In the midst of the drama of the past few days, which has seen South Africans rampaging against foreigners to vent their frustrations at the slow pace of delivery of land, housing and jobs, one story stands out as the antithesis to the story of non-development.

Abahlali baseMjondolo Statement on the Xenophobic Attacks

There is only one human race.

Our struggle and every real struggle is to put the human being at the centre of society, starting with the worst off.

An action can be illegal. A person cannot be illegal. A person is a person where ever they may find themselves.

If you live in a settlement you are from that settlement and you are a neighbour and a comrade in that settlement.

We condemn the attacks, the beatings, rape and murder, in Johannesburg on people born in other countries. We will fight left and right to ensure that this does not happen here in KwaZulu-Natal.

We have been warning for years that the anger of the poor can go in many directions. That warning, like our warnings about the rats and the fires and the lack of toilets, the human dumping grounds called relocation sites, the new concentration camps called transit camps and corrupt, cruel, violent and racist police, has gone unheeded.

Let us be clear. Neither poverty nor oppression justify one poor person turning on another. A poor man who turns on his wife or a poor family that turn on their neighbours must be opposed, stopped and brought to justice. But the reason why this happens in Alex and not Sandton is because people in Alex are suffering and scared for the future of their lives. They are living under the kind of stress that can damage a person. The perpetrators of these attacks must be held responsible but the people who have crowded the poor onto tiny bits of land, threatened their hold on that land with evictions and forced removals, treated them all like criminals, exploited them, repressed their struggles, pushed up the price of food and built too few houses, that are too small and too far away and then corruptly sold them must also be held responsible.

There are other truths that also need to be faced up to.

We need to be clear that the Department of Home Affairs does not treat refugees or migrants as human beings. Our members who were born in other countries tell us terrible stories about very long queues that lead only to more queues and then to disrespect, cruelty and corruption. They tell us terrible stories about police who demand bribes, tear up their papers, steal their money and send them to Lindela – a place that is even worse than a transit camp. A place that is not fit for a human being. We know that you can even be sent to Lindela if you were born in South Africa but you look 'too dark' to the police or you come from Giyani and so you don't know the word for elbow in isiZulu.

We need to be clear that in every relocation all the people without ID books are left homeless. This affects some people born in South Africa but it mostly affects people born in other countries.

We need to be clear that many politicians, and the police and the media, talk about 'illegal immigrants' as if they are all criminals. We know the damage that this does and the pain that this causes. We are also spoken about as if we are all criminals when in fact we suffer the most from crime because we have no gates or guards to protect our homes.

We need to be clear about the role of the South African government and South African companies in other countries. We need to be clear about NEPAD. We all know what Anglo-American is doing in the Congo and what our government is doing in Zimbabwe. They must also be held responsible.

We all know that South Africans were welcomed in Zimbabwe and in Zambia, even as far away as England, when they were fleeing the oppression of apartheid. In our own movement we have people who were in exile. We must welcome those who are fleeing oppression now. This obligation is doubled by the fact that our government and big companies here are supporting oppression in other countries.

People say that people born in other countries are selling mandrax. Oppose mandrax and its sellers but don't lie to yourself and say that people born in South African do not also sell mandrax or that our police do not take money from mandrax sellers. Fight for a police service that serves the people. Don't turn your suffering neighbours into enemies.

People say that people born in other countries are amagundane (rats, meaning scabs). Oppose amagundane but don't lie to yourself and say that people born in South Africa are not also amagundane. People also say that people born in other countries are willing to work for very little money bringing everyone's wages down. But we know that people are desperate and struggling to survive everywhere. Fight for strong unions that cover all sectors, even informal work. Don't turn your suffering neighbours into enemies.

People say that people born in other countries don't stand up to struggle and always run away from the police. Oppose cowardice but don't lie to yourself and say that people born in South Africa are not also cowards. Don't lie to yourself and pretend that it is the same for someone born here and someone not born here to stand up to the corrupt, violent and racist police. Fight for ID books for your neighbours so that we can all stand together for the rights of the poor. Don't turn your suffering neighbours into enemies.

People say that people born in other countries are getting houses by corruption. Oppose corruption but don't lie to yourself and say that people born in South Africa are not also buying houses from the councillors and officials in the housing department. Fight against corruption. Don't turn your suffering neighbours into enemies.

People say that people born in other countries are more successful in love because they don't have to send money home to rural areas. Oppose a poverty so bad that it even strangles love. Live for a life outside of money by fighting for an income for everyone. Don't turn your suffering neighbours into enemies.

People say that there are too many sellers on the streets and that the ones from outside must go. We need to ask ourselves why only a few companies can own so many big shops, why the police harass and steal from street traders and why the traders are being driven out of the cities. The poor man cutting hair and the poor woman selling fruit are not our enemies. Don't turn your suffering neighbours into enemies.

We all know that if this thing is not stopped a war against the Mozambicans will become a war against all the amaShangaan. A war against the Zimbabweans will become a war against the amaShona that will become a war against the amaVenda. Then people will be asking why the amaXhosa are in Durban, why the Chinese and Pakistanis are here. If this thing is not stopped what will happen to a place like Clare Estate where the people are amaXhosa, amaMpondo, amaZulu and abeSuthu; Indian and African; Muslim, Hindu and Christian; born in South Africa, Mozambique, Zimbabwe, Malawai, Pakistan, Namibia, the Congo and India.

Yesterday we heard that this thing started in Warwick and in the City centre. We heard that traders had their goods stolen and that people were being checked for their complexion, a man from Ntuzuma was stopped and for being 'too black'. Tensions are high in the City centre. Last night people were running in the streets in Umbilo looking for 'amakwerkwere'. People in the tall flats were shouting down to them saying 'There are Congelese here, come up!" This thing has started in Durban. We don't know what will happen tonight.

We will do everything that we can to make sure that it goes no further. We have already decided on the following actions:

1. We will resuscitate our relations with the street traders' organisations and meet to discuss this thing with them and stay in daily contact with them.

2. We have made contact with refugee organisations and will stay in day to day contact with them. We will invite them to all our meetings and events.

3. We have made contact with senior police officers who we can trust, who are not corrupt and who wish to serve the people. They have given us their cell numbers and have promised to work with us to stop this immediately if it starts in Durban. We will ask all our people to watch for this thing and if it happens we'll be able to contact the police that we can trust immediately. They have promised to come straight away.

4. We will put this threat on the agenda of all of our meetings and events.

5. We will discuss this in every branch and in every settlement in our movement.

6. We will discuss this with our allied movements like the Western Cape Anti-Eviction Campaign and the Landless People's Movement so that we can develop a national strategy.

7. In the coming days our members are travelling to the Northern Cape, the North West, Johannesburg and Cape Town to meet shack dwellers struggling against forced removal, corruption and lack of services. In each of these meetings we will discuss this issue.

8. We are asking all radio stations to make space for us and others to discuss this issue.

9. In the past we have not put our members born in other countries to the front because we were scared that the police would send them to Lindela. From now on we will put our members born in other countries in the front, but not with their fulll names because we still cannot trust all the police.

10. If the need arises here we will ask all our members to defend and shelter their comrades from other countries.

We hear that the political analysts are saying that the poor must be educated about xenophobia. Always the solution is to 'educate the poor'. When we get cholera we must be educated about washing our hands when in fact we need clear water. When we get burnt we must be educated about fire when in fact we need electricity. This is just a way of blaming the poor for our suffering. We want land and housing in the cities, we want to go to university, we want water and electricity – we don't want to be educated to be good at surviving poverty on our own.

The solution is not to educate the poor about xenophobia. The solution is to give the poor what they need to survive so that it becomes easier to be welcoming and generous. The solution is to stop the xenophobia at all levels of our society. Arrest the poor man who has become a murderer. But also arrest the corrupt policeman and the corrupt officials in Home Affairs. Close down Lindela and apologise for the suffering it has caused. Give papers to all the people sheltering in the police stations in Johannesburg.

It is time to ask serious questions about why it is that money and rich people can move freely around the world while everywhere the poor must confront razor wire, corrupt and violent police, queues and relocation or deportation. In South Africa some of us are moved out of the cities to rural human dumping grounds called relocation sites while others are moved all the way out of the country. Some of us are taken to transit camps and some of us are taken to Lindela. The destinations might be different but it is the same kind of oppression. Let us all educate ourselves on these questions so that we can all take action.

We want, with humility, to suggest that the people in Jo'burg move beyond making statements condemning these attacks. We suggest, with humility, that now that we are in this terrible crisis we need a living solidarity, a solidarity in action. It is time for each community and family to take in the refugees from this violence. They cannot be left in the police stations where they risk deportation. It is time for the church leaders and the political leaders and the trade union leaders to be with and live with the comrades born in other countries every day until this danger passes. Here in Durban our comrades to stand with us when the Land Invasions Unit comes to evict us or the police come to beat us. Even the priests are beaten. Now we must all stand with our comrades when their neighbours come to attack them. If this happens in the settlements here in Durban this is what we must do and what we will do.

We make the following demands to the government of South Africa:

- Close down Lindela today. Set the people free.
- Announce, today, that there will be papers for every person sheltering in your police stations.
- Ban the sale of land in the cities until all the people are housed.
- Stop all evictions and forced removals immediately.
- Do not build one more golf course estate until everyone has a house.
- Support the people of Zimbabwe, not an oppressive government that destroys the homes of the poor and uses rape and torture to control opposition.
- Arrest all corrupt people working in the police and Home Affairs.
- Announce, today, a summit between all refugee organisations and the police and Home Affairs to plan how they can be changed radically so that they begin to serve all the people living in South Africa.

*For further information please visit, or contact: S'bu Zikode: 0835470474; Zodwa Nsibande: 0828302707; Mnikelo Ndabankulu: 0797450653; Mashumi Figlan: 0795843995 Senzo (surname not given, he has no papers): 031 2691822

*Please send comments to [email protected] or comment online at http://www.pambazuka.org/

There is only one human race. Our struggle and every real struggle is to put the human being at the centre of society, starting with the worst off. An action can be illegal. A person cannot be illegal. A person is a person where ever they may find themselves. If you live in a settlement you are from that settlement and you are a neighbour and a comrade in that settlement.

My writing this letter emerges from realisation of the seriousness of the scenes of "xenophobic attacks" we have been experiencing in South Africa over the past couple of days and as such would like to refer to this situation as "Democracy Betrayed-The Struggle Betrayed".

When the African National Congress (ANC) ascended to power in 1994, the politico-socio economic landscape of South Africa changed drastically. The people of the country, through their elected representatives, draw up a Constitution that stands to be one of the best in the world. The RDP was seen as the path to be taken in ensuring that the imbalances and inequalities that characterised the new South Africa would be addressed. Employment, education, health, housing and social security among others were promised. Due to perceived economic difficulties in the period of 1996-1997, RDP had to be removed and replaced by a neo-liberal economic policy, the Growth, Employment and Redistribution (GEAR), which, it was suggested, would "generate the necessary wealth which would ensure that the South African society realises the objectives as contained in the Freedom Charter adopted 55 years ago.

However, this policy has not "delivered" on its promises. As Paul Kingsnorth observes, the poor of South Africa have realised that the task of rebuilding their nation ultimately rest with them. "The foreigners are taking our jobs, women, homes, etc" the poor claim, therefore, "lets get rid of them". One of the things that needs to be realised is that this results from the frustration and dissatisfaction over service delivery in general and in particular, the economic situation that the poor find themselves in. The assumption, particularly with regards to employment, is that the foreign nationals are undermining the struggles that the "people" endured so as to ensure that SA has the labour laws and regulations it has, by overlooking such issues as the minimum wage, healthy working environment, proper working hours and so on.

People live in informal settlements with no access to sanitation, clean drinking water, electricity, housing, employment opportunities and so on. The need has arisen for the people to make known their feelings. However, how will killing fellow Africans correct the situation? The Constitution of South Africa guarantees rights and privileges to all people, including foreign internationals. Where do people get the idea that by ill-treating others, we can capture the attention of leaders and hence demand their immediate action? Indeed, most of us may not be experiencing what these people are experiencing on the ground, but definitely there are other mechanisms that can be used to raise such issues. Many people still have the conviction that by having a political leader and government come to our level and address the situation, then we can consider changing. This has not been the case, senior political figures and government officials are only sending press

Statements to condemn the situation, how the hell wills this work? It just shows the people that officials are not taking the situation with the seriousness that they should. This indeed is sending a negative reflection of SA to the world and the political leaders need to show some degree of leadership now!! People are dying and their only sin is of being foreigners. We all accept that the services promised to the people have not been delivered, Democracy has been betrayed, the struggle has been betrayed, but this is not the way to deal with the situation. South Africans need to realise that violent action is not the only way to solve problems, there are various legislations that have been promulgated to deal with such issues and people need to make use of these avenues.

Political education and sensitization around issues of xenophobia, service delivery and legislation need to be ensured. The culture of violence needs to be removed from Africa if Africa is to ensure that the dream of a better continent for all is realized.

Johannesburg townships Alexandra and Diepsloot were tense on Thursday morning in the wake of xenophobic violence that has killed a number of people since the weekend, police said. Captain Louise Reed said one man was injured in a suspected mob attack in Diepsloot on Wednesday evening.

Elizabeth Kineelwe, the cook at a drop-in centre that provides meals and support to orphans and impoverished families in Soweto, Johannesburg's largest township, is on the frontlines of a nationwide struggle to cope with rising food prices. The cost of basic foods like bread, rice and maizemeal is climbing, but the amount of money the organisation, called Nanga Vhutshilo (Choose Life in the Venda language) Positive Living, receives from the Department of Social Development is not.

An inter-departmental task team is being urgently set up to investigate the causes underlying the recent attacks on foreign nationals in Alexandra township and elsewhere, Government Spokesman Themba Maseko said Thursday. He was briefing reporters on the outcome of the latest cabinet meeting, held on Wednesday.

Beyond the Book: Integrating alternative media into publishing plans A participatory workshop at the Cape Town Book Fair (16 June 2008) for all people involved in generating, producing, distributing, promoting and using information for development.

The community of Motala Heights, set on the edge of Pinetown between the factories and the hill that runs up to Kloof, dates back to the early years of the last century and has a rich history. For the last three years it has been under sustained and violent attack from a local gangster businessman who seems to be able to direct the local state, including the police and the Municipality's Housing Department, at will.

Transparency International (TI) is gravely concerned about news confirming the disbanding of the Directorate of Special Operations, South Africa’s specialised unit located within the independent National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) dedicated to fighting corruption and organised crime known as the Scorpions. “With this decision, South Africa undermines its anti-corruption advances and stalls progress made towards building a strong national system of integrity”, said Cobus de Swardt, Managing Director of TI.

A South African cohort study has shown that it is possible to increase rates of exclusive breast feeding among HIV-positive and HIV-negative women and their newborns in KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa. The results of the study are reported in the April 23rd edition of AIDS.

The head of South Africa's Scorpions crime-fighting unit, Leonard McCarthy, was appointed on Monday to head the World Bank's anti-corruption unit. World Bank President Robert Zoellick, in a statement, said South African President Thabo Mbeki had agreed to release McCarthy from service to take up the position as vice president of the bank's Department of Institutional Integrity on June 30.

With unique readers growing by 190 percent over the past year, Engineering News has been named by Nielson Online as South Africa’s fastest growing website. The publication’s sister sites, Mining Weekly and Polity, occupied the second and fourth places respectively. All three of the sites were moved onto an open source software platform a year ago.

It is a question of time! How long it has taken in Kenya, beacuse the land issue was the true cause of the Kenyan drama? [Why South Africa will never be like Zimbabwe;

More than 1000 white farmers have been killed in their frams in SA, even the Western medias are keeping silence about this fact.

Soon or later, the unresolved problem of land reform will lead to political disturbancies in SA.
Tundanonga

The Johannesburg High Court has ruled that the City of Johannesburg’s practice of forcibly installing prepayment water meters in Phiri, Soweto is unconstitutional. It also set aside the City’s decision to limit its free basic water supply to 25 litres per person per day and ordered it to provide the residents of Phiri with free basic water in the amount of 50 litres per person per day. The City was further directed to give the residents of Phiri the option of an ordinary credit metered water supply.

Based on a multi-year ethnography, this presentation describes township youth's multiple social representations of morality. Drawing on Moscovici's theory of social representations, it details what these might be, how they are empirically elicited, and why social representations are important for social science that aims at making a difference.

The Nigerian senate has warned Nigerians travelling to and living in South Africa to be wary of incessant attacks, even as it called on the Federal Government to issue a travel advice to all Nigerians travelling to the country. The lawmakers said the travel advice had become necessary in view of the strident attacks on Nigerians in that country.

Development dialogue: Education in the New South Africa The DBSA Advisory Unit and Knowledge Facilitation Centre invites you to a viewing and discussion session on the movie ‘Testing Hope: Grade 12 in the New South Africa’, a documentary film by Molly Blank. When: Wednesday, 21 May Time: 10:00 – 13:00, followed by lunch Where: DBSA Auditorium 1258 Lever Road, Midrand RSVP: to [email][email protected] or 011-3133615, by May 15.

http://www.pambazuka.org/images/articles/365/47646slum.jpg Abahlali baseMjondolo, the South African shackdwellers' movement reminds us in this statement and call to action that the structures of apartheid are still thriving in South Africa.

On Sunday it will be Freedom Day again. Once again we will be asked to go into stadiums to be told that we are free. Once again we will not be going to the stadiums. We will, for the third time, be mourning UnFreedom Day. Since the last UnFreedom Day we have been beaten, shot at and arrested on false charges by the police; evicted by the land invasions unit; disconnected from electricity by Municipal Security; forcibly removed to rural human dumping grounds by the Municipalities; banned from marching by the eThekwini City Manager; slandered by all those who want followers not comrades; intimidated by all kinds of people who demand the silence of the poor; threatened by new anti-poor laws; burnt in the fires; sick in the dirt and raped in the dark nights looking for a safe place to go the toilet.

We have also opened an office with a library, launched many new branches, opened new crèches, successfully taken Ricky Govender and the eThekwini Municipality to court to stop evictions, taken the province to court to overturn the Slums Act, marched on Glen Nayager and Obed Mlaba, defended all of our members arrested for standing strong in the politics of the poor, organised in support of people struggling elsewhere, received powerful solidarity from other movements and some churches and thought and discussed how to make our own homemade politics, our living politics, into paths out of unfreedom.

It is clear that no one should tell someone else that they are free. Each person must decide for themselves if their life is free. Each community must decide on this matter for themselves. In each community women and men, the young and the old, the people born there and the people born in other places must decide on this matter for themselves.

In our movement we have often said that we are not free because we are forced to live without toilets, electricity, lighting, refuse removal, enough water or proper policing and, therefore, with fires, sickness, violence and rape. We have often said that we are not free because our children are chased out of good schools and because we are being chased out of good areas and therefore away from education, work, clinics, sports fields and libraries. We have often said that we are not free because the politics of the poor is treated like a criminal offence by the Municipalities while real criminals are treated like business partners. We have often said that we are not free because the councillors are treated like the people's masters instead of their servants. We have often said that we are not free because even many of the people who say that they are for the struggles of the poor refuse to accept that we can think for ourselves.

We have often asked that our settlements be humanized, not destroyed. We have often asked that city planning be democratized. We have often asked for an end to wasting money on stadiums and themeparks and casinos while people don't have houses. We have often asked that democracy be a bottom up rather than a top down system. We have often asked the Municipalities and the police to obey the law. We have often asked for solidarity in action with our struggles. We have often offered and asked for solidarity with the people of Zimbabwe and Haiti and Turkey and in all the places where the poor are under attack.

But freedom is more than all of this. Freedom is a way of living not a list of demands to be met. Delivering houses will do away with the lack of houses but it won't make us free on its own. Freedom is a way of living where everyone is important and where everyone's experience and intelligence counts. Every Abahlali baseMjondolo branch and every settlement affiliated to Abahlali baseMjondolo in Durban, Pinetown, Pietermartrizburg and Tongaat has had a meeting to discuss the ways in which they are not free and has written a letter to the whole movement explaining why they are not free. Many new and important issues have been raised. These letters are being collected into a pamphlet that will be distributed and discussed at UnFreedom Day. We invite everyone who wants to think about Freedom and UnFreedom in our country to attend our event.

We welcome the participation of Christian Aid from Wales who have come to learn about our struggle

We welcome the participation of the Western Cape Anti-Eviction Campaign, our comrades in struggle who are driving all the way from Cape Town to be with us.

We welcome the participation of Bishop Reuben Phillip and the other clergy who have bravely stood with us in difficult times.

At this time we express our solidarity with the people of Zimbabwe suffering terrible oppression in their own country and terrible xenophobia in South Africa. We also express our solidarity with the people battling eviction in Joe Slovo and Delft in Cape Town and the whole Western Cape Anti-Eviction Campaign as well as the Landless Peoples' Movement and all organisations, big and small, standing up for the right to the city, the humanisation of the rural areas and for justice for the poor across the country. We also express our solidarity with the 1 500 people left homeless in the Jadhu Place settlement on Sunday morning after another of the fires that terrorize our people. We condemn the attempts of the City & the Province to misuse this fire, as the flood in the Ash Road settlement in Pietermaritzburg was recently misused, to advance their shack 'elimination' agenda. We will resist this. We will resist all attempts to turn settled communities into transit camps.

We salute the South African Transport and Allied Workers Union and Bishop Reuben Philip for their active solidarity with the Zimbabwean people. We call on others to follow their example. We call on all clergy to stand with the poor. We call on the South African Municipal Workers' Union to refuse to carry out any instructions to evict the poor from the cities. We call on the Police and Prison's Civil Rights Union to refuse to carry out any orders to assault and arrest the poor for exercising their democratic rights to protest. Solidarity in action is our only hope.

No Land! No House! No Vote! Land & Housing in the Cities! Bottom Up Democracy not Top Down Rule by Councilors!

The rally - Time: 9:00 a.m., Sunday 27 April 2008
Venue: Community Hall, Kennedy Road Shack Settlement, Clare Estate, Durban

*For information or comment please contact: Mr Mnikelo Ndabankulu, Abahlali baseMjondolo Spokesperson, 0797450653 or Ms Zodwa Nsibande, Abahlali baseMjondolo Organiser, 0828302707. You can also visit

**Please send comments to [email protected] or comment online at www.pambazuka.org

Stories of the abuse and exploitation of refugees in South Africa abound. In cities and informal settlements across the country, many refugees live in fear of being arrested, attacked and victimised for being ‘foreigners’. Xenophobia has lead to major eruptions in townships such as Atteridgeville, Shoshanguve and Laudium, where community members have turned on and attacked ‘foreigners’, sometimes burning their homes, shops and severely assaulting them.