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Mildred Barya wins at the Pan-African Literary Forum (PALF)

2008-05-22

http://www.panafricanliteraryforum.org/contest.html

Pambazuka News is proud to announce that Mildred Kiconco Barya, one of our regular contributors, has won 1st Prize for the Africana Fiction section in the Pan-African Literary Forum (PALF) writing contest. She will receive a full scholarship to the conference, which will be held from 3rd -18th July 2008, in Ghana, as well as publication in a special section of A Public Space. Please join us in offering Mildred our heartiest congratulations.

Support the March against Xenophobia-Saturday 24th May

2008-05-21

The Social Movements Indaba is mobilising social movements, immigrant communities, NGOs, unions, concerned residents from poor areas around the province for a march this Saturday, 24th May. The march will gather at Marks Park (Empire and Hospital Road) from 9am, proceed through Hillbrow and stop at the Departments of Home Affairs and Housing before ending at the Library Gardens. The message marchers will be conveying is that our struggle is common and knows no borders. Everyone who wants to make their voices heard should join us-our struggle knows no borders.
The Social Movements Indaba is mobilising social movements, immigrant communities, NGOs, unions, concerned residents from poor areas around the province for a march this Saturday, 24th May. The march will gather at Marks Park (Empire and Hospital Road) from 9am, proceed through Hillbrow and stop at the Departments of Home Affairs and Housing before ending at the Library Gardens.

The message marchers will be conveying is that our struggle is common and knows no borders. Everyone who wants to make their voices heard should join us-our struggle knows no borders.

The Social Movements Indaba (SMI) - a co-ordinating national body of social movements, civil society and activist organisations - is organising with its affiliated organisations and immigrant communities to roll back the groundswell of xenophobia. In the years since its formation in 2002, the SMI has linked organisations of the poor in struggle for basic services, international solidarity and against police repression. At its last national meeting in December in Cape Town, the SMI identified xenophobia as a pervasive problem in communities and undertook to campaign against hatred of foreigners. Now that the crisis of hate crime is no longer foreboding and is terrifyingly HERE, there is no time to stall and wish we were better prepared. We are without hesitation committed to the struggles for social justice, internationalism and solidarity with all repressed people.

While the police have been deployed to try keep a lid on the pressure that has boiled over, this is no solution to the safety and security of all. As a xenophobic force in Johannesburg pre-existing the outbreak of violence, the police cannot be trusted to be more than the brute barrier between perpetrators and their targeted victims. The South African Police Services and Johannesburg Metro Police harass immigrants to solicit bribes as a matter of practice. Calling on the police to 'do their work' as president Thabo Mbeki and his government have done does not, therefore, address the issues of safety and security amongst immigrant communities. The refugee communities do not trust the police as impartial arbiters of the conflict. The police conducted a brutal raid on the Central Methodist Church on the 31st of January 2008 under the pretext of crime prevention. Criminalisation of immigrants is a smokescreen for deportation and bribery that the police has not cleared.


Long-lasting safety and security for all does not include deportation of foreign nationals, whether voluntary or not. Xenophobia's origins lie within the conditions of poverty in which the majority of South Africans live. Immigrants have been targeted for their ethnic difference and for their very similarity with their persecutors. Seen as competitors for scarce jobs and housing, south Africans have misdirected their anger at conditions of poverty that are unchanging. Their fellow brothers and sisters who are enduring the same cannot be responsible for what the economic and political system has created.

While we struggle for a change to the neo-liberal capitalist system that has created this reality, rearguard struggles for safety and security of immigrants in the country must continue. The SMI gives thanks for those humanitarian organisations, emergency services and churches that are trying to stem the tide of bloodletting and forced removals. We will organize against the creation of refugee camps and work towards the reintegration of immigrants in our communities. In working to recover our common humanity and restore calm, delegations from the SMI are meeting with community-based organisations in Alex and the inner city, and as the programme of action to roll-back the hate unfolds, the SMI will be going further afield to speak to affected communities.

*NO ONE IS ILLEGAL* *NO ONE IS ILLEGAL* *NO ONE IS ILLEGAL*

The SMI will be convening a press conference about the wave of xenophobic violence tearing through Gauteng and what civil society organisations and social movements are doing to combat it. The press conference will be taking place tomorrow, Wednesday 21 May 2008 - APF offices - 7th floor of Vogas House, 123 Pritchard Street (cnr Mooi) Johannesburg at 11a.m.

For directions or other enquiries, please contact the Anti Privatisation Forum on 011 333 8334.

For comment, please contact: Silumko Radebe (APF) 0721737268; Mhlobo Gunguluzi (Khanya College) 0843773013; Brian Burayai (Refugee Fellowship) 0732865667

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South Africa is all of us

2008-05-22

Mukoma Wa Ngugi and Firoze Manji

The mythologies we have constructed around us are imploding, write Mukoma Wa Ngugi and Firoze Manji looking at the background to the explosion of xenophobia in South Africa. The situation is the culmination of policies that have made the rich richer, and the poor poorer. But "the ruling elite is not South Africa. There are many within South Africa who are in solidarity with those under attack, and are opposed to the conditions that feed xenophobia."


The mythologies we have constructed around us are imploding. There is no point in running away from this. The edifices we have of Truth and Reconciliation, post-apartheid healing, rainbow nations and multi-party post-dictatorship democracies are coming down all around us.

What is more, the edifices are crushing down into a sea of ruin. Kenya, Zimbabwe, Somalia, and now South Africa are burning alongside bigger fires in Darfur and the Congo. And where a fragile peace now reigns in countries like Liberia and Sierra Leone, the poverty is so extreme that unless tackled decisively, the slide back into civil war will continue to loom threateningly in the background.

But South Africa especially represents a collective tragedy because, and perhaps naively, it has represented our collective hope for Africa. This land where, as of today, at least 42 Africans from other countries have been killed and thousands are fleeing, businesses destroyed and homes burnt, where the army is being deployed in the poor townships just like the days of apartheid, this is the land that produced Steve Biko, Chris Hani, Ruth First and others.

This is the land that produced a militant and revolutionary Mandela, a Mandela so sure of the righteousness of his struggle that at his treason trial, he described the ideal of a South Africa where “all persons live together in harmony and with equal opportunities”, and as one that he was prepared to die for. That was in 1964. In 1990, when he was released from prison, and with apartheid broken, the promise of his struggle became a possibility. And the new South Africa became our collective hope. We clung to that hope all the more because in the same year as South Africa held its first democratic election – 1994 - was also the year in which we witnessed the genocidal slaughter of nearly a million people in the space of a few months in Rwanda. Hope and tragedy – these are elements that hover concurrently in our collective consciousness across the continent. In the rest of Africa, we have lived with those contending emotions, but somehow South Africans believed themselves immune.

But history is not without irony for in that same statement that he submitted at the beginning of his prison trial, Mandela said:

“The whites enjoy what may well be the highest standard of living in the world, whilst Africans live in poverty and misery. Forty per cent of the Africans live in hopelessly overcrowded and, in some cases, drought-stricken Reserves, where soil erosion and the overworking of the soil makes it impossible for them to live properly off the land.

"Thirty per cent," he continued, "are laborers, labor tenants, and squatters on white farms and work and live under conditions similar to those of the serfs of the Middle Ages. The other 30 per cent live in towns where they have developed economic and social habits which bring them closer in many respects to white standards. Yet most Africans, even in this group, are impoverished by low incomes and high cost of living.”

That was the Mandela of 1964, but he might as well have been speaking about the South Africa he helped create. For the Mandela of the 1990’s was followed by Mbeki who answered the challenge of this vast economic and social inequality by throwing at it the Growth, Employment and Redistribution (GEAR) strategy followed by the Black Economic Empowerment (BEE) plan. These social and economic policies have enriched a minority, and impoverished the many. The poor have remained poor, but part of the class that Mandela in 1964 identified as developing “economic and social habits which bring them closer in many respects to white standards” have been the only ones who benefited, and grown rich, from BEE.

That the ANC struggle would not have succeeded without sacrifices from fellow Africans is well known. As is the fact that the South African economy from the days of apartheid has been kept afloat by migrant labor. So how did we reach this point where xenophobia has turned violent? As in any situation – keep an eye on who benefits.

A government with policies that reward the haves - those who during apartheid already had something - and punishes those who had nothing to start with, has a good reason to find xenophobia useful. What racism did for apartheid, xenophobia serves for the new ruling class – its unjust policies, its failures, its betrayal of poor South Africans, are all blamed on the amakwekwere.

What should we expect? We now know that the even in exile, some ANC members were more equal than others. The elite of the ANC today was the elite in exile. Blind to the poor of Tanzania, Zimbabwe, Mozambique or Angola when in exile, how can we expect them to see them today from the high offices of government? And if blind to the cries and struggles of poor South Africans, surely the poor immigrant is invisible.

The Mbeki government has for the short term deployed the army to assist the police. The government will do what all other governments do – criminalize: it will criminalize the youth in the slums in the same way that the Kenyan, Zimbabwean and Nigerian governments have, in the same way the American government has criminalized African American youth in the ghettoes. The structural inequalities will remain, individual youths will be thrown in jail as criminals.

But let us remember this: the ruling elite is not South Africa. There are many within South Africa who are in solidarity with those under attack, and are opposed to the conditions that feed xenophobia, opposed to the policies that attack the poor and reward the rich. There are many who understand, as did Steve Biko, that because of the vicious inequalities in South Africa, justice cannot come without redistribution of land and wealth.

Anticipating the violence,, PASSOP (People Against Suffering Suppression Oppression and Poverty) together with COSATU and other organizations marched against xenophobia on the 17th of May. Announcing the solidarity march, PASSOP said that it is “appalled by the reports of recent xenophobic attacks in Alexandria and Diepsloot. We are appealing to all political parties and social movements within South Africa to address and clarify their stances towards the important issue of xenophobia. Foreigners in townships across South Africa live in fear, much like the Jews during the Nazi Regime. Their homes are vandalized, their stores looted and even their lives are taken. This inhumanity cannot be allowed to continue.”

The Social Movements Indaba (SMI) – “a coordinating national body of social movements, civil society and activist organizations – is organizing with its affiliated organizations and immigrant communities to roll back the groundswell of xenophobia” on 24th May. Recognizing the “origins lie within the conditions of poverty in which the majority of south Africans live” and that the struggle is “for a change to the neo-liberal capitalist system that has created this reality” SMI maintains that a “rearguard struggles for safety and security of immigrants in the country must continue.”

Abahlali baseMjondolo, (Shack Dwellers) Movement says it is time for us to ask seriously the question “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.” Abahlali baseMjondolo which began in Durban, South Africa is the largest organisation of the militant poor in post-apartheid South Africa that includes tens of thousands of people from more than 30 settlements. It is this organization that says “A human being cannot be illegal!”

In this issue of Pambazuka News, we carry some of the courageous reports that have arisen for those who ally themselves with the oppressed. Below is a partial list of articles on xenophobia carried Pambazuka News in the recent past. They illustrate that xenophobia is not new to South Africa. But it had to blow eventually.

* Makwerekwere: Black South Africa’s Instant-Mix Kaffirs Pius Adesanmi

* Xenophobia is all of us - a response to Pius Adesanmi Owen Sichone (2008-02-07)

* Musicians against xenophobia 2007-09-13

* Solidarity with Zimbabwe: Another side to the xenophobia story Koni Benson (2007-08-30)

* The psychological burden of profiling young black males in South A frica Doreen Lwanga (2007-05-22)

* South Africa: Some of the reasons why Xenophobia persist 2006-09-14

* Further articles on racism and xenophobia


*Mukoma Wa Ngugi and Firoze Manji are co-editors of Pambazuka News.

*Please send comments to editor@pambazuka.org or comment online at http://www.pambazuka.org/

A drive through a Xenophobic landscape

2008-05-22

A trade unionist

In this vivid and personal account, a trade unionist walks through the unfolding xenophobic attacks in South Africa.

19 May 2008:

Friends, this is simply an account of what I saw and experienced in a twenty four period. It might be incomplete. It is not an analytical piece as such, but I hope a small step towards trying to understand what had taken place in this city, in this country that I have come to love.

Last night as we drove from the centre of Joburg to the eastern suburb of Kensington, we wondered why the police helicopter was circling over Jeppes Town, the historic centre of this city built on gold. The area is now mostly an industrial relic and has seen far better times, part wasteland, part small enterprises and a big part, home of one of the largest mens hostels in the City.

We had been discussing earlier the violence in Alex, the eruptions in other parts, and what we felt was the cause, and the inadequate response of the State. We had participated earlier in the day in a demonstration called by our Union Federation to protest against rising food prices, and against xenophobia, an issue that had been tagged on after foreigners had been brutally attacked in Alexandria township and other places. We had taken our son and his friend, and their enthusiasm had helped to minimise the disappointingly low numbers who had turned up.

We slept that night within earshot of police sirens and the whirring of helicopters and wondered what we would wake to.

At 9.00am Lesego rang the bell. A small boy for his sixteen years, wirey but capable of dribbling a football as if his feet had magnetic powers. I let him in, and he looked terrified. He had traveled from Soweto, as he did every fortnight, to come and do odd jobs to earn an allowance that he depends on to survive. We would normally have a talk about his schooling, the continuing absence of contact with his mother, and his living conditions. We hoped this might help him be capable of getting through the next hurdles he inevitably faced.

But this morning, it was fear that was etched on his face. Scrunched up in his pocket was the small round hat favoured by members of the Moslem community. Getting off the taxi at Jeppe Station, he noticed a crowd of men beating two people on the ground with knobkerries. One of those doing the beating looked up, saw him and shouted, ‘Hey you, alien, come here’. He didn’t wait to answer. Snatching the hat from his head, he sprinted like a springbok, and ran the kilometre to our house in sheer terror.

A quiet and reserved young man, we somehow managed to calm him down with sweet tea and reassurances. He was thinking hard before he finally spoke.

‘These people have not been educated’ he said. ‘They think it is the foreigners who are to blame. I fear them, but I also feel sorry for them. They think that killing poor people like themselves is going to make it better for them’.

Later I dropped him in town to connect with his taxi to Soweto, and the shack where he lived alone without electricity to read his homework and prepare for his exams the next day. Without the means to cook himself even a simple supper.

As I circled town to return home I came across hundreds and hundreds of bedraggled people, milling around an infamous taxi rank area. I pulled up next to a police woman on duty. I asked her what was going on. ‘It’s the Zimbabweans’ she said matter of factly, ‘They have come out of the Methodist Centre because there is trouble there’ And when I asked her what sort of trouble she simply said ‘Something to do with Bishop Verryn’.

Some months earlier, the Methodist centre managed by the Bishop as a makeshift refuge for hundreds of destitute Zimbabweans, had been raided by the police in a military style operation that belonged to another era. Purportedly looking for ‘illegals’ the police had unceremoniously thrown the destitute and their few possessions into the street, had publicly assaulted perfectly innocent people, and then arrested many of them on completely spurious grounds. Bishop Paul and others were later to respond by having the entire action severely criticized by a court of law, and declared completely illegal. But the damage had been done.

The leadership of the police had given a very public indication that they regarded ‘aliens’ as unworthy of fair treatment under the law. Refugees, wherever they were from, were to be treated as if they were less than human, and therefore human rights guarantees under the famed South African Constitution, were not to apply.

Worse, they sent a clear message to the persecuted Zimbabwean community. Do not look to the police for protection. These thoughts returned many times over the next few hours.

By now, radio news reports had started to tell what had happened the previous night, but not before my partner had phoned them and reminded them of their duty to report what was happening on our doorsteps. When approached, the public broadcaster listened carefully and promised to increase reportage, and did by the time of the next hourly bulletin. The commercial station was less receptive, and continued to air a truncated and inaccurate report for three more hours.

As I drove up Main Street in Jeppes Town, events of the previous night were clear to see. Buildings, once occupied by tens of families were still smouldering, a fire engine stood nearby, several police cars with lights flashing had blocked roads leading to the Jeppe Hostel.

Jeppe Hostel, as it is known locally, had been at the centre of other storms in the past. In the tumultuous eighties and nineties it had been the centre for Inkatha Freedom Party activity in the area. ANC and COSATU activists who ventured there took their life in their hands. So called ‘black on black’ violence that resulted in dozens of deaths were centred on the train station in Jeppes Town.

The hostel itself is now chronically overcrowded, squalid and seriously unfit for habitation, it houses thousands of poor working class men and some of their partners. It is surrounded by an urban squatter camp, made up of once busy outlets, workshops and factories that are now lived in by those who cannot or who are unable to live in the hostel. Adjoining factory floor space is divided by makeshift curtains to mark the living spaces of the working and unemployed poor. Sanitation, electricity, clean water, privacy, safety are all luxuries in this community.

As I continued up the road I noticed that despite the police presence, large groups of men carrying ‘cultural weapons’ (various clubs, machetes, bottles) were standing on the corners, watching, waiting. Many others, mostly family groups, were standing in their doorways looking anxiously out.

Further up the road still, I slowed to pass the building where Lesego had witnessed the beatings and from where his pursuers had emerged. A miserable building of perhaps ten electricity deprived flats. A large group of men, some middle aged, others in their early twenties were standing and watching passers by, their weapons visible for all to see. The police it seemed were keeping a safe distance.

Back at home, we listen to the news reports, and start to receive anxious calls from friends. One comrade, Paul, who worked for the trade unions in Zimbabwe for many years is here to receive treatment and staying with his brother in Cleveland, a working class suburb close by. He and his brother’s family have sought refuge in the local Catholic church. He described how he witnessed mobs of drunken men from the large Denver Hostel moving from house to house asking the occupants questions in Zulu. If the reply was made in Zulu, then the visitors asked for money and moved to the next house. If not, the house was looted, the occupants assaulted, and thrown out onto the street to make a hasty escape as best they could. In between these raids, dozens of people are ‘arrested’ by the same mobs walking in the street, and are interrogated, systematically robbed and assaulted. Calls to the police for protection produced nothing.

‘Are you safe in the church’ I enquire. ‘Well we have nothing’ he replies, ‘and we have heard that our place was raided for a second time an hour ago, and so we don’t expect to find anything left, if and when we return. Right now we are at the mercy of the Salvation Army and the Red Cross. They are bringing food and blankets’.

I think to myself, the Red Cross are saving people in suburban Johannesburg.

Later in the morning I pulled into a garage to buy newspapers and see almost fifty men in groups talking on phones and to each other in a very excited manner. I started a conversation and discover that these are all displaced Nigerians who live in the Malvern suburb of Johannesburg. They mostly left their homes last night. Some slept at friends, and others in their cars. One had his car burned out when trying to escape, and managed to run into the back of a supermarket and hide. They describe how the night before, hundreds of hostel dwellers chanting ‘Zula Nation’ surged into their neighbourhoods and started breaking into houses and cars, and assaulting those walking the streets.

One older man told me of a South African neighbour who climbed over the garden fence and provided an escape route through a broken fence into a park. For most of the men, their anxieties centre on the plight of their families who they had left behind. Many had South African partners and their children stayed behind in the hope that they would be able to ‘pass the Zulu test’, make a cash ‘contribution’ and be left in peace.

One middle aged man who works in the local hospital as a radiographer’s assistant told me that his wife speaks Zulu and his children too. He left them behind last night as the neighbourhood shop was being ransacked and destroyed. In a distressed state he said, ‘I couldn’t take them with me. If we had been caught they would have been treated like foreigners, and who knows what would have happened. This is truly horrible. This would never happen to you people in Nigeria’ he said.

This is certainly an instance of cell phone technology being a life line. I noticed that a pump attendant has run an extension cord around the back of the garage to the place where the Nigerians were huddled, and they are busy recharging their phones.

I ask a small group if they have plans to somehow try and organize to protect one another and their communities, to ensure that they do not become victims. A young man of around thirty takes his time to reply. ‘Can you imagine the reaction of the police, the media and the government if we organised a self defense or community safety organization? We would become the target, not those who are attacking us. The police hate us already, the newspapers call us drug barons and pimps, and who do you think ordinary South Africans are going to believe?’

Everyone was silent. A phone rang. The same young man answered, listened carefully and then said, ‘The Nigerian High Commissioner has told us all to stay calm’.

As I return home I pass another group outside a local church. They have the look of North or East Africans, and I pull up and ask if they are OK. ‘The priest is coming to meet us here’ says one. I ask where they have come from, and they point towards Bez Valley, another working class suburb near by. They are Somali’s and I ask if they have experienced any trouble. No, they say, but rumours are making them afraid. Last night there was gun fire close by, and they know they will be targets if the situation worsens. We look like foreigners says one.

Later in the afternoon I receive more calls from Paul and his Zimbabwean family from inside the church haven in Cleveland. They have had news that a neighbour tried to resist a forced entry, and has been murdered. Stabbed repeatedly and left in the front garden of his house.

At four thirty, I travel with a friend to Malvern to help evacuate a Rwandan family who settled in South Africa after the genocide in that country. Small groups of young men are walking up and down the surrounding streets. Police sirens and shouting can be heard nearby. The family gather up a few belongings and are resettled in a local hotel courtesy of the NGO who employ the mother. We take the children, and the parents follow closely behind in their own car. It’s a solemn drive for the three children and our attempts at humour are politely tolerated.

I have a conversation with another Rwandan and he tells me that some people might think that evacuation is an over reaction, but he says, ‘We have learnt to smell danger of this type. The marauding gangs, the inability of the police to keep control, the under-reporting on the radio, the pent up frustrations, the absence of neighbours ready to help or warn. All of these things we have seen before, and now we can smell them’.

At five thirty I make my way back towards Jeppes Town to collect my son from his friend’s house where he had spent the night. He had heard shooting earlier, and the police sirens and had seen the helicopter circling. They had stayed within the grounds of the closed estate, and played football. On the way home, I fielded dozens of questions from him about what had been happening, and as if on cue he said ‘If you are poor, how can you blame others who are also as poor as you, it doesn’t make sense Dad?’

Later that night, we drove down Jules Street and saw municipal workers starting to clear up the mess left behind from shop burnouts and looting. A row of ten shops was completely destroyed, and small groups of men carrying clubs were still to be seen in full view of the police. We came away from the scene feeling that this was not over. There was more and possibly worse to come.

On the news late last night, the police said they had restored law and order in most parts, and that arrests of suspects had been made, and serious charges would be made against them.

This morning, my Zimbabwean friend called to say that two more people had been killed a short way from the church where he was hiding, and that gunshots and screams had kept everyone awake all night.

The newspapers carry a front page photograph of a man who was set alight by a mob. It reminds me of the Buddhist monks who campaigned against the war in Vietnam. Is this a war?

Meanwhile the politicians and media commentators proffer explanations and condemnations, and it suddenly dawns on me that the only people I have not spoken to or have heard from are the perpetrators. And I wonder, what on earth do they think they are hoping to achieve?

22 May 2008:

Three days later, and it seems everyone is aware of the gravity of the crisis. The President of the country has sanctioned the use of the army though they are not yet deployed to keep the peace.

Two days I ago I went to visit my comrade Paul from Zimbabwe, who had been sleeping in Germiston Town Hall for the past two nights. He is a born organiser and has been serving on the committee that manages the food, sanitation, facilities for children, and security.

He takes me on a tour of the Town Hall, a place we have used in the past for May Day rallies. It’s a little run down but still maintains some of its former glory. Now it is one massive bedroom. More than three thousand people are staying here, and most are very afraid. I speak to many others, and hear very similar stories of extreme bullying, violence, theft, and a sense that they have been abandoned to their fate. My friend has been sleeping on a chair because floor space is limited, and its getting cold. Not everyone has a charity blanket, and there is not enough food to feed all. In the absence of proper communications, rumours ripple like Mexican waves across the multitude that are assembled outside, and generate fear.

One large room has been reserved for women, and many are carrying small children and receiving baby food and nappies. It’s clear that many are in a traumatized state, and barely smile when greeted. One can only shudder when thinking about what they have gone through.

I have a brief conversation with a couple of municipal workers inside the building who are members of my union, and am struck by their sympathy towards the refugees despite the increased workload, and near impossible conditions. The toilets have limited capacity, and the kitchen has never had to be put to use to feed such numbers, but union members are working hard, being decent and helpful. One of the shop stewards tells me ‘Everyone here is so grateful for the little that we can do, but I cant stop feeling ashamed that this is happening in my locality. No one deserves to be treated like this’

Paul collects his few possessions and we leave for home where he will stay for the foreseeable, but not before he says a tearful farewell to his committee members, and is reassured that his relatives and others are in relatively safe hands.

This morning the news reports of attacks on communities seem to be more sporadic, although they do appear to be spreading into other Provinces.

Another demonstration has been called for Saturday, by a conglomeration of left groups and community campaigns. I am hoping that there can be a united response, that is inclusive, and non sectarian. I hope the unions will support it despite difficulties that exist between the left groups and the trade union movement.

There is a great deal of speculation about the ‘troubles’ being started by a ‘third force’, some form of underground organization bent on subverting the peace and creating disharmony. It’s mostly speculative. It is clear however that many of the attacks have been coordinated, and especially at a local level. Similar sized groups have been moving from house to house on assigned streets for example, and of course, chanting and demanding the same things. But there are also attacks that appear more opportunistic, and often following a rally or large gathering.

Much of the commentary and analysis from both left and right seems to me to be very simplistic, as if the analysts are not talking to people on the ground, are not asking questions like for example, why in the gatherings of the xenophobic there are so few women? What does this tell you about the men of this country? Why for example, there has been virtually no action against white people? What does this tell you about what is happening in communities that experience grinding poverty? So many questions. So much to be done.

South Africa: A person cannot be illegal!

2008-05-22

Abahlali baseMjondolo

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, http://www.abahlali.org/ 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 editor@pambazuka.org or comment online at http://www.pambazuka.org/

The space for post liberation politics

2008-05-22

Onyekachi Wambu

Onyekachi Wambu looks at post-liberation South Africa and the contradictions of promise and reality and duly warns that the ANC government might very well be condemning South Africa to repeat Zimbabwe's mistakes.

This story has been brewing since the mid-1990s, and, as usual, we have ignored it our peril.

Despite all the 'Rainbow' dreams, everytime I have visited SA since 1992 I have been more & more worried about the real fundamentals - a very poor, and increasingly angry people, amidst great wealth which is not distributed equitably. African people are very patient but it usually takes about 10 -15 years after independence (see Zimbabwe) for people to realise that they can't eat 'freedom', and for real politics to kick in.

The economic facts in SA are this - the deal that buried apartheid in 1994, contained no redistribution of economic power. Black empowerment would only come if the economy expanded and through some mild forms of positive discrimination (BEE). Affirmative action (see what it has done for white women in the US) only really benefits a small minority of middleclass, educated, or (politically) connected Africans, just as it has done in SA. So it meant, that for the vast majority to benefit - the economy needed to expand more than 5%. At 5% it would just about absorb those coming onto the job market, not soaking up the historic apartheid unemployed.

Now watch what happened in the real world. Between 1994 - 2004 growth averaged around 3%. In 2004 it reached 4%. By 2005 (eleven years after apartheid ended) it finally reached 5% and only went beyond that in 2006 and 2007. Even then the last 3 year growth has not been pro-poor growth, but has benefited the already rich, selling commodities, etc.

Nevertheless the SA government by 2005, alongside its enormous house building, water and electrification programmes, was finally in a postition to deal with its historic unemployed and those coming onto the job market

Only it wasn't. Because at the same time over the last 13 years, 5 million new migrants had come into the country (3 million from Zimbabwe alone), many of them better educated and working for less money than native South Africans. So even the growth of the last 3 years has not really made an impact on those native unemployement figures and the anger has continued simmering.

This anger has been expressed all along since 1994 as a crime problem - I always feared what would happen eventually when a 'demagogue' would exploit it and make it 'political'. I thought when this happened, the emergent 'political' campaign to gain traction would target the whites -as in Zimbabwe. But I guess SA is different. People there can see the economic disaster in Zim, when international capital and white expertise fled, and do not want a repetition (although for how long?).

Most voters are still reluctant to punish the ANC government (which has given many a pension, houses, water, electricity) for this state of affairs. This reluctance is reinforced by the fact that there is not a viable opposition (the main ones being all nationalist/ethinic minority parties DA,Inkatha, PAC, etc).

So the mob scape-goat and attack foreigners.

Perhaps as William Gumede suggests elsewhere, it might be time for the ANC to break up and for a wing of it to become a workers party -championing the poor and another wing to represent the interests of the middle-class. Politics would then be about finding a balance that satisfies all and could then be done peacfully through votes and street protests, not through violence and killing, as in so much of Africa.

This might even be the best option, given the reluctance of Southern African liberation movements to concede legitimacy to other forces that did not 'win' the liberation war and establish the new post liberation state. Different traditions within the ANC would thus represent the different emerging interests following the national liberation phase.

The ANC need only to look over the horizon to Zimbabwe, to see a liberation party that still seeks to manage within itself, the tensions and contradictions within the nation. Having failed to do this and people went elsewhere to establish another possibility, ZANU-PF, wanting to continue monopolising power, decided not to recognise that alternative, deepening the original crisis even further.

Presideent Mbeki, having failed to heed the real meaning of the Zimbabwe crisis (how to transit from liberation to ordinary politics), might be doomed to repeat Zimbabwe. And the catalyst for the unravelling crisis in SA might be those self same Zimbabwe migrants who have fled because they cannot find a space to engage in peaceful politics back home.


*Onyekachi Wambu's lastest publication is 'Under the tree of talking - leadership for change in Africa' (2007, British Council). This article first appeared in the Africa Without Borders Forum.

*Please send comments to editor@pambazuka.org or comment online at http://www.pambazuka.org/

Stop the xenophobia and hate!

2008-05-22

Dale T. McKinley

The Social Movements Indaba (SMI) – a co-ordinating national body of social movements, civil society and activist organizations – is organizing with its affiliated organizations and immigrant communities to roll back the groundswell of xenophobia.

In the years since its formation in 2002, the SMI has linked organizations of the poor in struggle for basic services, international solidarity and against police repression. At its last national meeting in December in Cape Town, the SMI identified xenophobia as a pervasive problem in communities and undertook to campaign against hatred of foreigners. Now that the crisis of hate crime is no longer foreboding and is terrifyingly HERE, there is no time to stall and wish we were better prepared. We are without hesitation committed to the struggles for social justice, internationalism and solidarity with all repressed people.

While the police have been deployed to try keep a lid on the pressure that has boiled over, this is no solution to the safety and security of all. As a xenophobic force in Johannesburg pre-existing the outbreak of violence, the police cannot be trusted to be more than the brute barrier between perpetrators and their targeted victims. The South African Police Services and Johannesburg Metro Police harass immigrants to solicit bribes as a matter of practice. Calling on the police to 'do their work' as president Thabo Mbeki and his government have done does not, therefore, address the issues of safety and security amongst immigrant communities. The refugee communities do not trust the police as impartial arbiters of the conflict. The police conducted a brutal raid on the Central Methodist Church on the 31st of January 2008 under the pretext of crime prevention. Criminalisation of immigrants is a smokescreen for deportation and bribery that the police has not cleared.

Long-lasting safety and security for all does not include deportation of foreign nationals, whether voluntary or not. Xenophobia's origins lie within the conditions of poverty in which the majority of south Africans live. Immigrants have been targeted for their ethnic difference and for their very similarity with their persecutors. Seen as competitors for scarce jobs and housing, south Africans have misdirected their anger at conditions of poverty that are unchanging. Their fellow brothers and sisters who are enduring the same cannot be responsible for what the economic and political system has created.

While we struggle for a change to the neo-liberal capitalist system that has created this reality, rearguard struggles for safety and security of immigrants in the country must continue. The SMI gives thanks for those humanitarian organizations, emergency services and churches that are trying to stem the tide of bloodletting and forced removals. We will organize against the creation of refugee camps and work towards the reintegration of immigrants in our communities. In working to recover our common humanity and restore calm, delegations from the SMI are meeting with community-based organizations in Alex and the inner city, and as the programme of action to roll-back the hate unfolds, the SMI will be going further afield to speak to affected communities.

The SMI is mobilizing social movements, immigrant communities, NGOs and concerned residents from poor areas around the province for a march this Saturday, the 24th of May. The march will gather at Marks Park (Empire and Hospital Road) from 9a.m., proceed through Hillbrow and stop at the Departments of Home Affairs and Housing before ending at the Library Gardens. The message marchers will be conveying is that our struggle is common and knows no borders.

— No one is illegal —


*The Social Movements Indaba includes amongst other organizations: the Anti Privatisation Forum, Jubilee South Africa, Imbawula Trust, Sounds of Edutainment, Umzabalazo we Jubilee, Lesbian and Gay Equality Project, Inner City Resource Centre, Kliptown Concerned Residents, Khanya College, Earthlife Africa (Johannesburg), Palestinian Solidarity Committee, Golden Triangle Crisis Committee, Samancor Retrenched Workers Crisis Committee, African Renaissance Civic Movement, Group of Refugees Without Voice.

*Please send comments to editor@pambazuka.org or comment online at http://www.pambazuka.org/

Condemn the violence!

2008-05-22

Abdon Yezi

Southern African film makers implore Southern Africa "governments, politicians and citizens to rise and send an unequivocal message to South Africa condemning these acts of violence."

We join the families who have fallen victims of this violence and offer our compassionate thoughts. Notwithstanding, we also implore our own governments, politicians and citizens to rise and send an unequivocal message to South Africa condemning these acts of violence and dissipating of innocent lives due to internal problems in South Africa.

In the last few days South African and indeed African News has been littered by deplorable acts of inhuman violence targeting many immigrants, particularly from Zimbabwe, Mozambique and Malawi. The images emanating from the streets of Johannesburg and some outlying areas are horrendous and send a lot of chills for a country that is highly acclaimed for democratic practice in the sub-region. This is a very unfortunate development and is reminiscent of the very Apartheid era that the countries and nations' of the world deplored not long ago.

For South Africa, this single act among many should be a re-awakening that things are not in the right perspective. For the poor, and sometimes desperate immigrants who have now fallen victims of violence from their once 'brothers' and 'sisters' in South Africa. Zimbabweans, and in particular, those that have sought refuge in many parts of South Africa have not done so by choice. They are victims of circumstances. They have had to live their homeland due to among other reasons, the degenerating economic and political situation in that country.

As an institution based in Zambia - a country and people, which shared the desires and supported the liberation struggles in Southern Africa - including that of both Zimbabwe and South Africa among others - it is dismaying to see such kind of anger and frustrations being directed to each other. Indeed, the circumstance leading to this are many but if we go by the kind of rationale for perpetuating this violence, the South African leadership especially the political leadership (both President Thabo Mbeki and Jacob Zuma) should play a central role in reminding South Africa itself on the neccessity to respect and tolerate the very people who kept them in their own countries in a quest to dismantle the apartheid regime. It is their moral and legal right to be at the fore-front of persuading and encourgaging tolerance in the new South Africa. Suffice to say that this is a very unfortunate development that needs to be addressed.

We join the families who have fallen victims of this violence and offer our compassionate thoughts. Notwithstanding, we also implore our own governments, politicians and citizens to rise and send an unequivocal message to South Africa condemning these acts of violence and dissipating of innocent lives due to internal problems in South Africa. The older generation of South Africa, need to rise to the occassion and stop this violence being perpetuated by the youths. In a similar vein, let us also try to address the circumstances leading to immigrants running away from their countries. We cannot allow Zimbabwe to channell over 5 million people away from their homes seeking livelihoods in neighbouring countries when only less than thirty years ago they were triumphantically taking black leadership and power away from the Ian Smith regime.


*Abdon Yezi is a Senior Partner at the Yezi-Arts Promotions and Productions and Board Chairperson of the Southern Africa Communication for Development.

*Please send comments to editor@pambazuka.org or comment online at http://www.pambazuka.org/

Erosion of freedom: From Haiti to South Africa

2008-05-22

Jacques Depelchin

Jacques Depelchin reflects on the ties that bind Haiti to South Africa and asks: "In a country where the lethal combination of racism and competition has left a legacy of gross injustice, is it too late to suggest that those who were trampled upon should be listened to with the greatest care possible?"

This is a brief report from a visit to Durban, specifically to see for oneself places like Kennedy Road, Motala Heights, to meet with people like S'bu Zikode and Shamita Naidoo whose words continue to impact us in a way which is still generating new thinking. We were on our way to meet people who can be described as the staunchest defenders of the poor, and, by extension, of humanity.

Driving with Pauline from Maputo to Durban reminded her of her native lands in the Caribbean: sugar plantations after sugar plantations. However, for her, that was the 50s. Now, this was 2008, in the Province of Kwazulu-Natal, where Jacob Zuma, the newly elected President of the ANC, comes from. For those who do not know, it is worth remembering, in the name of always connecting the dots, that President Jean Bertrand Aristide presented a thesis in linguistics at the University of South Africa (Unisa) comparing Isizulu and Creol. I am still reading the thesis which can be found on line and downloaded. It was presented in November 2006. I hope and pray that President JBA does get invited/encouraged to visit the place from where so many Haitians originally have came: DRC. We could then look forward to another comparative thesis on Kikongo and Creol and another step in the process of reconnecting those who should never ever been separated from each other

Thanks to Richard Pithouse we were able to meet a few among those who constitute the heart of Abahlali baseMjondolo (AbM), including Shamita Naidoo at Motala Heights and S'bu Zikode at Kennedy Road. Besides wanting to see the faces behind the names we had heard about, we wanted to understand how people like S'bu Zikode and his companions had attracted such wrath from Durban City officialdom in general, and from the Superintendent of Police Nayager, in particular. We wanted to understand how in the country where Apartheid was defeated, some of its practices are still alive and well.

Here were people who, living among the poorest of the poor, standing up and insisting on being treated with respect and dignity, as called for by the South African Constitution, but who, strangely, were being charged, beaten up and arrested by the police as though they were criminals. How could a police force, under the political leadership of the ANC, behave in a way that is reminiscent of the apartheid police?

This question could be formulated differently, and maybe, more generically, in a region and in a world where such drastic turns are no longer the exception: How do good people or, more precisely, people who could have become heroes/heroines of Goodness/Love took a wrong turn somewhere. Some may not like the jump, but visiting places like AbM could help understand how a Mugabe, in Zimbabwe, became what he is today, i.e. turning against his own people. Is it that easy to loose one's moral compass?

In a world where governments are stating their objectives of wiping all forms and degrees of poverty from extreme to mild, from endemic to periodic, one might be forgiven to think that the poor themselves would be the most important allies in such a project. Unfortunately, not so when one listens to AbM. Instead what one hears and what one sees leads one to a frightening conclusion. That is: how something akin to ethnic cleansing emerges, against defenceless people. The average person might balk at such an assertion. After all, cleansing has been more easily associated with genocidal behaviour against another ethnic group. Some might find it offensive and out of line to suggest that an ANC government could be accused of ethnic cleansing against the poorest of its citizens. Is it not better to think of a most outrageous hypothesis so that those who are currently responsible for its probable outcome might pause, pull back and change course?

What would it take to stop the violence against the poorest of the poor (pop)?

One of the possible explanations for the extreme hatred shown by Superintendent of Police Nayager, can easily be understood once one understands the context of the soon to be held in South Africa Soccer World Cup: in 2010. FIFA may not have stipulated that all efforts must be exerted to keep all and any signs of extreme poverty out of sight but the message comes through and RSA is doing everything to hide the offending communities away. It is not difficult to understand the reasoning behind this: people who come to be entertained by the Soccer extravaganza must not be allowed to be disturbed by the sight of shacks. Such a sight could lead some of the visiting entertainees, not to speak of the performers themselves, to ask themselves about the appropriateness of spending such huge amounts of money when significant segments of the local citizenry does not have access to adequate housing and amenities, such as water and electricity.

2010 being just around the corner, South African officialdom, at least some of them, are implementing the most radical option in keeping poverty/poor out of sight: removing the poor from the landscapes which could be in the visitors' line of vision. In the process, these poverty/ethnic cleansers have affirmed, in various and modulated ways, that the poor are not worth listening to, that their voices do not count.

In a country where the lethal combination of racism and competition has left a legacy of gross injustice, is it too late to suggest that those who were trampled upon should be listened to with the greatest care possible? Is it too late to suggest that while the TRC was a step in the right direction, it was bound to fall too short of the task at hand? Is it too late to suggest that those who understand their profession as that of repressing, oppressing and beating up, should be retrained to listen, attentively, and, wherever possible, with compassion to the poor? Surely it is not too late to suggest that as long as the poor are not free from the consequences of apartheid, no one is free. In parenthesis, that is why on Freedom Day, they, at Kennedy Road, marched to remind the South African Nation that, for them, this was Unfreedom Day.

It will be a while before I digest all of the words from S'bu Zikode and his companions, but there is a phrase I shall never forget: "We do not want money". This is the crux of the matter. In a world driven by the profit motive, competition, greed, selfishness, S'bu reminded those who would listen that they are not interested in what the self appointed discoverers of poverty would like to eliminate via charitable gestures. They want to be treated with respect, justice and dignity. In those cases where the law is broken, e.g. trying to get food, water and/or electricity, they are saying to the government "look at our situation. It is an unacceptable one to any self-respecting human being". Is such a demand so outrageous that it has to be met with the unleashing of extreme violence? Is such a demand so unreasonable that it cannot even be listened to?

When so much still remained to be said we asked S'bu Zikode "what is the way out?" "Healing", he said. Needless to say, given Ota Benga's motto –for peace healing and dignity—a very long exchange followed. In a post Apartheid South Africa, in a South Africa where the TRC had raised such expectations and led to such disappointments, is it too late to listen to those who articulate the spirit of reconciliation with the conviction of a Mandela or a Tutu? People like Nayager, Sutcliffe, Govender and many others who share their understanding – misunderstanding, really—of the poor, surely are in deep need of healing because in their minds the poor are not worth anything.

Is it too late, in the name of humanity, to slow down the race to join in globalization, the race to be part of the first world, with the collateral damage of maiming, torturing, killing those who are not strong enough to keep pace? It is our hope that the voices of S'bu, Shamita, and their growing supporters, such as Bishop Rubin Philipp, will re-energize, re-awaken the flagging spirits of those who had a different vision of Post Apartheid South Africa, one which was more in line with the prescriptions being enunciated with such clarity from the favelas of South Africa and many other parts of the world. Those voices are refusing to accept the transition which has taken South Africans, poor and rich, from the end of apartheid in South Africa to Global apartheid.

Seeing the citizens of Kennedy Road, of Motala Heights reminded us of their brothers and sisters in Haiti, in Brasil, India, and cities all over the world whose only prescription is to be listened to with respect, and justice as human beings. As they keep repeating over and over: they do not want charity, they want solidarity. They do not want to be treated as a humanitarian issue, they want to be treated as human beings. To them we say thank you for being strong, thank you for reminding us of our common humanity, thank you for your courage and serenity.


* Jacques Depelchin works with the Ota Benga Alliance for Peace Healing and Dignity. He is currently visiting Professor at the Centre for Afro-Oriental Studies at the Federal University of Bahia, Salvador, Brazil

*Please send comments to editor@pambazuka.org or comment online at http://www.pambazuka.org/

South Africa: Listen to the people!

2008-05-22

Percy Ngonyama

A lot has been said in the media about the ongoing violent attacks on foreigners, described as ‘Xenophobia.’ However, in accordance with the elitist method of news making, adopted by almost all mainstream media outlets, which puts too much emphasis on ‘expert’ opinion, mainly petty bourgeois analysts and commentators have been invited on major talk shows to analyse the situation and suggest solutions. Of course, their views, while very narrow and shallow, vary vastly.

Some Pan Africanist ‘Azanians’ feel that ‘black consciousnesses’ could be the solution. Blacks are killing each other because of a colonial mentality, the argument goes. Many others have linked the attacks to the country’s socio-economic conditions. Typically, the analysis on the root cause of the country’s scandalous poverty fails to bring in the necessary structural element. Others, including the DA, have blamed it on, amongst others, our immigration policies and failure to ‘protect our borders.’

While all this discussion is going on, we are losing out on a wonderful opportunity to get to the bottom of the issue. Mainly, because, the people at the centre of all the violence, both the foreigners and the ‘xenophobic’ South Africans, are not part of the debate.

And, in true denialist South African style, the government has absolved itself from any responsibility and has vehemently condemned claims that this is as a result of frustration linked to poor service delivery.

Instead, going as far as attributing the chaos to a ‘third force’ and the IFP, they have vowed to bring to book the ‘hooligans’ and the ‘thugs’ that are behind the atrocious attacks. In the midst of this, as part of the ongoing struggle for power between Luthuli House and the Union Buildings, the new populist ANC leadership has contradicted the government and has linked the attacks to government’s ‘failures.’

The politicians, pundits and everyone else has spoken. But, strangely, the people at the centre of the dispute have not. None of the radio or television talk show hosts which have been discussing the matter for more than a week now have bothered getting the opinion of the people at the centre of the dispute. In newspaper columns, the usual columnists have written page long philosophical, sometimes abstract, analysis of the problem.

In Alexander for example, to get to the bottom of the problem, should the media not be attempting to secure the views and opinions of people who attended, or organised the meeting that decided foreigners should be driven out of the impoverished township? And, surely, in all the other areas where the violence has spread, there are ‘ringleaders.’ Should these people not be the ones at the centre of media discussion around the issue? Why are they attacking foreigners? Should we not be striving to hear it directly from the ‘horse’s mouth’? Has anyone in the press even attempted to locate the perpetrators?

Clearly, if we are to resolve many of the widespread socio-economic problems of the ‘new’ South Africa, there must be a departure from the current method of news gathering. For far too long, we have been listening to ‘intellectuals’ and to fat cat turkey necked cabinet ministers, very out of touch with reality, in their chauffer driven vehicles and designer outfits. And, given that many of the problems have remained and even worsened, most of their talk has proved nothing but ‘cheap’ and populist.

Is it not about time we listened to the people at the centre of the news whose desperate pleas to the government, in the last fourteen years, have fallen on deaf ears? Or are we too afraid what they might say may be too ‘politically incorrect’ and ‘counter revolutionary?”

Violence in South Africa

Christopher Dyani

2008-05-21

My writing this letter emerges from realisation of the seriousness of the scenes of "xenophobic attacks" we have been experiencing in South Africa over the past couple of days and as such would like to refer to this situation as "Democracy Betrayed-The Struggle Betrayed".

When the African National Congress (ANC) ascended to power in 1994, the politico-socio economic landscape of South Africa changed drastically. The people of the country, through their elected representatives, draw up a Constitution that stands to be one of the best in the world. The RDP was seen as the path to be taken in ensuring that the imbalances and inequalities that characterised the new South Africa would be addressed. Employment, education, health, housing and social security among others were promised. Due to perceived economic difficulties in the period of 1996-1997, RDP had to be removed and replaced by a neo-liberal economic policy, the Growth, Employment and Redistribution (GEAR), which, it was suggested, would "generate the necessary wealth which would ensure that the South African society realises the objectives as contained in the Freedom Charter adopted 55 years ago.

However, this policy has not "delivered" on its promises. As Paul Kingsnorth observes, the poor of South Africa have realised that the task of rebuilding their nation ultimately rest with them. "The foreigners are taking our jobs, women, homes, etc" the poor claim, therefore, "lets get rid of them". One of the things that needs to be realised is that this results from the frustration and dissatisfaction over service delivery in general and in particular, the economic situation that the poor find themselves in. The assumption, particularly with regards to employment, is that the foreign nationals are undermining the struggles that the "people" endured so as to ensure that SA has the labour laws and regulations it has, by overlooking such issues as the minimum wage, healthy working environment, proper working hours and so on.

People live in informal settlements with no access to sanitation, clean drinking water, electricity, housing, employment opportunities and so on. The need has arisen for the people to make known their feelings. However, how will killing fellow Africans correct the situation? The Constitution of South Africa guarantees rights and privileges to all people, including foreign internationals. Where do people get the idea that by ill-treating others, we can capture the attention of leaders and hence demand their immediate action? Indeed, most of us may not be experiencing what these people are experiencing on the ground, but definitely there are other mechanisms that can be used to raise such issues. Many people still have the conviction that by having a political leader and government come to our level and address the situation, then we can consider changing. This has not been the case, senior political figures and government officials are only sending press

Statements to condemn the situation, how the hell wills this work? It just shows the people that officials are not taking the situation with the seriousness that they should. This indeed is sending a negative reflection of SA to the world and the political leaders need to show some degree of leadership now!! People are dying and their only sin is of being foreigners. We all accept that the services promised to the people have not been delivered, Democracy has been betrayed, the struggle has been betrayed, but this is not the way to deal with the situation. South Africans need to realise that violent action is not the only way to solve problems, there are various legislations that have been promulgated to deal with such issues and people need to make use of these avenues.

Political education and sensitization around issues of xenophobia, service delivery and legislation need to be ensured. The culture of violence needs to be removed from Africa if Africa is to ensure that the dream of a better continent for all is realized.

Africa Blogging Roundup - 21 May 2008

2008-05-21

Sokari Ekine

The blogosphere is dominated by the “xenophobic attacks” against foreigners in South Africa [mainly Johannesburg, but other cities have also experience violence in the past 6 months]

Turista Africana
http://turistaafricana.wordpress.com/2008/05/20/atavism-reloaded/

Turista Africana a Kenyan academic living in Johannesburg has written two of the most comprehensive pieces on the violence in the past couple of days.
In the latest post she covers the radio discussions with comments ranging from those cheering on the mob violence to those who believe in Ubuntu and love “all Africans”. Comments also from foreigners and businesses - one woman was asked if they hire foreigners! (presuming they did they would become targets?)
“Many good solutions and places to start are articulated in the course of these radio discussions (mostly education, education, education, and raising of self-esteem). I wonder if those responsible for social development in government are listening (to radio with notebook and pen handy)? Probably not. Because, on this continent, government will not bring the solutions we seek. We need to come up with new models of problem solving. I know many Kenyans were busy quoting how decentralization has helped South Africa. All policies look great on paper. The rub is in their implementation. Right now, all South African provinces are not equal. Some are paying more attention to development than others which are busy making corruption their mainstay. Give it another 10 years of this trend and you’ll have a right proper ethnic situation, and how it develops will be determined by how this current situation is handled.”

Groogle
http://groogle.co.za/2008/05/18/does-burning-an-alive-human-being-constitute-a-crisis-thabo/

Groogle asks Thabo Mbeki whether burning people alive constitutes a crisis – a comment on what he views as Mbeki’s “denialism” both on Zimbabwe and the state of South Africa and writes.....
“I am ashamed to be associated with this image. I am ashamed that there are people out there with no sense of humanity. I am ashamed, I am angry; I am actually fucking pissed off! This image better be a wake-up call to the South African government, to our very own president, who has so far left his people in the lurch, and has left those fleeing from his quiet diplomacy to burn in hell, literally!”

Nigeria, What’s New
http://nigeriawhatisnew.blogspot.com/2008/05/violence-against-immigrants-south.html

Nigeria, What’s New wonders what happened to the “my brother’s keeper” tradition that is supposedly part of “all Africa”? He goes on to say that immigrants have become the scapegoats of all South Africa’s problems...
“Its high rate of unemployment, a shortage of housing and one of the worst levels of crime in the world. But then again this is not new. In 1983, Alhaji Shehu Shagari's government expelled more than one million foreigners, mostly Ghanaians, saying they had overstayed their visas and were taking jobs from Nigerians. History repeating!”

African Loft
http://www.africanloft.com/south-africans-burn-the-welcome-mat/

The xenophobia in South Africa is well documented and no African foreigner who has visited or lived there comes away without experiencing it first hand. However when presented with a historical list of events on which anti foreign violence took place in post independence South Africa, the violence seems even more disturbing.

Black Looks
http://www.blacklooks.org/2008/05/more_thoughts_on_anti-immigraton_violence_.html

Black Looks tries to go beyond the violence by dwelling on the fragility of South African society and the failure of the post apartheid government to meet the expectations of the masses. This does not in anyway justify the violence but does put it in a global context of poverty and social injustice.
“The reasons given by indigenous people for their dislike of immigrants is the same whether in South Africa, Britain, France or the US. They are taking our jobs, our women, they are responsible for increases in the crime rate, they walk off the plane / boat / bus and into a flat, they undermine our labour. Sit on a bus in London and watch when a Somali woman gets on with a pram and a toddler. The hostility is so thick in the air you could cut it with a knife and it’s not just white people who are hostile. The reality is so far from the myth, so how does the myth begin to dominate and feed the hostility and violence?

* Sokari Ekine blogs at www.blacklooks.org

* Please send comments to editor@pambazuka.org or comment online at http://www.pambazuka.org/

End violence before June runoff

2008-05-22

http://hrw.org/english/docs/2008/05/16/zimbab18859.htm

Supporters of the ruling ZANU-PF party in Zimbabwe tortured more than 70 people, including six men to death, in a “re-education” meeting on May 5, 2008 in Mashonaland Central, Human Rights Watch said today. The government’s campaign of organized terror and violence against the political opposition is continuing despite agreement to hold a presidential runoff election.

MDC candidate abducted at gunpoint in Murehwa

2008-05-22

http://www.swradioafrica.com/news220508/mdcabducted220508.htm

State agents in Murehwa town abducted the MDC candidate for ward 6 on Thursday morning, as they continued to terrorise Murehwa district. A party supporter who was with him said Shepherd Jani was beaten severely by 4 men as they dragged him into a blue twin cab, registration number AAA 9248. Our contact said the vehicle was familiar and he believes it is the same car that was used in the abduction of Langton Mafuse, the MDC candidate for ward 10 Murehwa North, who was taken from his home last week and has still not been located.

Pregnant woman bludgeoned to death for supporting MDC

2008-05-22

http://www.swradioafrica.com/news220508/pregnant220508.htm

A heavily pregnant woman who was three months away from giving birth was bludgeoned to death in a ‘horrific, brutal and frenzied attack’ that left her almost unrecognisable. Rosemary Maramba’s body was found in Nhakiwa village in Mutawatawa in Mashonaland central. Maramba is one of three people linked to the MDC, who were murdered in the area over the weekend.

Peace and security should focus on human security

Issue 137, 2008

2008-05-22

http://www.aumonitor.org

During the Pan African Parliament (PAP) deliberations, which concluded this week, Fatima Hajale, a South African parliamentarian, argued that PAP’s peace and security policies should focus on human rather than state security. During PAP’s consideration of the report of the electoral observer mission to Zimbabwe, the leader of the mission, Swaziland parliamentarian Marwick Khumalo, stated that power-sharing between Robert Mugabe and Morgan Tsvangirai may be the only solution to curb human rights violations in the country. As Zimbabwe prepares for a runoff election on June 27th, Human Rights Watch has echoed the call of African civil society organisations for the African Union (AU) to send election observers and human rights monitors to promote free and fair voting during the election and to publicly call for an immediate end to all forms of violence.

In further peace and security news, the AU praised, this week, the progress made in Comoros since the successful military intervention of the Union army with the support of the AU on the island of Anjouan to oust Colonel Bacar. The AU’s longer term peacekeeping aspirations will depend largely on regional contributions toward the African Standby Forces, which are due to be active by 2010. However, in the southern African region (SADC), the contribution will depend largely on South Africa, yet “the clash between the over-deployment of SANDF [South African National Defence Force] and the reality of its funding and capabilities means that troops committed to the SADC brigade might not be available”.

In regional news, Erastus Mwencha, secretary general of the Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa (COMESA), announced this week that COMESA, the East African Community (EAC) and SADC would meet later this year to attempt to harmonize trade policies so that “Africa can compete more effectively on world markets”. In West Africa, representatives of international organizations involved in agricultural development and water resource management have been invited to a one-day extraordinary meeting of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) ministers of trade, agriculture and finance to discuss and propose solutions to mitigate the effects of soaring food costs.

Further, in East Africa, the heads of electoral commissions met to discuss the harmonization of electoral processes throughout the region. The meeting recommended the formation of a forum of electoral commissions to “initiate development of policies, strategies and programmes that promote the culture of democracy and adherence to the rule of law in East Africa; to harmonize the laws, policies and strategies of National Electoral Commissions with a view to sharing information, expertise and election materials; and to share and harmonize their electoral calendars and road maps”. The heads of electoral commissions further recommended that a study be commissioned on the cost of conducting elections, with a view to reducing costs, and the initiation and implementation of a regional capacity building project for strengthening political and governance institutions in the region. In addition, East African ministers recently concluded a visit to China “to learn from the Chinese experience in infrastructure development and to garner support and partnership in developing the region’s infrastructures”. The outcomes of the visit will feed into the EAC Infrastructure Development Plan. While, at present, the East African Legislative Assembly (EALA) is holding its sixth sitting in Nairobi this week. The Assembly will debate and approve the budget estimates and the appropriation bill 2007. A seminar for legislators on “aid effectiveness, political parties and media” organized by the Association of Western European Parliamentarians for Africa will follow the EALA sitting on May 24.

Meanwhile, as the African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights (ACHPR) will conclude its session in Swaziland on May 22, the Forum on NGO participation has issued its report and resolutions. The Forum highlighted the state of human rights and democracy in Africa as well as the rights of specific groups. During the Forum, strategies to strengthen collaboration between the mandates of the United Nations and ACHPR were developed. Similarly, strategies for the ratification and implementation of the Protocol to the African Charter on the Rights of Women in Africa were shared. Thematic special interest groups sessions were also held relating to refugees and internally displaced persons; minorities and indigenous peoples’; human rights defenders; lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and intersex peoples’; impunity for violence against women and girls; among many others. An overarching theme during the Forum was the need for civil society to work together, and with the ACHPR, between sessions of the Commission to make activities more effective.

With civil society preparing for the Egypt summit of the AU, the 15% Now campaign has launched a countdown aimed at mobilising national and continental support to urge African leaders to restate their commitment to and urgently implement the Abuja 2001 pledge to allocate 15% of national budgets to health. Civil society organisations will also participate in a parallel forum on aid effectiveness during the Accra high-level summit in September. Pre-registration for the forum is required before June 15.

Africa: Girls in fighting forces: Moving beyond victimhood

2008-05-22

http://www.gsdrc.org/go/display&type=Document&id=2999

Girls within armed groups have generally been neglected by scholars, governments and policymakers. This Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA) paper traces the experiences of girls in armed conflict in Angola, Sierra Leone, Mozambique and Uganda. It finds that girls in fighting forces are rendered invisible and marginalised during and after conflict, although they are fundamentally important to armed groups. They experience victimisation, perpetration and insecurity, but are also active agents and resisters.

North Africa: Marriage-maker's gender ruffles egyptians

2008-05-22

http://www.womensenews.org/article.cfm/dyn/aid/3603/context/cover/

Egypt has appointed its first female official to certify marriages and divorces. The move has been met by public debate and opposition from some Muslim clerics who say women shouldn't serve in the role. Seventh in a series on women and Islam.

Tanzania: Missing girls rarely raise a murmur

2008-05-22

http://www.womensenews.org/article.cfm/dyn/aid/3608

Poverty and tradition help fuel a potent business in human trafficking in East Africa, where a girl can sell for $20. Most kidnapped children are not as lucky as Saffi, who returned after her mother bought TV ads. Many disappear without much notice.

Côte d’Ivoire: End Impunity for pro-government student group

2008-05-22

http://hrw.org/english/docs/2008/05/21/cotedi18905.htm

The government of Côte d’Ivoire should take immediate steps to end impunity for members of a pro-government student group responsible for numerous acts of violent, criminal behavior, Human Rights Watch has said in a report. Since 2002, when a failed coup attempt plunged the country into a political and military crisis, the Student Federation of Côte d’Ivoire (Fédération Estudiantine et Scolaire de Côte d’Ivoire, FESCI), alternatively described as a “pro-government militia” and a “mafia,” has been responsible for politically and criminally motivated violence.

Global: International efforts still failing child soldiers

2008-05-22

http://hrw.org/english/docs/2008/05/20/global18885.htm

Despite progress, efforts to end the recruitment and use of child soldiers are too little and too late for many children, according to the 2008 Child Soldiers Global Report, launched by the Coalition to Stop the Use of Child Soldiers. The report details how a near global consensus that children should not be used as soldiers, and strenuous international efforts – with the UN at the forefront – to halt the phenomenon, have failed to protect tens of thousands of children from war.

Uganda: LRA regional atrocities demand action

2008-05-22

http://hrw.org/english/docs/2008/05/19/uganda18863.htm

International action is needed to end the Lord’s Resistance Army’s reported new spree of abductions and sexual violence and to help execute arrest warrants issued by the International Criminal Court for the group’s leaders, Human Rights Watch has said. Human Rights Watch has learned that since February 2008 the insurgent Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA) group has carried out at least 100 abductions, and perhaps many more, in the Central African Republic (CAR), the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), and Southern Sudan.

Africa: Gulf of Aden conference urges more aid to help refugees in host countries

2008-05-22

http://www.unhcr.org/news/NEWS/4832f5af2.html

A regional conference on refugee protection and migration in the Gulf of Aden wrapped up in the Yemen capital on Tuesday with delegates stressing the need for more assistance to support refugees in host countries."For 16 years, I feel that the world forgot about us, so I appeal to all of you – and especially to our Arab brothers – to help us, support us and visit us in Yemen," said an emotional Somali refugee woman, who has been living in Yemen for the past decade. "Yemen, a poor country, has borne the main burden of hosting us, so please help us."

Burundi: Internally displaced Burundians should not be forgotten during the peacebuilding process

2008-05-22

http://tinyurl.com/6dy6cz

Despite a marked improvement in the security situation in Burundi in recent years, some 100,000 internally displaced people (IDPs) remain in settlements throughout the country, in addition to an unknown number living with host families. Many IDPs seem to have to a large extent integrated into the communities of neighbouring towns and villages, but there is little information on their situation, their needs or their aspirations.

South Africa: UNHCR distributes aid to xenophobia victims

2008-05-22

http://www.unhcr.org/news/NEWS/48344abb2.html

The UN refugee agency on Wednesday provided 2,000 blankets and 2,000 mats to victims of a wave of xenophobia in South Africa's Gauteng province. The distribution, aimed at meeting immediate humanitarian needs, was conducted in several police stations in the province in north-east South Africa. Attacks on foreigners since last weekend have left dozens dead and caused an estimated 13,000 people to flee their homes. Most are migrants from other nearby African countries, but there are also refugees and asylum seekers among the displaced.

Zambia: Ugandan refugees return home

2008-05-23

http://www.irinnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportId=78334

The UN refugee agency (UNHCR) has begun the voluntary repatriation of Ugandan refugees in Zambia, some of whom have lived in the southern African country for over two decades. The first group of 39 Ugandans, out of a total of 200 settled in the country, were repatriated by commercial flight on 21 May under the terms of a tripartite agreement between the governments of Zambia, Uganda and UNHCR. The programme is expected to run until the end of the year and cost US$210,000.

Global: The 2008 CIVICUS World Assembly

2008-05-22

http://www.sangonet.org.za/portal/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=9448

The 8th CIVICUS World Assembly will be held in Glasgow, Scotland, from 18th to 21st June 2008. The theme for the World Assembly is ‘Acting Together for a Just World: People, Participation and Power’. This focus is in response to the need to look at civil society's capacity to act in concert to realise shared goals while recognising there are allies in government, business, media and donor bodies who are working towards the same end and from whom strength can be drawn.

South Africa: Abahlali baseMjondolo statement on the xenophobic attacks in Johannesburg

2008-05-21

http://www.abahlali.org/node/3582

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.

South Africa: Gangster landlord continues campaign of intimidation

2008-05-22

The community of Motala Heights, set on the edge of Pinetown between the factories and the hill that runs up to Kloof, dates back to the early years of the last century and has a rich history. For the last three years it has been under sustained and violent attack from a local gangster businessman who seems to be able to direct the local state, including the police and the Municipality's Housing Department, at will.
Abahlali baseMjondolo Press Release

Tuesday, 13 May 2008


Motala Heights Crisis Deepens as Violent Intimidation Against the Strong Poor Continues


Gangster Landlord Continues Campaign of Intimidation with the Support of the Pinetown Police


The community of Motala Heights, set on the edge of Pinetown between the factories and the hill that runs up to Kloof, dates back to the early years of the last century and has a rich history. For the last three years it has been under sustained and violent attack from a local gangster businessman who seems to be able to direct the local state, including the police and the Municipality's Housing Department, at will.

The community is now made up of a wealthy suburb with the big, new mostly face brick houses of the rich in the centre. Behind them are hidden the old tin houses of the poor families and, amongst the gumtrees up on the hill leading up to Kloof, a shack settlement. For some time local businessman and known gangster Ricky Govender has been buying up land and using intimidatory tactics to illegally evict the poor. His attempts to illegally drive out the mostly Indian families from the tin houses, most of whom were born and have lived their whole lives in the community, dates back to at least 2005. He has also been directly implicated in the violent and illegal attempts by the eThekwini Municipality to evict the mostly African shack dwellers which date back to 2006.

The first attack on the shack settlement was launched over the youth day weekend on 2006. Ward Councillor Derek Dimba arrived at the Motala Heights settlement with municipal officials and 5 car loads of municipal security guards to mark out shacks that would then be destroyed by the highly militarised and clearly, in it terms of its stated purpose and day to day actions, criminal armed wing of the Municipality – its notorious Land Invasions Unit. On the following Monday the then Motala Heights Development Committee (affiliated to Abahlali baseMjondolo) won an urgent meeting with Geoff Nightingale from the the Pinetown office of the eThekwini Municipality. He told them that they would have to accept eviction as "The Municipality won't build houses in Motala because Ricky Govender wants to develop the area himself". As people are being evicted from the land on which they were born and grew up Govender is using it to develop factories and private housing projects for the rich.

On Women's Day that year Cllr Dimba returned to the settlement with pistol holstered to each hip and flanked by his usual cohort of armed men. He summoned the community to a meeting where he began by gesturing to his weapons and promised to 'chase away' named individuals on the democratically elected committee. Dimba is often seen in Govender's mansion and when he has been told that the poor will not accept forced removal and eviction and want houses to be built in Motala Heights he has often said that "the only person that will build houses in Motala Heights is Ricky Govender" and, in the exact language of apartheid, that the shack dwellers must "go back where they came from". The Municipality began to evict people from the shack settlement on 28 October 2006 and returned on four occasions to continue the attack. On each occasion the evictions were accompanied by violence. They were carried out without a court order and were therefore illegal and in fact criminal acts. Members of the Land Invasions Unit and the Pinetown SAPS were seen openly eating bunnychows and drinking beer in Ricky Govender's bar before they came up the hill to demolish the shacks. On 31 October the then Chairperson of the Motala Heights Development Committee, Bheki Ngcobo, presented to the Land Invasions Unit a copy of a lawyers' letter addressed to Mayor Obed Mlaba and City Manager Mike Sutcliffe instructing them to immediately cease these criminal acts. The Land Invasions Unit responded by pepper spraying Ngcobo at point blank range and viciously kicking him after he fell to the ground. The SAPS then fired shots at the crowd that rushed to support Ngcobo and told Ngcobo that "Ricky Govender is the mayor here."

Since then the Pinetown SAPS have on many occasions blatantly refused to open cases against Govender or his staff and have simply referred people with complaints directly to Govender. People have even been told to take problems that have nothing to do with Govender, such as as domestic violence, to Govender. The Pinetown SAPS behave as if they are under Govender's authority and as if he is above the law. For many years his bar was co-owned with a senior officer in the Pinetown SAPS (he passed away very recently). The Municipality act in the same way. They refer all local complaints and queries, even applications for a trading licence, to Govender as if he has sole and total authority over all aspects of life in Motala Heights.

The Municipality's criminal attacks on the shack settlement were eventually stopped on 29 November 2006 when Abahlali baseMjondolo went to court and won a court order interdicting the Municipality from carrying out illegal evictions. Since then there have been various kinds of intimi