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Please Sign Statement in Defense of Abahlali BaseMjondolo MembersStatement in Defense of the Abahlali BaseMjondolo members To: James Nxumalo, Mayor, eThekwini Municipality, Durban, South Africa Senzo Mchunu, Premier, KwaZulu-Natal Jacob Zuma, President, Republic of South Africa Since 2005, the ABAHLALI BASEMJONDOLO (Shack Dwellers) movement has mobilized to fulfill the needs of a large number of inhabitants in the city of Durban who live without access to land, housing, food, education and basic services such as clean water, sanitation, electricity and health care. In response to this mobilization, the South African Police Service, the Ethekwini Municipality and the ruling political party (ANC) have attempted to criminalize the actions of this movement. In particular, we have observed: All these forms of attacks have reached a climax from June 2013 until the present at Cato Crest, one of Durban’s most active settlements: This brutal behavior is a denial of all the ideals of the struggles against Apartheid – a struggle that inspired so many of us everywhere. We, brothers and sisters all over the world, who identify with the legacy of this great struggle, want to express our protest against these injustices and solidarity with the ABAHLALI movement, which is a continuation of the struggle for liberation, for land, for equality and justice. We remember the priorities of the ANC before the liberation. Land redistribution was a central issue, given that 87% of land was in the hands of the white minority. After 20 years, less than 7% of that land has been returned to the African communities, mostly given to a Black elite, which serves the interests of neoliberal policies and organizations. We are stating here that we hold all political parties in the South African government accountable for these abominable actions. To those in government, and most importantly to those who fought against apartheid, we ask that you act today to put an immediate end to these abuses. And we demand that the rightful aspirations of the ABAHLALI movement and all South Africans to a home, a life with dignity, and an end to the concentrated land ownership of the pre-apartheid era be fulfilled. Massimo De Angelis University of East London) Wendy Chapkis (University of Southern Maine) NB: Please send notice of your agreement with this statement to gcaffentz@aol.com |
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