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Friday 13 May 2011

Our communities are very busy organising our No Vote! events just in time for this year’s elections. We refuse to vote, not because we are lazy or apathetic as the media tends to claim.  Instead, we refuse to vote because our vote is to precious to give to corrupt politicians and political parties. Here are a list of the events with links and contacts:

1) 14th May >> Anti-Vote Election Summit held by the Mandela Park Backyarders at Andile Nhose >> Contact Loyiso @ 0737662078

2) 14th May >> No Dignity! No Vote! Why we won’t vote on the 18th of May held at KwaMlamli’s in Gugulethu >> Contact Mncedisi @ 0785808646

3) 16th May >> Launch at Book Lounge of “No Land! No House! No Vote!” and picket by Blikkiesdorp residents in front of Parliament >> Contact Sarita @ 0764699843

4) 17th May >> Protest by Gugulethu, KTC, Nyanga and Crossroads residents outside Fezeka Municipal Offices in Gugulethu >> Contct Zoliswa @ 0731496065 or Mncedisi @ 0785808646
For more on the No Land! No House! No Vote! Campaign, check out the wikipedia entry on the topic.

Power to the Poor People!

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

2. Will they actively oppose all evictions?

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

With the local government elections approaching, politicians (whether from the DA, ANC, COPE or PAC) are once again crawling out, like cockroaches, to ask for our votes. As part of this, they are once again promising us houses, jobs and service delivery – the usual old recycled lies. The reality, however, is that we don’t have houses and proper service delivery because we live in a system of total inequality – a system of capitalism and the state. The councillors lying to us know this, but they want our votes so that they too can become comfortable and rich.

In fact, there is such bad housing and service delivery because the politicians from the ANC, COPE, DA and the PAC have cut funding for services for years. In the 1990s, under ANC rule, allocations to municipalities for “service delivery” were cut by an average of 85%. The only way municipalities can raise money, therefore, is through charging the poor. It is the state’s policy, and the policy of all political parties, that municipalities must raise funds from service charges. Services, like water and electricity, are therefore only provided to those who can afford them. The poor can’t pay so under this cruel system our water and electricity are cut. On top of that, the poor are made to pay more for services – precisely because they often can’t pay, cost recovery drives councils and utilities to suck every drop they can out of the townships. Township residents pay rates up to 40 percent higher than those in the rich suburbs. And capitalists – the big bosses – have it even easier: industry rates are typically one-sixth of those charged to the suburbs! The poor can’t pay much, and the rich don’t pay much. The result is that most municipalities in South Africa are bankrupt or indebted and cannot deliver the services we are promised. However, this does not mean that central government does not have money. It simply means that the government rather spends it on infrastructure development, like stadiums, that it hopes will make South Africa look like a good place for foreign investors. This happens while the poor are cut off, evicted and forced to have prepaid meters.

What all this means is that it makes no difference if we elect new councillors. Even the most honest, well meaning and hard working councilor – which are rare – is powerless to make any change. This does not mean we shouldn’t resist the councillors and demand the services we need. But it does mean that our resistance is equally against the capitalists, and against the national government. We cannot expect Jacob Zuma to solve our problems: Zuma is part of the problem because his government are the ones pushing these policies! And we cannot expect to solve the problem by electing new councilors: councilors couldn’t solve the problem even if they wanted to. The capitalists and the national government could solve it – but they won’t, because it’s in their interests to make the poor pay, not to pay themselves. They will not give us what we need unless we force them to do so, by the direct action like protests.

Though the workers and the poor are the vast majority, the bosses and rulers control the resources – and they will not allow us to challenge them in parliament and city councils. Parliament and councils are their territory; and when we send our comrades onto enemy territory, our comrades will be lost to us. Sitting with councillors whose interests are tied to the rich rather than the poor and the workers, they will be drawn away from the people and side with the class enemy.

In previous elections, the Poor People’s Alliance has adopted the slogan “No land, no house, no vote!”. It was not supposed to only be the position for that year’s elections, but the official position of the alliance for all elections to come. Working class movements should stick with this slogan instead of being drawn to illusions that voting will help. Voting will not win us land, houses, electricity and water; only direct action can do that. And direct action, by destroying capitalism and the state, can finally win land, housing, water and electricity for all, and ensure that these are never again taken away.

• April 22 – The Gugulethu Anti-Eviction Campaign staged a No Land! No House! No Vote! protest.

• April 22 – AEC communities such as Newfields Village, Symphony Way, Leiden, Athlone, Gugulethu, Crossroads refused to vote in this year’s elections.

• April 27 – Symphony Way AEC hosted the Anti-Eviction Campaign’s first annual un-Freedom Day with participation from four other Delft communities, residents of QQ Section in Khayelitsha, and the Gugulethu and Athlone AEC.  The event included the following activities: soccer, netball, youth plays, discussions and a braai for all participants.

• April 27 – Abahlali baseMjondolo hosted the Western Cape AEC, the Landless People’s Movement and the Rural Network for a Poor People’s Alliance meeting (PPA meeting photos) and their 2009 un-Freedom Day event (photos).  The Durban SAPS attempted to ban the gathering but were unable to do so.

• April 29 – Cape Town Community Housing Company (CTCHC) illegally evicted a Town Centre (Mitchell’s Plain) family and plans to evict many more.  Call Johannes at 071-416-0250 for more information.

Upcoming AEC issues and events to follow:

• April 30 – Residents of Town Centre in Mitchell’s Plain will resist any eviction that takes place.  Call Johannes at 071-416-0250 for more information about future actions.  Press release on the situation to follow tomorrow night.

• April 30 (noon) – Gugulethu AEC surprise action this morning.  Call Mncedisi at 078-580-8646 for more information.

• May 1 (daytime) – New AEC branch in Old Crossroads will hold a mass meeting Friday May 1.  Call Mncedisi at 078-580-8646 for info, contact and directions.

• May 1 (evening) – Symphony Way AEC to host a karaoke benefit in Delft to raise funds for upcomming eviction case.  Call Aunty Jane at 078 403 1302 or Mnce Plaajies at 079 305 1066 for information about the case and the benefit.

Gugulethu residents protest on election day declaring No Land! No House No Vote!

See this Sowetan article on the protest for more info

Toyi-toying Gugulethu residents refuse to vote for any party

The elders of Gugulethu have been on the waiting list for over 15 years and will not vote

The elections went off without a hitch in Gugulethu and only time will tell if the Western Cape Anti-Eviction Campaign’s boycott of the polls had made any impact on the political scene.

About 50 members of the group held an impromptu protest outside Gugulethu police station yesterday as part of an

DISGRUNTLED: Members of the Anti-Eviction Campaign hold a protest outside the Gugulethu police station.PHOTO: ANNA MAJAVU

elections boycott also supported by Durban’s Abahlali base Mjondolo and Johannesburg’s Anti-Privatisation Forum.

In a statement released yesterday, the Anti-Eviction Campaign said real issues, like the lack of housing, had been swept under the carpet by politicians.

Parties spent too much time focusing on the personal lives of other party leaders and on promising “vague slogans” such as “hope” and “change”.

A protester, Margaret Sxubane, 42, said she was “very hungry”.

“I didn’t eat all day and I rarely have food in my backyard shack.

“I voted three times before but why should I vote now?”

Sxubane said if someone from the ANC came to give her a key to one of the empty houses in nearby Nyanga, she would vote immediately.

Violet Skosana, 70, said she had been living in a backyard shack for 30 years.

“How can I vote when I was born in Cape Town, have been on the waiting list for a house for 15 years and yet I still live in a backyard?” she asked.

David Boqwana, 57, said he was boycotting the elections because “we get fokol from voting.”
Meanwhile, a long queue at the Gugulethu Sports Complex voting station in the morning had cleared by lunch time.

There was no hint of animosity between Cope and ANC party agents outside the polling station, who set up tables close to each other.

ANC party agents said “there is no problem between us because we have known each other for a long time”.

Cope party agent Nozipho Moloto said “people are coping, not zooming, and we don’t have showers”.

“The youth especially have been coping today. They don’t want to hear about the arms deal anymore,” she said.

The recent defection of Dan Landingwe, brother of ANC Gugulethu ward councillor Belinda Landingwe, to Cope, could be seen as a sign that Gugulethu may not be the ANC stronghold it once was.

Although both sides claimed most people had voted for them, the voters were not willing to reveal which parties they had voted for.

Nombulelo Jaxa said she found voting “nice and wonderful”, adding, “I’m happy everything went well today”.

And Nokuzola Mpalala, said: “I’m very happy I voted because I want a brighter future for my children”.

She said she now understood why the Anti-Eviction Campaign had boycotted the election. “Government must speed up service delivery. We are not voting for fun. I’m afraid if things like building houses don’t happen, government will have to be careful.”

Thembile Twalo said though he supported the ANC, he would not vote for it.

“I’m not voting for anyone today. I voted in 2004 but none of the things Thabo Mbeki promised came true. Now I’m waiting for the 2014 election. Maybe if 2010 goes well, this will motivate me,” Twalo said.

He said he had come to the polling station just to see what was happening.

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Meanwhile, a group of about 300 protesters gathered at River Park in Alexandra, Johannesburg before dawn this morning.

Reports say they are all residents of a nearby squatter camp, and embarked on a protest against a lack of housing.

The toyi-toying crowd stood on an embankment on London Road, chanting “No house, no vote”.

Community leader Thabo Modisan is quoted saying people were not happy about the election and refused to vote until they got houses.

“We have been waiting since 1994 and we are still living in shacks. We were promised basic services and have not received them, and that is why we are boycotting the election,” he said.

Police, while stationed a distance away, were observing and ensuring that the peaceful protest did not get out of hand.

Police yesterday arrested 60 members of the Landless People’s Movement as they threatened to stage a sleep-in at the Department of Land Affairs offices in Pietermaritzburg.

They demanded to meet senior politicians, including ANC provincial chairperson Zweli Mkhize and Minister of Agriculture Lulu Xingwana.

The protesters said they were fed up with the “abuse being meted against farm dwellers”. They have threatened not to vote today.

The protesters occupied the department’s offices at about 11am yesterday and were ordered by the police to vacate the premises but in vain.

The activists were arrested and taken to Loop Street police station where they were charged with a number of offences including obstruction, refusing to disperse and for gathering illegally, said police spokesperson Henry Budhram.

They have been released on a summons with an option to pay admission of guilt fines of R100 each. – Mhlaba Memela

A group of about 300 protesters gathered at River Park in Alexandra before dawn this morning. They are all residents of a nearby squatter camp, and embarked on a protest against a lack of housing.  The toyi-toying crowd stood on an embankment on London Road, chanting “No house, no vote”.

Community leader Thabo Modisan said people were not happy about the election and refused to vote until they got houses.

“We have been waiting since 1994 and we are still living in shacks. We were promised basic services and have not received them, and that is why we are boycotting the election,” he said.

Police, while stationed a distance away, were observing and ensuring that the peaceful protest did not get out of hand.

The Johannesburg College of Education’s Alexandra campus, one of the polling stations, has not opened on time.

Activists from the Western Campaign Anti-Eviction Campaign have created the following checklist to clear things up a bit for people who are considering whether or not to vote in this year’s elections.

AEC’s political party checklist on the issues.pdf

The issues profiled in the document:

• Privatisation
• Land reform and land occupations
• Participation through direct democracy
• Ending unemployment
• Housing

Party politics is notorious for obscuring the important issues in favour of fear-mongering, coming up with vague slogans such as ‘hope’ and ‘change’, and focusing on the personal lives of other party’s leaders.  The goal in creating this document is to take on the issues that matter most to poor communities and to show exactly where the political parties stand.

While only being released to the media on election day, it has already been used for a number of weeks as part of our No Land! No House! No Vote! Campaign and has already had an impact on activists throughout our communities.  The refusal of Delft residents to vote is a clear sign that AEC communities are looking past party politics and directly at issues such as participation, privatisation and how to get rid of the housing backlog.

The Anti-Eviction Campaign maintains that the key statistic to look at pending the outcome of today’s election is not what percentage of the national vote the ANC gets.  Rather, when all is said and done, the question to ask is what percentage of the voting age population actually supports the ANC.  While the ANC won almost 70% of the vote in the 2004 elections (giving it a super-majority in parliament), only 58% of those who could vote actually did so and just 38% of the entire voting population voted for the ANC.

Choosing not to vote is not apathy.  It is us, as the poor, flexing our muscle and saying: what have your parties ever done for us? We will change South Africa in spite of you!

For comment please call Ashraf at 076 186 1408