Saturday, May 28, 2011
Tuesday, May 24, 2011
UPM Letter to the Premier of the Eastern Cape
UNEMPLOYED PEOPLE’S MOVEMENT (UPM)
“We call upon the right to work”
69 “C” Nompondo=Street, Grahamstown, 6139
Contacts: 072 299 5=53, 078 625 6462, 073 578 3661
xola.mali@yahoo.com, ayandakota@webmail.co.za
Tuesday, 24 May 2011
Statement of Demands to the Eastern Cape Premier the Honourable Ms. Noxolo Kiviet
Dear Ms. Kiviet
We have been informed that following the television screening of the episode of Cutting Edge that exposed some of the horror of the lives of the poor in Grahamstown President Zuma has instructed you to meet with us as soon as is possible to receive and to try to resolve our demands. We have also been informed that you would like copies of our collected memoranda in advance of this meeting.
We appreciate your willingness to meet with us and thought that it would be easier for us to simply summarise our demands in one document.
As with poor people’s organisations and movements across the country our demands take two forms. We have demands that take the form of asking promises made within the current system to be kept. Many of these demands are very urgent as people are living in very undignified and dangerous conditions. However we are not only demanding that the current system be operated efficiently. We are also demanding that the current system be replaced with a system in which the dignity of all people is recognised. We understand that while you can attend to our first kind of demand in a meeting addressing our second kind of demand will take a long struggle in which the poor and the working class are politically empowered against the elites. However we do insist that if the ANC wishes to call itself a progressive organisation it must respect the formations of the poor as we work to redistribute political power as a first step towards redistributing economic power.
Our immediate demands are as follows:
1. The immediate and permanent eradication of the bucket system throughout Grahamstown.
2. The immediate electrification of the eThembeni shack settlement. Other settlements in Grahamstown are being electrified following protests and this process must also include eThembeni.
3. That a clear, transparent and consultative process is immediately begun to overcome the backlog of 13 000 houses in Grahamstown.
4. That clear, transparent and serious steps are taken to eradicate the cancer of corruption that has been eating at the Makana Municipality for years.
5. That the R58 million that has been returned to the central government due to the failure of local government to spend it is handed over to a democratically run community co-operative that will allow us to design, build and manage our own houses in a democratic and non-commodified way. If the government has failed to spend this money then it is only logical that it should be handed over to the people directly.
6. That a series criminal investigation is instituted against the uBumbano sports training project following the corruption of R600 000.
7. That the unconstitutional and repressive bail conditions that ban our leaders from political activity be immediately withdrawn.
8. An immediate commitment to ban development by tender and to instead create state owned companies that can carry forward development such as housing etc on a non-profit basis.
9. An immediate expulsion of Nceba Faku from the ANC following his fascist attack on the media.
10. Setting up a genuinely independent investigative unit with power of arrest to deal with corruption in the province.
Our longer term demands are for:
1. Decent work or a decent guaranteed income for everyone over the age of 16 years.
2. A fair distribution of urban and rural land.
3. The socialisation and collectivisation of the means of production.
4. The decommodification of the provision of all basic needs like water, electricity, housing, sanitation, refuse removal, health care, transport, education, communication and so on.
5. Elected police officers and judges and trial by jury
6. State support for community controlled media.
7. Participatory democracy at all levels of society.
We are aware that these goals are only realisable in a new system and that we will only be able to move from this system to a better system via the political empowerment of the poor and the working class. However the formations of the poor are facing serious repression including regular arrests, the murder of at least seven protesters by the police already this year, torture (as in Ermelo) and armed state backed attacks on movements like Abahlali baseMjondolo in KwaZulu-Natal and the Landless People’s Movement in Gauteng. Therefore we demand an immediate end to all repression of the formations of the poor and a clear and public acknowledgment that all people in this so-called democracy have the right to organise themselves freely and in safety and, if they so wish, to do so independently of the ANC.
If these demands are not met we will, in alliance with our comrades across the country, have no choice but to continue struggling in support of this programme.
We are expecting to meet with you by Tuesday next week at the latest.
Yours sincerely
Ayanda Kota
Chairperson, Unemployed People’s Movement
Grahamstown, Eastern Cape
“We call upon the right to work”
69 “C” Nompondo=Street, Grahamstown, 6139
Contacts: 072 299 5=53, 078 625 6462, 073 578 3661
xola.mali@yahoo.com, ayandakota@webmail.co.za
Tuesday, 24 May 2011
Statement of Demands to the Eastern Cape Premier the Honourable Ms. Noxolo Kiviet
Dear Ms. Kiviet
We have been informed that following the television screening of the episode of Cutting Edge that exposed some of the horror of the lives of the poor in Grahamstown President Zuma has instructed you to meet with us as soon as is possible to receive and to try to resolve our demands. We have also been informed that you would like copies of our collected memoranda in advance of this meeting.
We appreciate your willingness to meet with us and thought that it would be easier for us to simply summarise our demands in one document.
As with poor people’s organisations and movements across the country our demands take two forms. We have demands that take the form of asking promises made within the current system to be kept. Many of these demands are very urgent as people are living in very undignified and dangerous conditions. However we are not only demanding that the current system be operated efficiently. We are also demanding that the current system be replaced with a system in which the dignity of all people is recognised. We understand that while you can attend to our first kind of demand in a meeting addressing our second kind of demand will take a long struggle in which the poor and the working class are politically empowered against the elites. However we do insist that if the ANC wishes to call itself a progressive organisation it must respect the formations of the poor as we work to redistribute political power as a first step towards redistributing economic power.
Our immediate demands are as follows:
1. The immediate and permanent eradication of the bucket system throughout Grahamstown.
2. The immediate electrification of the eThembeni shack settlement. Other settlements in Grahamstown are being electrified following protests and this process must also include eThembeni.
3. That a clear, transparent and consultative process is immediately begun to overcome the backlog of 13 000 houses in Grahamstown.
4. That clear, transparent and serious steps are taken to eradicate the cancer of corruption that has been eating at the Makana Municipality for years.
5. That the R58 million that has been returned to the central government due to the failure of local government to spend it is handed over to a democratically run community co-operative that will allow us to design, build and manage our own houses in a democratic and non-commodified way. If the government has failed to spend this money then it is only logical that it should be handed over to the people directly.
6. That a series criminal investigation is instituted against the uBumbano sports training project following the corruption of R600 000.
7. That the unconstitutional and repressive bail conditions that ban our leaders from political activity be immediately withdrawn.
8. An immediate commitment to ban development by tender and to instead create state owned companies that can carry forward development such as housing etc on a non-profit basis.
9. An immediate expulsion of Nceba Faku from the ANC following his fascist attack on the media.
10. Setting up a genuinely independent investigative unit with power of arrest to deal with corruption in the province.
Our longer term demands are for:
1. Decent work or a decent guaranteed income for everyone over the age of 16 years.
2. A fair distribution of urban and rural land.
3. The socialisation and collectivisation of the means of production.
4. The decommodification of the provision of all basic needs like water, electricity, housing, sanitation, refuse removal, health care, transport, education, communication and so on.
5. Elected police officers and judges and trial by jury
6. State support for community controlled media.
7. Participatory democracy at all levels of society.
We are aware that these goals are only realisable in a new system and that we will only be able to move from this system to a better system via the political empowerment of the poor and the working class. However the formations of the poor are facing serious repression including regular arrests, the murder of at least seven protesters by the police already this year, torture (as in Ermelo) and armed state backed attacks on movements like Abahlali baseMjondolo in KwaZulu-Natal and the Landless People’s Movement in Gauteng. Therefore we demand an immediate end to all repression of the formations of the poor and a clear and public acknowledgment that all people in this so-called democracy have the right to organise themselves freely and in safety and, if they so wish, to do so independently of the ANC.
If these demands are not met we will, in alliance with our comrades across the country, have no choice but to continue struggling in support of this programme.
We are expecting to meet with you by Tuesday next week at the latest.
Yours sincerely
Ayanda Kota
Chairperson, Unemployed People’s Movement
Grahamstown, Eastern Cape
Friday, May 20, 2011
SSJ statement post-election by Chris Mc Michael
20 May 2011
Students for Social Justice Statement on the Election Results for
Rhodes Ward 12, Makana Municipality
On the 18th of May, the DA took Ward 12, Rhodes University by an
overwhelming majority. In the midst of their self-congratulation fest
it should also be noted that an Independent student Candidate,
Christopher Mc Michael, endorsed by Students for Social Justice, the
Unemployed Peoples Movement and the Democratic Left Front, polled
third in the ward, only 8 votes behind the ANC.
This is a huge victory for a campaign designed and run by students. On
an almost non-existent budget, and with no experience of electoral
campaigning the Students for Social Justice has posed a creditable threat
to two well established and well bankrolled party political machines.
Even more important is that the campaign maintained its fidelity to
the principles of direct democracy, openness and social justice. The
youth who were programmed to continue fucking up have woken up. We
have deviated from the agreed path and will continue, with our
comrades in the Unemployed Peoples Movement, to fight for a just and
humane Grahamstown, in which all people are afforded their dignity as
human beings.
This campaign said NO to condescending and complacent party
candidates, to politics as manageralism and hollow slogans, to an
exhaustion of ideas and the cheapening of noble words like democracy
and freedom. It said YES to equality, participation and to the
creation of our own autonomous political spaces.
While we know that real change may never come through the ballot box,
the success of our campaign in the face of great odds has shown us
that our time has come. The local establishment which has viewed this
campaign as a cheap and inept ploy thinks that we will disappear now
that we have had our 15 minutes is in for an unpleasant surprise....
Our eyes are open, we know that we are the now the drivers of our own
future and we will continue to fight, challenge and undermine the
structures and systems which cheapen and distort our lives’.
Students for Social Justice Statement on the Election Results for
Rhodes Ward 12, Makana Municipality
On the 18th of May, the DA took Ward 12, Rhodes University by an
overwhelming majority. In the midst of their self-congratulation fest
it should also be noted that an Independent student Candidate,
Christopher Mc Michael, endorsed by Students for Social Justice, the
Unemployed Peoples Movement and the Democratic Left Front, polled
third in the ward, only 8 votes behind the ANC.
This is a huge victory for a campaign designed and run by students. On
an almost non-existent budget, and with no experience of electoral
campaigning the Students for Social Justice has posed a creditable threat
to two well established and well bankrolled party political machines.
Even more important is that the campaign maintained its fidelity to
the principles of direct democracy, openness and social justice. The
youth who were programmed to continue fucking up have woken up. We
have deviated from the agreed path and will continue, with our
comrades in the Unemployed Peoples Movement, to fight for a just and
humane Grahamstown, in which all people are afforded their dignity as
human beings.
This campaign said NO to condescending and complacent party
candidates, to politics as manageralism and hollow slogans, to an
exhaustion of ideas and the cheapening of noble words like democracy
and freedom. It said YES to equality, participation and to the
creation of our own autonomous political spaces.
While we know that real change may never come through the ballot box,
the success of our campaign in the face of great odds has shown us
that our time has come. The local establishment which has viewed this
campaign as a cheap and inept ploy thinks that we will disappear now
that we have had our 15 minutes is in for an unpleasant surprise....
Our eyes are open, we know that we are the now the drivers of our own
future and we will continue to fight, challenge and undermine the
structures and systems which cheapen and distort our lives’.
Tuesday, May 17, 2011
UPM statement
Five Hundred People Blockade Road in Grahamstown this Morning
This morning five hundred people from eThembeni and Transit Camp in Grahamstown blockaded the N2. The eThembeni people were demanding housing, electricity and water. The Transit Camp people were demanding the completion of their houses. The project has stalled due to non-payment of the contractors.
The road was successfully occupied, fires were lit and posters declaring a refusal to vote were raised. The police, acting with their usual aggression and insults, managed to clear the blockade and put out the fires. When the television crews arrived the police behaviour became less aggressive and it was possible to reoccupy the road. But once they left the people were driven off the N2 and the road blockade moved into Joza where it was broken up again. The protest continued on the pavements until three in the afternoon. There were no arrests.
Aluta Continua.
The statement below was drawn up in a meeting last night but could not be issued until today due to a lack of access to email.
Monday, 16 May 2011
National Road to be Blockaded Tomorrow in Grahamstown
It is that time of elections, a season of lies and deceptions. Political parties and political leaders are visible and some visit our homes. If they find us cooking or eating, they take some and eat, let alone that there after they will get to their five star hotels, take a bath and wash their teeth, making sure their hands are clean because they were greeting us the unemployed and the poor. Elections are a time for free booze, free entertainment, free t-shirts and free pretences.
The people of eThembeni will be barricading the national road tomorrow, the N2 intersection that is between Extension 5 and Extension 6.
They will be barricading the road because they do not have access to water, roads, electricity and housing. Makana municipality’s backlog on housing is estimated to be 13 800. Recently a fire erupted and a couple was trapped in the fire. They died trying to escape. The power lines run over the burnt out remains of their shack on the way to the brick factory. But they were never seen as good enough to have electricity. In eThembeni the people live with snakes. There are number of cases reported where some residents were bitten by snakes. A snake is a cold blooded animal and when people collect woods and create fire to cook, the snakes are many times found next to the fire.
These residents have been voting, their votes have not translated into anything. The only translation they can see is their Councillor Rachael Madinda becoming a fat cat, affording two cars, one house in the township and another one in town. The voters are stuck in permanent poverty as the councillors rise into riches.
Councillor Rachael Madinda is on the ruling party candidates list for the district. This is promotion. Promotion for what, only the ruling party can explain. She is not the only one, Councillor Peter is also on the list for a mayoral candidate while people in his ward don’t have water, houses, unemployment is the order of the day, the dam level is said to be on 5,0 in his community, meaning its only mud. He has done absolutely nothing for his community. Now we know what the criterion for promotion is in the ruling party. We must be denied and stripped all of our basic rights. Those in power must enrich themselves, steal and plunder our resources. Politicians are rewarded for keeping the people under control while they are excluded from society. Any politicians that tried to represent the voters would soon be sidelined.
If indeed voting is the democratic right then we must remember that words acquire meaning in action. We can no longer allow ourselves to be fooled by the kleptocratic elites by imposing fancy words on us. Democracy means our voice. It means that we govern ourselves and we determine our destiny. It does not mean that every few years we give permission for a new set of politicians to rule us in our own name while we are excluded from all decision making.
We are rebelling because we are poor and because the political and economic elites in this country are united in their contempt for the poor. All over South African and all over the world the poor and the unemployed barricade roads as a means of protest. We cannot strike and therefore the road blockade is the logical tactic for us. We are rebelling because the better life for all is better life for the few elite. We are rebelling because those in power do not care for us; we are only voting cattles to them. We are rebelling because we are fed up and sick and tired of the elite, they are suppose to be looking after our interests and now they are jackals and we are sheep. Sheep is all we are to them. How can we entrust our lives to such heartless and cruel people?
Our destiny is in our hands. This is a realisation that we are our own liberators. Nobody will liberate us but ourselves.
Xola Mali – 072 299 5253 – xola.mali@yahoo.com
Ayanda Kota – 078 625 6462 – ayandakota@webmail.co.za
This morning five hundred people from eThembeni and Transit Camp in Grahamstown blockaded the N2. The eThembeni people were demanding housing, electricity and water. The Transit Camp people were demanding the completion of their houses. The project has stalled due to non-payment of the contractors.
The road was successfully occupied, fires were lit and posters declaring a refusal to vote were raised. The police, acting with their usual aggression and insults, managed to clear the blockade and put out the fires. When the television crews arrived the police behaviour became less aggressive and it was possible to reoccupy the road. But once they left the people were driven off the N2 and the road blockade moved into Joza where it was broken up again. The protest continued on the pavements until three in the afternoon. There were no arrests.
Aluta Continua.
The statement below was drawn up in a meeting last night but could not be issued until today due to a lack of access to email.
Monday, 16 May 2011
National Road to be Blockaded Tomorrow in Grahamstown
It is that time of elections, a season of lies and deceptions. Political parties and political leaders are visible and some visit our homes. If they find us cooking or eating, they take some and eat, let alone that there after they will get to their five star hotels, take a bath and wash their teeth, making sure their hands are clean because they were greeting us the unemployed and the poor. Elections are a time for free booze, free entertainment, free t-shirts and free pretences.
The people of eThembeni will be barricading the national road tomorrow, the N2 intersection that is between Extension 5 and Extension 6.
They will be barricading the road because they do not have access to water, roads, electricity and housing. Makana municipality’s backlog on housing is estimated to be 13 800. Recently a fire erupted and a couple was trapped in the fire. They died trying to escape. The power lines run over the burnt out remains of their shack on the way to the brick factory. But they were never seen as good enough to have electricity. In eThembeni the people live with snakes. There are number of cases reported where some residents were bitten by snakes. A snake is a cold blooded animal and when people collect woods and create fire to cook, the snakes are many times found next to the fire.
These residents have been voting, their votes have not translated into anything. The only translation they can see is their Councillor Rachael Madinda becoming a fat cat, affording two cars, one house in the township and another one in town. The voters are stuck in permanent poverty as the councillors rise into riches.
Councillor Rachael Madinda is on the ruling party candidates list for the district. This is promotion. Promotion for what, only the ruling party can explain. She is not the only one, Councillor Peter is also on the list for a mayoral candidate while people in his ward don’t have water, houses, unemployment is the order of the day, the dam level is said to be on 5,0 in his community, meaning its only mud. He has done absolutely nothing for his community. Now we know what the criterion for promotion is in the ruling party. We must be denied and stripped all of our basic rights. Those in power must enrich themselves, steal and plunder our resources. Politicians are rewarded for keeping the people under control while they are excluded from society. Any politicians that tried to represent the voters would soon be sidelined.
If indeed voting is the democratic right then we must remember that words acquire meaning in action. We can no longer allow ourselves to be fooled by the kleptocratic elites by imposing fancy words on us. Democracy means our voice. It means that we govern ourselves and we determine our destiny. It does not mean that every few years we give permission for a new set of politicians to rule us in our own name while we are excluded from all decision making.
We are rebelling because we are poor and because the political and economic elites in this country are united in their contempt for the poor. All over South African and all over the world the poor and the unemployed barricade roads as a means of protest. We cannot strike and therefore the road blockade is the logical tactic for us. We are rebelling because the better life for all is better life for the few elite. We are rebelling because those in power do not care for us; we are only voting cattles to them. We are rebelling because we are fed up and sick and tired of the elite, they are suppose to be looking after our interests and now they are jackals and we are sheep. Sheep is all we are to them. How can we entrust our lives to such heartless and cruel people?
Our destiny is in our hands. This is a realisation that we are our own liberators. Nobody will liberate us but ourselves.
Xola Mali – 072 299 5253 – xola.mali@yahoo.com
Ayanda Kota – 078 625 6462 – ayandakota@webmail.co.za
The Struggle for Hangberg
Amongst the collective hysteria which has come to characterize our election seasons, as parties of one sort or another attempt to coerce and persuade the registered public to tick a ballot, some honest reflection is needed. A few important questions needs to be asked, is this culture of accountability some of our politicians constantly refer to really realizable through party politics? Are elections the be and end all of elections? To what extent does the voting public actually have a say in how the country is governed. Is the ruling party really God's representative on earth which will govern until Jesus returns and is our official opposition really struggling to being about 'open opportunity society' which delivers for all?.
The first response that springs to mind, is that our party list representative system dis-empowers the voter for the profit of the party. Parties not the individual are awarded the seat and the individual candidate is determined by the party, meaning in order to ensure they keep their job candidates have to ensure they maintain a good-standing with their party, not the electorate. As we have seen across the country, people are dissatisfied with the state of service delivery and political representation across the country, from Durban to Grahamstown protests against a seemingly unaccountable, incompetent and uncaring state have characterised the build up to these elections. Protests have even extended to members of parties protesting against the elections lists handed to them before elections, in some cases politicians excluded from this years electoral lists have resorted to hiring hitmen to fix their problem. While the official opposition pursues policies deeply hostile to the poor majority of the country, from the evictions of people in Mandela Park, to the existence of a camp straight out of District 9 known as “Blikkiesdorp. A small exception exists in local elections where independents and civic candidates can run for office, in order to directly represent their communities
Most South Africans are familiar with the stories of corruption, incompetence and repression emerging from the ruling party, but so far the same coverage has not been extended to the similar contempt for the poor which exists with the Democratic Alliance. Hout Bay characterises the extreme inequality which blights both our country and Cape Town in particular. The leafy affluent neighbourhoods of the well-off and the plush mansions of the richer stand in direct contrast to the terrible poverty of the Mandela Park settlement which stands next the gated white communities of the area. Journey further down the beach past the harbour and you reach the poor coloured neighbourhood of Hangberg, within both of these communities the DA has failed to their promise of the open opportunity society.
Students for Social Justice a Grahamstown based student movement are screening the documentry “The Uprising of Hangberg” about the struggles of the people of Hangberg and brutal response of the police. As the DA promises to deliver the Cape Town solution to the rest of South Africa, it is time to blow away the fog surrounding the mountains of Cape Town, to expose the real human cost of this solution and why the DA does not present a real alternative to the ANC. Amongst our own disillusionment with the party system we have chosen to endorse a independent candidate Christopher Mc Michael standing for councillor in Ward 12 Grahamstown (Rhodes University) who presents a truly radical experiment in direct democracy. Independents are given some space to work with during local elections, but the obvious bias in the media and perpetuated by parties threatens to silence much of their message. Media coverage is often focused on the personality politics offered to us in the form of such figures of Malema, Zille and Zuma, while ignoring the real struggles of the poor against a unjust, unequal and increasingly repressive system.
Election Manifesto
As an independent candidate for Ward 12, I cannot promise you the world. What I can promise is that I will be a councillor who is answerable to you, the Ward 12 voter. The idea is simple but radical: politics should not be about top-down plans where leaders decide what your problems are for you, get your vote and then proceed to do whatever they want to. Democracy must be about the people it claims to represent. Politics is not some magic code spoken only by some elite squad of professionals: it belongs to you. This is about people talking together and working things out.
What I will do:
- If elected I will do everything in my power to ensure transparency, including putting the minutes of municipal meetings on Twitter and Facebook.
- Ensure that I represent the ward and its people. I will be available and open to the public, not hidden in a fortified municipal office.
- Do everything in my capacity to use this position as a platform for direct democracy. To this end, I will facilitate the holding of monthly free and open public meetings where we can meet face to face and discuss problems and figure out ways to resolve them. As far as legally permissible, I will also put all voting issues on Facebook and Twitter for the wards residents and will also publically justify each vote I take.
- Sign a recall policy to ensure that I can immediately be removed if I fail to meet the criteria set by you the voter. A figurehead’s leadership is only legitimate so long as they are supported by their electorate.
- I will also only accept a living wage as councillor and will put half my monthly salary back into the communities in our proximity, with an eye to benefiting, in the most appropriate and relevant manner, those who are unable to meet their basic needs with dignity. This injection of funds into the communities will be done in such a manner as to avoid self-congratulatory smugness, understanding that the poor are in most instances poor for systemic reasons beyond their control.
- Actively create a space for the political representation of Rhodes students, and foster strong and enduring relationships between Rhodes and the broader Grahamstown community.
What I will not do:
- Make vacuous and impossible promises about service delivery, change, a better life for all or working together rather than for you, for the sake of votes.
- Use this ward as a ladder to become a professional politician.
- Be answerable to any party line, taking orders handed down from distant offices in Cape Town or
The first response that springs to mind, is that our party list representative system dis-empowers the voter for the profit of the party. Parties not the individual are awarded the seat and the individual candidate is determined by the party, meaning in order to ensure they keep their job candidates have to ensure they maintain a good-standing with their party, not the electorate. As we have seen across the country, people are dissatisfied with the state of service delivery and political representation across the country, from Durban to Grahamstown protests against a seemingly unaccountable, incompetent and uncaring state have characterised the build up to these elections. Protests have even extended to members of parties protesting against the elections lists handed to them before elections, in some cases politicians excluded from this years electoral lists have resorted to hiring hitmen to fix their problem. While the official opposition pursues policies deeply hostile to the poor majority of the country, from the evictions of people in Mandela Park, to the existence of a camp straight out of District 9 known as “Blikkiesdorp. A small exception exists in local elections where independents and civic candidates can run for office, in order to directly represent their communities
Most South Africans are familiar with the stories of corruption, incompetence and repression emerging from the ruling party, but so far the same coverage has not been extended to the similar contempt for the poor which exists with the Democratic Alliance. Hout Bay characterises the extreme inequality which blights both our country and Cape Town in particular. The leafy affluent neighbourhoods of the well-off and the plush mansions of the richer stand in direct contrast to the terrible poverty of the Mandela Park settlement which stands next the gated white communities of the area. Journey further down the beach past the harbour and you reach the poor coloured neighbourhood of Hangberg, within both of these communities the DA has failed to their promise of the open opportunity society.
Students for Social Justice a Grahamstown based student movement are screening the documentry “The Uprising of Hangberg” about the struggles of the people of Hangberg and brutal response of the police. As the DA promises to deliver the Cape Town solution to the rest of South Africa, it is time to blow away the fog surrounding the mountains of Cape Town, to expose the real human cost of this solution and why the DA does not present a real alternative to the ANC. Amongst our own disillusionment with the party system we have chosen to endorse a independent candidate Christopher Mc Michael standing for councillor in Ward 12 Grahamstown (Rhodes University) who presents a truly radical experiment in direct democracy. Independents are given some space to work with during local elections, but the obvious bias in the media and perpetuated by parties threatens to silence much of their message. Media coverage is often focused on the personality politics offered to us in the form of such figures of Malema, Zille and Zuma, while ignoring the real struggles of the poor against a unjust, unequal and increasingly repressive system.
Election Manifesto
As an independent candidate for Ward 12, I cannot promise you the world. What I can promise is that I will be a councillor who is answerable to you, the Ward 12 voter. The idea is simple but radical: politics should not be about top-down plans where leaders decide what your problems are for you, get your vote and then proceed to do whatever they want to. Democracy must be about the people it claims to represent. Politics is not some magic code spoken only by some elite squad of professionals: it belongs to you. This is about people talking together and working things out.
What I will do:
- If elected I will do everything in my power to ensure transparency, including putting the minutes of municipal meetings on Twitter and Facebook.
- Ensure that I represent the ward and its people. I will be available and open to the public, not hidden in a fortified municipal office.
- Do everything in my capacity to use this position as a platform for direct democracy. To this end, I will facilitate the holding of monthly free and open public meetings where we can meet face to face and discuss problems and figure out ways to resolve them. As far as legally permissible, I will also put all voting issues on Facebook and Twitter for the wards residents and will also publically justify each vote I take.
- Sign a recall policy to ensure that I can immediately be removed if I fail to meet the criteria set by you the voter. A figurehead’s leadership is only legitimate so long as they are supported by their electorate.
- I will also only accept a living wage as councillor and will put half my monthly salary back into the communities in our proximity, with an eye to benefiting, in the most appropriate and relevant manner, those who are unable to meet their basic needs with dignity. This injection of funds into the communities will be done in such a manner as to avoid self-congratulatory smugness, understanding that the poor are in most instances poor for systemic reasons beyond their control.
- Actively create a space for the political representation of Rhodes students, and foster strong and enduring relationships between Rhodes and the broader Grahamstown community.
What I will not do:
- Make vacuous and impossible promises about service delivery, change, a better life for all or working together rather than for you, for the sake of votes.
- Use this ward as a ladder to become a professional politician.
- Be answerable to any party line, taking orders handed down from distant offices in Cape Town or
Saturday, May 7, 2011
Leave Cutting Edge Alone
On the 28th April 2011 the SABC television programme Cutting Edge screened a programme on life in Grahamstown. The title of the story was ‘bucket of shame’. In Grahamstown there are vast areas that continue to use the bucket system to shit seventeen years after democracy.
People are shitting in buckets and plastic bags in Ndancama, a township that was erected in 1972. The few RDP houses that have been built are crumbling down. The sewerage is not working.
People are also shitting in buckets and plastic bags in eLuxolweni. RDP houses were supposed to be built here in 2010 but the project was never completed and the contractors have abandoned the site even thought thirty houses remain unbuilt. The quality of the work on the houses that were built is shocking and the sewerage is not working.
In the Sun City shack settlement, founded in 1982, and the Transit Camp, RDP houses are supposed to be being built but the emerging contractors are struggling to complete the project due to government delaying the payments.
My brother Sizakele Maxhegwana (his number is 046 – 637 0587) used to work as a casual worker, collecting the buckets full of shit. When we witnessed the unpleasant working conditions we advised him to stop working. No medical support was given. We felt that the work was hazardous to his health.
The Cutting Edge show on Grahamstown was carefully researched and it told the truth. Workers were interviewed and they narrated their unpleasant working conditions. Residents were interviewed as well and they told their stories about the indignities and dangers that come from not having access to proper toilets.
All these devastating ills are emerging from a Municipality that is rotten at the base. The Mayor is personally indebted to the Municipality for an amount of not less than R60 000.
In the 2010/2011 Financial year the Makana Municipality could not account for an amount of R19 million.
In the 2009/2010 Financial year the very same Makana Municipality could not account for R24 million.
Old ladies are shitting in plastic bags while millions of rand cannot be accounted for! This is disgraceful.
Since the Cutting Edge show on Grahamstown was screened we have witnessed a lot of anxiety from both the municipality and the ruling party. Some senior members of the ruling party accused us of paying SABC, Cutting Edge in particular, for screening what they called “a right wing agenda that seeks to destabilise ANC ahead of the local government elections”. An employee of the municipality publicly accused us of being drunk with wine that we get from reactionary white academics. The local ANC said the Luthuli house is looking at the video and that both UPM and SABC “shall shit bricks”. Zandie Mahlahla, a senior member of the ANC, publicly threatened me on the campus of Rhodes University. She said that I am “going to be killed and be buried in the township”. She closed the way of our Publicity Secretary Xola Mali. She just stood like a zombie.
We have now learnt that the Makana Municipality has taken South African Broadcasting Corporation (SABC) to the Broadcasting Complaints Commission of South Africa (BCCSA). This is another signal of the death of democracy in South Africa. It is another signal that corruption is entrenched in our society and that who ever seeks to expose it we be met by all kinds of hostilities and intimidations. It is another signal that the party that once aimed to be a national liberation movement is now a means to private accumulation and top down social control.
After what happened to Abahlali baseMjondolo in Kennedy Road and Pemary Ridge in Durban in 2009 and the Landless People’s Movement in eTwatwa on the East Rand in 2010 no autonomous poor people’s organisation can afford to ignore public death threats from the ANC.
Now that the ANC has openly declared its tensions to be able to censor the media we should not see this attempt to intimidate journalists as an isolated instance.
It is clear that the Municipality can not prove
· Distortion: Nothing is being exaggerated in this programme. It is a fact that our people use the bucket system to shit. It is a fact that our municipality is corrupt. The workers told the truth when they narrated their unpleasant working conditions
· Material Omission: I wonder what sort of defence of such appalling conditions that our people continue to endure after 17 years of “democracy” could be claimed to be a ‘material omission’?
· Summarisation: The summary presented in the show presented the reality of the lives of our people in a very fair manner.
The real problem here for the ANC is the screening of a programme on the bucket system on the eve of local government elections. The real problem here is that local authorities do not want to be exposed as corrupt. The real problem here is a political party that is so obsessed with power that anything that threatens their government must just be suppressed and vanquished.
The ANC is silent when we suffer day in and day out. The ANC can ignore our people for seventeen years while we shit in plastic bags and buckets. But when we speak up they jump into action and threaten to kill and to make us shit bricks. They are very efficient and effective when they want to be. They do not leave us to suffer because they have a capacity problem. They leave us to suffer because they want to leave us to suffer.
On the day of the hearing against Cutting Edge the people of different areas still using buckets’ will protest outside Makana Municipality Hall. We will dump all the shit in front of the Town Hall because that is where it belongs.
We are sick and tired of being dehumanized by the ruling power elite. We are fed up of giving and giving and not getting anything, but bullshit. We are told that it is our sacred, national and revolutionary duty to put our crosses next to their name in the IEC’s boxes. But they have no interest in allowing us to put our shit in toilets.
If our lives and voices matter, of which they should, the Municipality must drop the case against Cutting Edge immediately and focus on eradicating the bucket system, fighting corruption and servicing the people with basic social rights.
Leave Cutting Edge Alone!
Yours truly;
Ayanda Kota
UPM – Chairperson
078 6256 46
People are shitting in buckets and plastic bags in Ndancama, a township that was erected in 1972. The few RDP houses that have been built are crumbling down. The sewerage is not working.
People are also shitting in buckets and plastic bags in eLuxolweni. RDP houses were supposed to be built here in 2010 but the project was never completed and the contractors have abandoned the site even thought thirty houses remain unbuilt. The quality of the work on the houses that were built is shocking and the sewerage is not working.
In the Sun City shack settlement, founded in 1982, and the Transit Camp, RDP houses are supposed to be being built but the emerging contractors are struggling to complete the project due to government delaying the payments.
My brother Sizakele Maxhegwana (his number is 046 – 637 0587) used to work as a casual worker, collecting the buckets full of shit. When we witnessed the unpleasant working conditions we advised him to stop working. No medical support was given. We felt that the work was hazardous to his health.
The Cutting Edge show on Grahamstown was carefully researched and it told the truth. Workers were interviewed and they narrated their unpleasant working conditions. Residents were interviewed as well and they told their stories about the indignities and dangers that come from not having access to proper toilets.
All these devastating ills are emerging from a Municipality that is rotten at the base. The Mayor is personally indebted to the Municipality for an amount of not less than R60 000.
In the 2010/2011 Financial year the Makana Municipality could not account for an amount of R19 million.
In the 2009/2010 Financial year the very same Makana Municipality could not account for R24 million.
Old ladies are shitting in plastic bags while millions of rand cannot be accounted for! This is disgraceful.
Since the Cutting Edge show on Grahamstown was screened we have witnessed a lot of anxiety from both the municipality and the ruling party. Some senior members of the ruling party accused us of paying SABC, Cutting Edge in particular, for screening what they called “a right wing agenda that seeks to destabilise ANC ahead of the local government elections”. An employee of the municipality publicly accused us of being drunk with wine that we get from reactionary white academics. The local ANC said the Luthuli house is looking at the video and that both UPM and SABC “shall shit bricks”. Zandie Mahlahla, a senior member of the ANC, publicly threatened me on the campus of Rhodes University. She said that I am “going to be killed and be buried in the township”. She closed the way of our Publicity Secretary Xola Mali. She just stood like a zombie.
We have now learnt that the Makana Municipality has taken South African Broadcasting Corporation (SABC) to the Broadcasting Complaints Commission of South Africa (BCCSA). This is another signal of the death of democracy in South Africa. It is another signal that corruption is entrenched in our society and that who ever seeks to expose it we be met by all kinds of hostilities and intimidations. It is another signal that the party that once aimed to be a national liberation movement is now a means to private accumulation and top down social control.
After what happened to Abahlali baseMjondolo in Kennedy Road and Pemary Ridge in Durban in 2009 and the Landless People’s Movement in eTwatwa on the East Rand in 2010 no autonomous poor people’s organisation can afford to ignore public death threats from the ANC.
Now that the ANC has openly declared its tensions to be able to censor the media we should not see this attempt to intimidate journalists as an isolated instance.
It is clear that the Municipality can not prove
· Distortion: Nothing is being exaggerated in this programme. It is a fact that our people use the bucket system to shit. It is a fact that our municipality is corrupt. The workers told the truth when they narrated their unpleasant working conditions
· Material Omission: I wonder what sort of defence of such appalling conditions that our people continue to endure after 17 years of “democracy” could be claimed to be a ‘material omission’?
· Summarisation: The summary presented in the show presented the reality of the lives of our people in a very fair manner.
The real problem here for the ANC is the screening of a programme on the bucket system on the eve of local government elections. The real problem here is that local authorities do not want to be exposed as corrupt. The real problem here is a political party that is so obsessed with power that anything that threatens their government must just be suppressed and vanquished.
The ANC is silent when we suffer day in and day out. The ANC can ignore our people for seventeen years while we shit in plastic bags and buckets. But when we speak up they jump into action and threaten to kill and to make us shit bricks. They are very efficient and effective when they want to be. They do not leave us to suffer because they have a capacity problem. They leave us to suffer because they want to leave us to suffer.
On the day of the hearing against Cutting Edge the people of different areas still using buckets’ will protest outside Makana Municipality Hall. We will dump all the shit in front of the Town Hall because that is where it belongs.
We are sick and tired of being dehumanized by the ruling power elite. We are fed up of giving and giving and not getting anything, but bullshit. We are told that it is our sacred, national and revolutionary duty to put our crosses next to their name in the IEC’s boxes. But they have no interest in allowing us to put our shit in toilets.
If our lives and voices matter, of which they should, the Municipality must drop the case against Cutting Edge immediately and focus on eradicating the bucket system, fighting corruption and servicing the people with basic social rights.
Leave Cutting Edge Alone!
Yours truly;
Ayanda Kota
UPM – Chairperson
078 6256 46
Sunday, May 1, 2011
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