South Africa: APF Asinamali Campaign

southern africa | community struggles | non-anarchist press Wednesday September 03, 2008 15:41 by Anti-Privatisation Forum - APF khethokuhle at gmail dot com

We will fight for access to basic services and against the Privatisation of our Constitutional rights

Tomorrow, 3rd September 2008 marks the 24th Anniversary of the Vaal Uprising and the struggle against working class oppression by the ruling class. The Anti Privatisation Forum will embark on various community mass actions across Gauteng in protest against poor service delivery by the African National Congress government. Residents of Soshanguve in Tshwane, Meadowlands in Soweto, Tembalihle in Lens South, and Marlboro in Alexandra will be marching to their local municipal offices to deliver memoranda of grievances and those in the Vaal Triangle will be hosting a rally in Sebokeng Saul Tsotetsi Hall (see below for more specific details).

PRESS ALERT
Tuesday 2nd September 2008

Tomorrow, 3rd September 2008 marks the 24th Anniversary of the Vaal Uprising and the struggle against working class oppression by the ruling class. The Anti Privatisation Forum will embark on various community mass actions across Gauteng in protest against poor service delivery by the African National Congress government. Residents of Soshanguve in Tshwane, Meadowlands in Soweto, Tembalihle in Lens South, and Marlboro in Alexandra will be marching to their local municipal offices to deliver memoranda of grievances and those in the Vaal Triangle will be hosting a rally in Sebokeng Saul Tsotetsi Hall (see below for more specific details).

On Monday, 3rd September 1984, thousands of working and poor people stood up collectively to launch a campaign that marked the beginning of national boycotts of payments for rates and services (the rent boycotts). 'Asinamali' - 'We Have No Money' - became our cry against the unjust urbanisation policies of the apartheid government. Similarly today, townships of the Vaal – Boiketlong, Kanana, Boiketlong, Dunusa, Sonderwater, and Soweto: Kliptown, Protea South, Tembalihle - again cry, 'Asinamali'.

Last year on this same day, the APF took to the streets in protest over poor and/or non-existent service delivery. Tragically, in Protea South, one comrade (Oupa Mputle) was killed by a delivery van as he was taking part in the service delivery protest where eight people were arrested for public violence. In the informal settlement of Kliptown (Soweto), eight more people were arrested during a protest – the case against these comrades continues until today while the local and provincial government continue in their failure to deliver basic, quality services in Kliptown. There are many other poor communities that have taken to the streets in thousands of protests since the ANC government came to power in 1994. While the apartheid government no longer exists, the policies of privatisation that it initiated, within an overall framework of racialised planning and development, continue today.

The ANC government's adoption of a neoliberal macro-economic framework has meant that policies of privatisation/commercialisation and consequent cost-recovery in the delivery of basic services have escalated. These have, over many years now, become the driving forces behind the increased anger within poor communities as they have only excacerbated apartheid's entrenched inequalities. Combined with the overall drop in living standards of the poor due to lack of job opportunities and increases prices of all basic necessities of life, this has meant that many communities have been forced to accept standards of living worse than those imposed under apartheid. As the ANC government has chosen to accept the rules of neoliberalism, the site-and-service schemes that we fought against in the '80s have become its preferred choice for delivery to the poor. It is not surprising then that the townships of the Vaal (and all over the country) are rising up once again to demand the quality of life that we were fighting for in the Asinamali campaign of the '80s.

As communities struggle today, it is important to remember the past struggles in an attempt to learn from them and to make them speak again in the present. In the 80s, communities argued that the poor must not pay for substandard housing and basic services, and that we would not support the racist urban planning of the apartheid government. We demanded to know why the poor were living in 'matchbox houses' in dusty and far-removed townships while white people lived in huge mansions in beautiful, green suburbs close to the city centre. Education was seen as an important aspect of a quality life, and so we also demanded changes in this sphere. Today, the demands being made in communities in the Vaal and across the country sound very much like our demands of the '80s. Unaccountable local councillors, continued spatial segregation and substandard development and delivery for the poor continue to be our complaints.

For more information and/or comment about the actions please call Silumko Radebe (APF Organiser) @ 072 1737 268 or 011 333 8334 or khethokuhle@gmail.com

SPECIFIC INFORMATION ON THE ACTIVITIES TOMORROW

1. Pretoria: the Soshanguve community will gather at Soshanguve Block BB Mashimaite Garage at 09h00 in the morning and then the march will proceed at 10h00 to the Soshanguve Municipal office at block F. The main demands speak to the privatisation of electricity, electricity cut-offs, water disconnections, poor roads, non-availability of water storm drains & the high price tag on the graveyards where residents have to pay almost R850.00 for their families to be buried. Community contact is James Mfishane @ 076 857 0905

2. Soweto: residents of Meadowlands under the banner of the APF affiliates – the Soweto Electricity Crisis Committee and the Soweto Concerned Residents - will be gathering at Meadowlands Zone seven city park @ 10h00 and they will be marching to the Meadowlands Municipal Office in zone 2 to deliver their memorandum of grievances. The key issues are poor housing service delivery and the corruption in the housing department in issuing out housing title deeds. Community contact is Mashinini @ 078 471 3850

3. Lens South: the community of Tembalihle will be gathering at Park Station in Tembalihle at 09h00 to march to the City Power Office in Lens to demand the electrification of their community. Community contact is Ghetto Gopane @ 082 269 2741

4. Vaal Triangle: residents of various communities in the Vaal Triangle will be having a mass meeting at the Sebokeng Saul Tsotetsi hall where discussions around further protest action against lack of service delivery and police repression will take place. Community contact is Phineas Malapela @ 072 234 9005

5. Alexandra: the residents of Marlboro will be marching to the Alexandra Renewal Project Offices in Wynberg at Andries Streets. They will gather at the Marlboro Grounds at nine and then proceed to Wynberg at 10h00. The main issue is corruption in the housing system. Community contact is Bushy @ 078 119 8327