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Stop corruption, forced evictions and all forms of violence against Abahlali members, migrant communities, women and LGBTIQ+ people

We are members and supporters of Abahlali baseMjondolo. We are street traders, hostel dwellers, poor flat dwellers, fisher folks, residents of polluted areas, migrants and workers.

We are residents of this city. We are democrats committed to the flourishing of this country. We speak for ourselves and direct our own struggle. We have no hidden agenda. We have been mobilised by our own suffering and our hopes for a better life, a better South Africa and a better world.

Many of us are landless. Many of us do not have decent housing. Many of us do not live in safe neighbourhoods. Many of us have no jobs. Most of us that do have some work do not have secure jobs that pay a living wage and provide medical aid. Most of us are living in deep poverty.

In every disaster - whether it is floods, fires, pollution or disease - we are most at risk. The state does not treat us like other people. We are regularly ignored, insulted, harassed, assaulted and robbed by state officials. The state regularly destroys our homes and our street stalls at gunpoint. Some of our neighbours and comrades have been murdered by the state. Across the country the state regularly abuses and murders poor black people.

But this democracy was not won by the politicians and it does not belong to them. It was won by the struggles of the people and that includes people like us, people like Jabu Ndlovu, Dorothy Nyembe, Florence Mkhize, Johannes Nkosi and Zulu Phungula. It was won by organisations like the ICU, Fosatu, the UDF and Cosatu, organisations with members who were people like us. This democracy belongs to the people, and we are part of the people.

The wealth controlled by the state was not built by the politicians. It is not their private property. It comes from our dispossession and exploitation. We were made poor so that others could be made rich. That wealth belongs to the people. It is public property.

Public funds must be used for the public good. Corruption is theft from the public, theft that hits and hurts the poor the hardest. Corruption is always an attack on the people. It always robs our communities of the potential to improve our living conditions and to develop.

But even after all the corruption that we have seen, year after year, the huge scale of the theft of public money during the Covid-19 lockdown was still a shock. This corruption, perpetrated during the pandemic, was a direct attack on our right to health and life.

We have made a number of attempts to engage our municipalities and our provincial government on this issue only to be ignored.

We all agree that there is a serious crisis in our country and in the City of Durban. People are losing jobs and being pushed of their land at gunpoint. People are going hungry. The new grants are not reaching us.

Corruption has vandalised our communities. The councillor system has not only become a system of top down political control. It is also a threat to future stability in our country. Some councillors are a danger to our democracy and our communities. In some wards people are terrorised by the councillors and their committees.

Today we are marching against corruption, violence and forced evictions. Today we unite behind the following concrete demands:

1.     The R25 million allocated by the KwaZulu-Natal Department of Social Development to provide food relief to the poor must be recovered from those individuals and companies that have stolen it and be directed to impoverished people in an open and transparent manner and via freely elected community structures subject to the right to recall. The thieves must be called to justice.

2.     The R430 million stolen from the Durban Solid Waste budget, allegedly by the former eThekwini mayor and others, must be recovered and redirected, in an open and transparent manner, to projects to clean our settlements and our townships run under the authority of freely elected community structures. The thieves must be called to justice.

3.     The R700 million allegedly stolen from eThekwini Water and Sanitation Unit must be recovered and redirected to support the water and sanitation needs of our settlements and our townships under the transparent authority of freely elected community structures. The thieves must be called to justice.

4.     Many of our members have been illegally and violently removed from their homes during the State of National Disaster making them even more vulnerable. We demand that all those who have been evicted be reinstated on their land and in their homes. They must be compensated for their losses and suffering. All government officials who ordered and carried out illegal evictions must be called to justice.

5.     The eThekwini Municipality’s Land Invasion Unit is a militarised structure with no purpose but to violently repress the poor. It has killed people. Now the Calvin and Family Security company is also doing this dirty work. We demand the immediate closure of the Land Invasion Unit, and a full investigation into the Calvin and Family Security company including how it got the tender to attack us, and why it has been allowed to engage in violent and illegal actions in broad daylight. All officials in these organisations who have carried out illegal evictions and other illegal acts must be called to justice.

6.     Many of us live in substandard housing conditions like pigs in the mud. Some of us live under dangerous electric wires. Some of us live in the dangerous pollution of the oil refineries. We demand decent housing, safe neighbourhoods and the provision of all basic services

7.     Many of us have already been living for too long in RDP houses but without any tenure security. Without this security councillors and party committees can remove us from these houses at any time. We demand immediate tenure security.

8.     We demand genuine participation in all decision making that affects our lives.

9.     We demand recognition for grassroots urban planning.

10.  We demand the full disclosure of the Housing budget and the list of beneficiaries in eThekwini and from the Provincial Department of Human Settlements.

11.  For too long the promise of houses has been downgraded to forced removal to transit camps. These transit camps are more like prisons than homes. Therefore, we demand an immediate end to all transit camps so that the dignity of the people that have been taken to transit camps can be immediately restored.

12.  For too long the municipality has terrorised street traders by confiscating their stock and failing to provide necessary permits while they are struggling to be allowed to make a fair living. We demand an end to all harassment of street traders.

13.  For too long poor people have been turned against one another. Therefore, we demand an immediate end to all forms of discrimination against people born in other countries.

14.  For too long women have been harassed, abused and murdered with impunity. We demand immediate action to secure the equality, safety and dignity of all women.

15.  For too long there has been discrimination and violence against LGBTIQ+ people. We demand immediate action to secure the equality, safety and dignity of all LGBTIQ+ people.

Furthermore, just as people around our country and the world are uniting in support of our struggle we express our support for our comrades elsewhere in the country and the world.

We take this opportunity to express our gratitude to everyone who has journeyed with us over the past 15 years of our struggle.

Issued by Abahlali BaseMjondolo