After eight years of electoral boycott, Abahlali baseMjondolo controversially decided to support the Democratic Alliance in South Africa’s 2014 National and Provincial Elections. The shackdwellers’ movement claims to have suspended ideological concerns and to have made this choice on strategic grounds. The author suggests that this is not the case.

Black stories are in the form of service delivery protests, which are characterized by angry mobs stealing electricity, invading lands and tossing poo. Such stories don’t engage Black politics in any meaningful way – they are not written nor seen through Black people’s experiences