A South African court has found a police officer guilty of shooting dead 17-year-old protester, Nqobile Nzuza. The judgement sends a strong message to all police officers who act on the instructions of politicians to brutalize unarmed citizens demanding their rights.

Baby Jayden Khoza, aged just two weeks old, was killed during violent repression of a community protest by the police. The baby’s killing underlines the utter inhumanity of the post-apartheid South African state in dealing with poor people who only demand the right to a decent life. Jayden could have become a teacher, a doctor, a leader in his community or even a revolutionary president; an honest president.

It is very disturbing that the very same municipality that gave permission for people to build and provided the building material is now illegally and violently tearing these shacks down. If the govrernment continues to rule impoverished people in a violent, unlawful, corrupt and criminal way, there will be a risk of retaliation from the oppressed.

To be poor means to live with death as a constant presence. It means that daily life is a struggle for survival. That is the reality of the shack-dwellers in South Africa. Amidst this depresseing state of affairs, still members of the Abahlali baseMjondolo movement are able to find strength to build their solidarity and continue in the struggle for social justice.

Students are insisting that the social value of education must come before its commercial value. Just as land should not be bought and sold, so also education is not something that should be bought and sold.

South Africa’s shack dwellers movement was founded ten years ago by citizens frustrated by the ruling ANC’s failure to deliver the promises of democracy in the “new” nation. It has been a worthwhile struggle against a neo-liberal state that pays scant attention to needs of the majority poor Black people.

South African politicians have promised better housing and the sinister-sounding “slum eradication” for years. Undocumented, unreliable and famously corrupt, these promises have failed to pull slum populations into legal, decent government-provided housing. The landless have no option but to occupy public land.

The attacks on African migrants in South Africa are connected to oppression of poor black people in general. To prevent the poor from organizing and standing up to their real enemies, the state is tacitly encouraging violence against foreigners.

Abahlali have vowed to stand in solidarity with the Congolese refugees in South Africa and the Congolese citizens who face unending abuse and butchering in their country.

Armed ANC members acting with police support now openly attack people struggling against corruption and for land in Cato Crest. They are even hiring assassins

Leaders of the shack dwellers movement in South Africa live with intimidation and death threats. Ndabo Mzimela is one of them. The movement has been accused of being funded by foreign agencies to cause riots, destabilize the country and undermine the ANC. But the members refuse to give up agitation for land, housing and a dignified life

Thuli Ndlovu had been threatened for being in the forefront of fighting for the rights of shack dwellers and leading spirited opposition to a controversial housing project. Now her blood has been spilled by a gunman.

South Africa’s largest shack-dwellers’ movement decided to back the Democratic Alliance in last week’s election, citing frustration with the ruling ANC over the last 20 years. Although they knew that ANC would not lose the election, the shack-dwellers were intent on weakening the party

For the shack dwellers of South Africa, the past 20 years since the end of apartheid have not meant a better life for them. It is oppression and neglect by the ruling ANC

On 4 June, the mayor promised to meet the residents by the end of the month to address their demands. But more than a week into July the residents have heard nothing further about the proposed meeting

‘The City of Cape Town is heartless. They want us to get sick. They want to punish us for trying to do what’s best for our families, for our children. But we are not going anywhere’

Police ministry agrees to pay damages after police brutality against Abahlali baseMjondolo members in 2006

The government denies shackdwellers the basic things they need to live healthy and safe lives

The shack-dwellers movement in South Africa is growing, with the recent opening of new branches that bring the total to 64.

‘Today is the third year of our homelessness. We had humble homes but were made homeless by the ruling party.’