Abahlali baseMjondolo Organiser, 0828302707. You can also visit

**Please send comments to [email protected] or comment online at www.pambazuka.org

Abahlali baseMjondolo Take the Provincial Government to Court Over the Notorious Slums Act
 
On Tuesday we lodged papers in the High Court requesting the Court to declare the notorious KwaZulu-Natal Slums Act unconstitutional. Today we can announce that the sheriff has just served those papers on the provincial government. They and our appeal to the court are now in the public domain.
 
The Slums Act is an attack on the poor that has been celebrated by estate agents and lamented by the poor. It is a clear return to the thinking and laws of colonialism (e.g. the 1934 Slums Act) and apartheid (e.g. the 1951 Prevention of Illegal Squatting Act). Today we are calling for a Housing Summit at which all democratic shack dwellers' organisations can negotiate a new partnership and a new Act with government. After years of protests around the country it is clear that we can not go on with failed policies.
 
We need an Act like the City Statute in Brazil or the Kaantabay sa Kauswagan Ordinance in Naga City in Thailand. We need an Act that will guarantee the Right to the City for the poor. We need an Act that will ensure that land in our cities is distributed according to human need and not the greed of the rich. We need an Act that will ensure that no shack dweller must face another year at constant risk of death from life without fire protection, toilets, refuse removal and floods as it is the case in Ash Road settlement in Pietermaritzburg. We need an Act that will ban government expenditure on theme parks and stadiums and newspaper adverts in which politicians promote themselves using the excuse of wishing us happy this and happy that while our children are being killed by rats and diarrhoea and fire. It is an insult to our humanity when money is wasted while people are dying from poverty. We need an Act that will ensure that our cities are safe for women – that the police will serve the people, that there will be lighting, safe toilets and proper public transport. We need an Act that will ensure that there is proper support for community run crèches in each settlement. We need an Act that will make it clear that putting three generations of a family in one room 30 kilometers out of the city is oppression and not a housing programme. We need an Act that will immediately provide subsidised transport, sports fields, clinics and libraries for all the innocent people who have already been forcibly removed out of the cities and sentenced to life in terrible places like Park Gate in Durban and France in Pietermartizburg. We need an Act that will end the top down system of government and NGO planning that has terrorized our people – an Act that will ensure that in each settlement development is planned by the people of that settlement through their organisations in partnership with the government. We need an Act that puts real power in the hands of the people.
 
On 28 September 2007 we marched against the Slums Act in our thousands. We were beaten and 14 of us were arrested.
 
On 21 June 2007 we sent a delegation to the provincial parliament to oppose the Slums Act there. We were denied the right to speak.
 
On 4 May 2007 hundreds of us crowded into the Kennedy Road Hall to tell the government that we are absolutely opposed to the Slums Act. We were ignored.
 
We are going to court because we know that in court we will not be beaten, arrested, denied the right to speak or ignored. 
 
When the Bill was first circulated we read it in small groups line by line. We developed a critique. It is on our website at We discussed the Bill and our critique in meetings across all our affiliated settlements and branches in Durban, Pinetown and Pietermartizburg. Eventually it was decided to issue a call for all people and organisations opposed to this return to apartheid to join us to plan a campaign against the Bill. By the time the Bill became an Act we had created a task team with one job to do – to eliminate the Slums Act. The Centre for Applied Legal Studies (CALS) in Johannesburg was one of the organisations that responded to our call for solidarity against this Act. They took instruction from our movement at various meetings in the shacks and have developed the papers served today in constant discussion with us. They report to our Elimination of the Slums Act Task Team. The Task Team reports to the movement secretariat and the secretariat reports to all the thousands of Abahlali members across Durban, Pinetown and Pietermartizburg. When our lawyers step into court they will not only be carrying the hopes of thousands of people but they will also be guided by the thinking done in our communities. They have acted with us, not for us. We salute CALS for solidarity in action.
 
Despite all the arrests that we have suffered since 2005 not one of our members has ever been found guilty in a court. But we have never lost when we have taken the government to court. We have won many crucial court victories since 2005. We overturned Sutcliffe's illegal ban on our marches in 2006 and working with the Legal Resources Centre (LRC) and other pro bono lawyers we have won interdicts against illegal evictions every year since 2006. We also salute the LRC and the pro bono lawyers for solidarity in action.
 
This is a day of hope for our movement and on this day we note that we are not alone.
 
We reaffirm our full support for all shack dwellers struggling against the destruction of their communities in the name of 'slum clearance' across South Africa and especially the Western Cape Anti-Eviction Campaign and their brave struggle against forced removal. They have been warned that their own Western Cape Slums Act is on the way. We also reaffirm our full support for their struggle for the right to think and lead their own struggle. We reaffirm our full support for all street traders struggling against harassment and eviction across the country. We reaffirm our full support for all families struggling against the eviction of poor children from schools. We reaffirm our full support for all rural people batting evictions from farms and the resilience of the Rural Network to be in solidarity with those families. In this instance, we will stand firm with our comrades from eNkwalini (between Eshowe and Melmoth) when we march together on Friday. We reaffirm our full support for our comrades in the Combined Harare Residents' Association and all the other organisations and people in Zimbabwe still reeling from Operation Murambatsvina. We reaffirm our full support for our comrades battling evictions and other forms of oppression in Turkey and in Haiti. We will be in support of Lavalas, the movement of the Haitian poor that became a flood that had to be dammed and damned by the rich, on the global day of action for Haiti on 29 February 2008.
 
Every person is a person. Every person is important and deserves safety and dignity. One billion of the six billion people in the world live in shacks. Another billion live in housing that is not much better than shacks. Let us no longer accept the unacceptable. Let us build a university of the poor in every city. Let us stop all evictions. Let us move forward to land and housing in the cities.
 
Our settlements are communities to be supported not 'slums' to be eliminated.
 
To hell with the Slums Act.
 
For further information and comment please contact:
 
Sibusiso Zikode, Abahlali baseMjondolo President: 0835470474
Lousia Motha, Abahlali baseMjondolo Co-ordinator: 0781760088

*The full court papers will be loaded onto to our website http://www.abahlali.org shortly.

**Please send comments to [email protected] or comment online at www.pambazuka.org