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South Africa: Not Yet Uhuru

category southern africa | community struggles | non-anarchist press author Monday May 02, 2011 18:04author by Ayanda Kota - Unemployed People's Movementauthor email upmstatements at gmail dot com Report this post to the editors

On the 27th of April 1994 the people of this country stood in long queues for many hours, waiting to cast their vote for the first time. In some parts of the country the weather was indeed hostile, freezing cold, while in other parts of the country it was scorching hot. Our people were voting for the first time, voting for an end to racism and for democracy and a better life - for jobs, free education and decent housing. Over and above their vote for their material needs to be met they were voting for their freedom. Or so they were made to believe!

The rays of that sunrise were breaking through the dark storm clouds. The first beams of the new sun were making their way through the clouds into the new blue sky. After centuries of oppression hope was rekindled, a new nation, a rainbow nation was born. Or so we were made to believe.

I remember watching the proceedings on television. I saw the Right Reverend, the Arch Bishop Desmond Tutu, casting his vote. The great man then jumped and said “Free at last! Free at last!” He was coming on the heels of the former president, Nelson Mandela.

Freedom is the ability of the people not to be oppressed and to be able to determine their own future collectively and by their own wills. Freedom is the realization of the will of the people. When there is freedom the government is for the people and by the people because the people govern themselves. Freedom is the ability of the people to determine their own destiny. Freedom is self government.

When there is freedom the people do not have to beg the government to recognize them as important because they are the government. When there is freedom people are free from hunger, poverty, diseases, homelessness and an inability to access basic needs. Justice, peace, dignity and access to the country’s wealth are central to freedom.

Freedom means that people must come first. It means people before profit. It means people before the big transnational corporations. It means that the people’s sovereignty and rights have been restored!

Freedom does not mean that the people vote for some few politicians to take their friends and relatives and go and join the old white capitalists as they feast off the devastation of the people behind high walls and police officers who shoot us to kill us. Freedom does not mean that our so called leaders become managers of capital, running the country and disciplining the people on behalf of the capital.

Freedom does not mean that politicians become little Gods. Freedom is also not the rule of experts in civil society. Freedom is not the rule of the police. In a free country it is the voice of the citizens that matters the most. If Azania was free the voice of every Azanian and of every community in Azania would matter equally. Until everyone’s voice counts equally we cannot say that we are free.

After seventeen years of democracy our townships are broken. All you see is drunken men and women walking aimlessly like zombis their blood stream flowing with cheap alcohol. This is how we drug ourselves against the nightmare of a democracy that is really neo-apartheid and not post-apartheid. This is how we drug ourselves against a society that has no respect for us, no place for us and no future for us. In the Eastern Cape they drink umtshovalale. In Kwa-Zula-Natal they drink isiqatha. In Gauteng they drink gavani. In the Westarn Cape they drink spirits. This alcohol has a hazardous effect. My people, young and old, have been silently taken to the graves due to the effects of this alcohol. We are poisoning ourselves to drug ourselves against the horror of our lives. Throughout South Africa young people smoke ARVs. It is a well known thing. We live below poverty line and we have completely lost hope.

South Africa is the most unequal country in the world. The gap between the rich and the poor is so vast and it is growing. The unemployment rate is so high. It is above 40%. Poverty rates are sky rocketing. In a place like Alice residents drink unsafe water. At times there is no water at all. In Grahamstown we continue to use the bucket system to shit. All around South Africa there are crumbling RDP houses and municipalities are falling under corruption while Zuma’s family, his wives, children and relatives’ are becoming billionaires. Shiceka spent R640 000 in one year on rooms for himself and his staff at the One & Only hotel in Cape Town, flew to Switzerland first class to visit a girlfriend in jail and hired a limousine to drive him to the prison. What kind of politician lives like this while the people are suffering as we are? What kind of politician lives like this while South Africa has become "the protest capital of the world” with one of the highest rates of public protest in the world?

Shiceka is a predator and not a liberator. He is not the only one. In 2010 Eskom announced its decision to increase the tariffs by 35% assaulting the unemployed and the poor while the ANC Company, Chancellor House, are ripping the profit from the shaking hands of the people. Very soon the coffers of this country will run short and we will be asked to give even more to the ANC, to Chancellor House and the Zuma family. The way they are looting our resources is beyond imagination. They way that they have privatised the struggle of the people is incredible.

We are a bleeding nation. All the power that belongs to us has been centralized to the ruling elite. We do not participate on the model of the RDP house that must be built. They decide for us. The Integrated Development Plan (IDP) meetings are a platform to manage us. There is no veracity. They choose those who must represent us in local chambers, come back and parade them as our leaders. When we ask to speak to these leaders they call the police. We have no power. We have no voice. We have no freedom to celebrate today. We live in a radically unjust society. We are oppressed.

The ANC tries to control the people with its police, social grants and rallies with celebrities and musicians. The ANC tries to drug us against their betrayal by keeping us drunk on memories of the struggle – the same struggle that they have betrayed. But everywhere the ANC is loosing control. Protest is spreading everywhere. Everywhere people are boycotting elections and running independent candidates. Everywhere people are organizing themselves into their own autonomous organizations and movements.

Mostafa Omara, narrating the Egyptian Revolution, writes:

“People look more relaxed and at peace -- you can see it on their faces. People in Egypt will tell you: Gone are the days when we felt helpless and little; gone are the days when the police could humiliate us and torture us; gone are the times when the rich and the businessmen think they could run the country as if it was their own private company.”

In South Africa we long for the same feeling! Seventeen years did not relive the pain and suffering of centuries we endured under the apartheid government and the colonial governments before that.

Revolutions do not spring out of the blue. Revolutions are organised through the united action of men and women, rural and urban, which spring from their needs. Revolutions happen when ordinary men and women begin to discuss their own lives and their own futures and to take action to take control of their own lives.

The rebellion of the poor that has engulfed this country is growing. More and more organisations are emerging. More and more people have become radicalised. More and more communities have lost all illusions in the ANC after experiencing the violence of the predator state. More and more people are starting and joining discussions about the way forward for the struggle to take the country back.

We need to move forward with more determination working all the time to build and to unite our struggles. As we connect our struggles, from Ficksburg to Grahamstown, from Cape Town to Johannesburg and Durban, we are, slowly but steadily, building a new mass movement. We are building a network of struggles that are determined to be in what has been called a living solidarity with each other.

Struggle continues! Victory is certain!
Nothing for us without us.

Yours truly

Ayanda Kota, Unemployed People’s Movement Chairperson, Grahamstown

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Thu 18 Apr, 20:05

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20210713saviolence.jpeg imageKwaZulu-Natal and Gauteng are burning 20:56 Wed 14 Jul by Abahlali baseMjondolo 0 comments

Abahlali base Mjondolo has always warned that the anger of the poor can go in many directions. We have warned again and again that we are sitting on a ticking time bomb. We have warned for too long that people cannot continue to live in terrible poverty only to be ignored year after year. We have made it clear that people will not allow their humanity to be vandalised forever. For too long we have been explaining that we are ruled with violence and that the public often accept this by their silence.

textAbahlali baseMjondolo to hold their annual UnFreedom Day rally tomorrow 02:43 Sun 22 Apr by Abahlali baseMjondolo 0 comments

Freedom Day is a national public holiday in South Africa. Each year Abahlali baseMjondolo, which has more than 50 000 paid up members in good standing, holds a heretical 'UnFreedom Day' to contest dominant ideologies.

sebokengphoto0042.jpg imageThe Cheap Politics that Destroy Our Communities 23:24 Tue 07 Nov by Nonzukizo Mute 0 comments

Political fighting has destroyed the peace in Sebokeng township in the Vaal. Politicians are using government resources for private purposes, and parties and factions are fighting over which politicians get the most.

460_0___30_0_0_0_0_0_zacfront_symbol.jpg imageLandless militants and shack-dwellers under attack in Soweto 18:42 Mon 24 May by Zabalaza Anarchist Communist Front 2 comments

The following is an urgent communication issued in solidarity with the Landless Peoples Movement (LPM) and other shack-dwellers of Protea South, Soweto. It is based on information obtained by telephonic and face-to-face conversations held with LPM members following violent attacks against them last night. There still seems to be confusion, however, and details are sketchy. Updates on the situation will be made available as and when they are received, as will be any factual corrections.
[Français]

textCPFs: Eyes and Fists of State Oppression 18:42 Wed 11 Mar by Jon 0 comments

The Zabalaza Anarchist Communist Front (ZACF) is angered by the killing of a second working class activist youth by the Community Policing Forum (CPF) in Sebokeng in less than a year.

In July of last year Anti-Privatisation Forum (APF) activist Mathafeni Majobe was killed by members of the CPF after partaking in a service delivery protest in Sebokeng. This time the victim was Teboho “Diventsha” Tsotetsi, who was stabbed to death in front of his parents on Wednesday 4 March by members of the CPF for refusing to withdraw charges he had laid against those same CPF patrollers, who had severely beaten him and stolen his cell phone and wallet the previous Friday.

textZACF Statement of Solidarity with Sebokeng Community Struggle 23:30 Wed 15 Aug by Jonathan 3 comments

On Tuesday morning, 14th of August, over 1000 community members from Sebokeng's "informal settlement" attempted to blockade the Golden Highway between Sebokeng and Johannesburg in protest at the ANC government's inadequate service delivery since its election in 1994.

The police arrived in numbers and fired randomly at the community members, allegedly with live ammunition, seriously injuring 6 people and injuring others, including small children.

textCollective bargaining by riot: election day in South Africa (2006) 17:40 Fri 09 Feb by Michael Schmidt, Johannesburg 2 comments

A field report on a trip transsecting South Africa's industrial heartland and its outlying small towns on municipal election day 2006 - and an examination of who actually wields municipal power in the country - from the ZACF journal Zabalaza #7.

textJohannesburg, Anarchist arrested in Motsoledi 20:41 Wed 28 Sep by via A-Infos 1 comments

An anarchist member of the Sowetan Motsoledi Concerned Residents Association (MCRA) was arrested 2 weeks ago following an open discussion with a local ward councillor.

imageMoving from Crisis in South Africa's Municipalities to Building Counter-Power Jul 19 by Bongani Maponyane 3 comments

Across South Africa, municipalities are in crisis. They are under-funded, anti-working class, anti-poor and anti-township, and riddled with corruption by elites. The working class is oppressed by the state - as well as the private bosses - and we say "Enough is Enough!" We need to build an alternative: organs of counter-power, which can demand changes and lay the foundations for a deep redistribution of wealth and power to the mass of the people: the working class and poor.

imageSouth Africa: Fueling the Fire Oct 12 by Shawn Hattingh 0 comments

Wave after wave of community protests have been taking place in South Africa. People are angry that after twenty years of so-called freedom they are still confined to living in shacks, having to defecate in communal toilets, and having essential services terminated when they can’t afford to pay.

imageFuelling the fires: South Africa in class war Jun 09 by Shawn Hattingh 0 comments

The hope that the end of apartheid would herald a better life for the oppressed in South Africa has evaporated. Their conditions today are materially as bad as under apartheid - and even worse in some cases. But the upper classes are having the time of their lives. Working class struggles should be intensified and linked, based on self-organising and direct democracy to bring about real change.

imageClass Struggle, ‘Xenophobia’ and the Local Elite May 21 by Jonathan Payn 0 comments

The xenophobic violence and looting following King Zwelithini’s statement that foreigners “pack their bags and leave” spread to cities and townships across the country. However, the recent attacks are not an isolated incident; nor is Zwelithini solely responsible for fomenting it. Local elites – particularly those linked to the ruling party – also encourage anti-immigrant attitudes and actions. This article, based on discussions with Abahlali baseFreedom Park activists, looks at how local elites stimulate ‘xenophobia’ to protect their class interests, as well as how progressive working class activists have responded.

imageWorking Class Livelihoods: Struggle against Each Other, or Revolt against the System? Nov 27 by Bongani Maponyane 0 comments

Rising inflation means increases in food and petrol prices. Inflation is a global problem, driven partly by conglomerates maximising their profits at the expense of ordinary people. The state plays its role, continually raising prices for services.

The pressure of capitalism has impacted on our lives. It has caused clashes within the working classes, resulting in discrimination and prejudice. Ruling class elites – the political and economic elite – benefit from these struggles between people who compete for scraps from their tables.

more >>

imageKwaZulu-Natal and Gauteng are burning Jul 14 0 comments

Abahlali base Mjondolo has always warned that the anger of the poor can go in many directions. We have warned again and again that we are sitting on a ticking time bomb. We have warned for too long that people cannot continue to live in terrible poverty only to be ignored year after year. We have made it clear that people will not allow their humanity to be vandalised forever. For too long we have been explaining that we are ruled with violence and that the public often accept this by their silence.

textAbahlali baseMjondolo to hold their annual UnFreedom Day rally tomorrow Apr 22 Abahlali baseMjondolo 0 comments

Freedom Day is a national public holiday in South Africa. Each year Abahlali baseMjondolo, which has more than 50 000 paid up members in good standing, holds a heretical 'UnFreedom Day' to contest dominant ideologies.

imageLandless militants and shack-dwellers under attack in Soweto May 24 ZACF 2 comments

The following is an urgent communication issued in solidarity with the Landless Peoples Movement (LPM) and other shack-dwellers of Protea South, Soweto. It is based on information obtained by telephonic and face-to-face conversations held with LPM members following violent attacks against them last night. There still seems to be confusion, however, and details are sketchy. Updates on the situation will be made available as and when they are received, as will be any factual corrections.
[Français]

textCPFs: Eyes and Fists of State Oppression Mar 11 Zabalaza Anarchist Communist Front 0 comments

The Zabalaza Anarchist Communist Front (ZACF) is angered by the killing of a second working class activist youth by the Community Policing Forum (CPF) in Sebokeng in less than a year.

In July of last year Anti-Privatisation Forum (APF) activist Mathafeni Majobe was killed by members of the CPF after partaking in a service delivery protest in Sebokeng. This time the victim was Teboho “Diventsha” Tsotetsi, who was stabbed to death in front of his parents on Wednesday 4 March by members of the CPF for refusing to withdraw charges he had laid against those same CPF patrollers, who had severely beaten him and stolen his cell phone and wallet the previous Friday.

textZACF Statement of Solidarity with Sebokeng Community Struggle Aug 15 Zabalaza Anarchist Communist Federation 3 comments

On Tuesday morning, 14th of August, over 1000 community members from Sebokeng's "informal settlement" attempted to blockade the Golden Highway between Sebokeng and Johannesburg in protest at the ANC government's inadequate service delivery since its election in 1994.

The police arrived in numbers and fired randomly at the community members, allegedly with live ammunition, seriously injuring 6 people and injuring others, including small children.

more >>
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