Sbu zikode underground

1. S’bu Zikode is Underground
Our movement continues to be subject to regular threats,
intimidation and violence in Durban, including constant
telephonic death threats.
We have faced waves of serious repression over the years,
including in 2009 and 2010, and again in 2013 and 2014. This
repression has included armed attacks on the homes of our
leaders, resulting in their destruction, sometimes while the
police looked on, as well as arrests and detention on trumped
up charges, torture, assault, death threats, and assassinations.
The current wave of repression was significantly worsened by
the grossly undemocratic comments made by the Zandile
Gumede, the Mayor of the eThekwini Municipality, on 12 June
2018. Our movement is a democratic coming together of the
oppressed, with tens of thousands of members, in which all
positions are subject to election, and all elected leaders are
subject to the right of recall. Important decisions are taken in
open assemblies. On 12 June the Mayor repeated the
allegation, that has constantly been made by senior people in
the ANC since 2005, that our movement is a ‘third force’. This
is not just untrue, and typical of a colonial and apartheid
mentality. It also works to justify violence against us, including
murder.
At the same meeting that the Mayor called our movement a
‘third force’ the Chief Whip in the Municipality, Nelly
Nyanisa, said that the President of our movement, S'bu Zikode,
is 'hell bent' on make the city ungovernable. She went on to say
that as the ANC they will 'deal with’ Abahlali. Our movement is
committed to participatory democracy. We are of the view that
impoverished people should be included in all forms of decision
making that affect them. We don’t accept that politicians,
officials, NGOs and academics should take decisions for us
without us. We want to deepen or radicalise democracy. We

2. don’t want to make the city ungovernable. We want to
democratise its governance by progressive organisation and
mobilisation from below to enable the oppressed to participate
in decision making, including decisions about land use and
urban planning. This makes us a serious threat to the corrupt
and to those who put profit before people.
Nyanisa’s statement that the ANC will ‘deal with’ Abahlali has
given the ward councillors permission to openly threaten and
attack our movement. It was an instruction to repress us, an
instruction that will cost lives. We are not aware of any senior
leaders in the ANC at Provincial or National level issuing
statements to condemn Gumede and Nyanisa, or making it
clear that we have a democratic right to organise outside of the
ANC, and that the attacks on us are both criminal and anti-
democratic.
We have had credible reports from various sources, including in
the ANC and the police, that S’bu Zikode is in imminent danger
of assassination. One again he has had to go underground. For
some time now he has been in a secret location, away from all
cellphones and out of contact with his family. We have also put
in place the most rigorous possible security measures to
protect other people who are under threat but many people,
including anyone who puts their name on one of our
statements, continue to operate at serious risk.
The country has just mourned the anniversary of the massacre
at Marikana. We are well aware that we are not the only people
under threat. Anyone who successfully organises the
oppressed outside of the ANC is at serious risk. We continue to
take a position in support of principled solidarity in action
among all democratic and progressive formations that have
emerged from among the oppressed.
Those of us who have accepted leadership positions in our
movement have accepted the risk of death. We all understand

3. that there will be more deaths. Despite the repression our
movement continues to grow, and the struggle continues to
advance. We have members on more than forty land
occupations in Durban and in five provinces.
In June this year we wrote letters to both President Ramaphosa
and the police minister requesting their intervention in the
ongoing murders of Abahlali leaders. We have not received any
response from the office of the President or that of the minister.
There is a lot of talk about ANC leaders who are murdered by
other ANC leaders but when it comes to the murder of our
members there is silence.
We appreciate the solidarity that we have received from
progressive organisations in South Africa and internationally.
Real solidarity, living solidarity, is the only way that we can
survive repression, overcome oppression, and build a world in
which the dignity of every human being is respected.