Abahlali General Assembly to Discuss the National Crisis of Violence Against Migrants, Women, Children and Impoverished People

1. Today’s Abahlali General Assembly to Discuss the
National Crisis of Violence Against Migrants, Women,
Children and Impoverished People
Our country is in a deep and very painful crisis. Millions of
people see no future for their lives and we face terrible violence
from the state and each other. Husbands attack wives.
Neighbours attacks neighbours. Fathers attack their own
children. The state destroys our homes with violence every day.
No one is safe. Nowhere is safe.
As impoverished people we have been living in a constant state
of emergency for years. We have lost 18 comrades in a few
years. Most of them have been killed by the municipal Land
Invasion Unit of the eThekwini Municipality. Some of them have
been killed by the South African Police, some of them have
been killed by the Metro police, some of them have been killed
by the izinkabi hired by ANC councillors.
In most of our major cities the municipalities have special
armed units that are being used to govern impoverished people
with militarised violence. In Durban the City has even bought
armoured vehicles designed for use in colonial wars to govern
the poor. In Cape Town the soldiers are on the streets. We can
see the future that is planned for us clearly – it is a future in
which the impoverished are ruled by militarised forms of state
force. It is a future in which the solidarity that we have spent
years of working to build among the oppressed is attacked by
other poor people encouraged and sometimes organised by
politicians who see our unity as a threat to their power.

2.
We also face terrible structural violence. This winter season
over 15 babies have been burnt to ashes by shack fires. The
state and the public have been quiet because shack dwellers
lives count for nothing. We are not counted as human beings or
as citizens. These deaths have never been seen as a crisis.
Our children are not counted as children. We grieve for them on
our own.
Since our movement was formed in 2005 we have worked to
build democratic women’s power in our movement, in all the
struggles that we support, and in society. For us it is has
always been clear that this is the best way to achieve full
equality between women and men, to make sure that women’s
issues are at the forefront of all that we do and to keep women
safe. We have always taken a clear position that we will not
accept that any man can be a comrade in a meeting and an
oppressor at home and that we will support any woman facing
oppression in her home, as much as we would support a
woman facing oppression from the police.
Since our movement was founded we have also made sure that
it is a home for all of the oppressed without regard to the
province or country in which they were born, or the language
that they speak at home. Politicians have put us under huge
pressure for this but we will never deviate from this. Since 2008
we have also worked very closely with migrant organisations
and we always include migrant organisations in our meetings
and rallies. There has never been an attack on migrants in any

3. of our land occupations, or even any area where our movement
is strong.
Today we note that those who attack migrants are very often
the same people who are dangerous to women too. We note
too that those who carry out violence on the streets often bring
it home, to their own families. If you can harm and kill a migrant
man what could stop you from perpetrating that same violence
against your loved ones, including even your own children?
We have never stopped educating ourselves about the danger
of hate and xenophobia. This is a permanent part of how we
organise. In fact, in all our community meetings before we can
talk about the politic of land, housing and dignity we talk about
ubuhlali and ubuntu. The foundation of our movement is an
affirmation of respect for human life. We talk about the kind of
society we are struggling to build. A society where justice,
equality, respect and dignity become the order of the day.
On Friday we held a very good meeting in our office with our
comrades from the Coalition of the Poor and migrant
organisations and other formations and individuals to
strengthen the struggle against xenophobia in Durban.
Representatives from all the major migrant organisations were
present. There were about fifty leaders at the meeting. Leaders
from the hostel dwellers were also there and the taxi
organisation and the Durban Central police also attended and
participated. The meeting went very well. This work is ongoing.

4. Today’s General Assembly will be used to discuss how we, as
a movement, can take forward the struggle against violence
and the best ways for us to defend migrant communities,
women and everyone else who is vulnerable to violence,
including our LGBTIQ+ comrades and children.
The solution to our crisis is build a more democratic world, a
more peaceful world, a world in which everyone’s human
dignity is respected and everyone is safe. We need a world in
which land, cities, wealth and power are fairly shared. Every
attempt to turn the oppressed on each other, whether on the
streets or in our homes, must be opposed. Every attempt to
build solidarity must be supported.
We will also use today’s meeting to celebrate and reflect on the
progress made on the installation of electricity in the New City
land occupation. This project is currently taking place and it is
democratic and participatory. The New City settlement is one of
the seven land occupations in which the legal right to access
the land was confirmed in in court after several severely violent
evictions.
The meeting will also be attended by Councillor Mfeka of Ward
14 who has worked closely with community. What has been
significant about the New City project is that the councillor there
has taken an independent and democratic view of how to work
with Abahlali. The community has democratically elected a
Steering Committee. They have also elected a Community
Liaison Officer (CLO), all without any interference of the

5. councillor.
In the past people appointed to these posts have been imposed
by councillors on communities and normally are party political
deployees. They have worked against the communities and for
the corrupt interests of the ruling party. We will use this
opportunity to share with other communities the success in
New City for learning purposes. We do hope that other ANC
councillors and officials also have so much to learn from this
experience. If we can build more democratic forms of
engagement with the state from below development can
become something that will benefit communities rather than
politicians. This will be a big step forward.
The meeting will take place at Hindu Surat Hall, 137 Prince
Edward Street, Durban. We will start from 10:00am