7/28/2019 S'bu Zikode: Saviour of the Poor

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WHAT I stand foris in my veins. If I were to die, Iwould have died

for a good cause. Rather die as ahero than die as a useless some-body, said Sbu Zikode of shack-dwellers movement AbahlaliBasemjondolo in an interview thisweek.

While this might sound like self-aggrandisement from a martyrwannabe, Zikode, chairman of oneof the biggest social movements toemerge in post-1994 South Africa(with 25 000 members), is nostranger to acts of heroism or vio-lence.

He has faced threats from thepolitical establishment who havelabelled him an agitator, third force

and puppet.In 2006 Zikode and his deputy,

Philani Zungu, were arrested ontrumped up charges and severelytortured.

Just recently the Durban HighCourt vindicated the pair by order-ingPolice Minister Nathi Mthethwato pay Zikode andZungu R165 000 indamages.

Their crime? Zikode had agreedto a radio debate with then HousingMEC Mike Mabuyakhulu.

We were charged with crimeninjuria, resisting arrest and attack-ing a police officer. After that wewere subjected to the worst form of torture imaginable, recalled Zikodefrom the organisations modestoffices at Salisbury Arcade, in theDurban CDB.

In 2009 Zikode, 38, found himself in more turmoil shortly after theConstitutional Court ruled in favourof Abahlali by overturning therepressive KwaZulu-Natal Elimi-nation and Prevention of the Re-emergence of Slums Act 2007.

Zikode says this piece of legisla-tion had been designed to eradicate

slums not by building houses for thepoor, but by bulldozing their shacks.

Its the same apartheid-erathinking that if you are poor youhave no rights. In the shacks thereshuman life. There are souls there,you cannot just bulldoze. We took itupon ourselves to ensure well dowhatever it takes to protect the livesof the shack-dwellers.

Official statistics put the numberof informal settlements in eThek-wini at 540.

According to Zikode there aremore than 2 700 settlements coun-trywide, housing more than 12 mil-lion people.

Of eThekwinis 3.5 million peo-ple, about 800 000 live in shacks, hesays. The backlog is 400 000 housesthat are needed as we speak. Theyll

tell you theyre building 16 000houses a year, but in the last finan-cial year theyve built fewer than4 000. So if you have that backlog,when will you reach the target?

Had we not challenged that act,there would have been worse suffer-ing than what youre seeing now.Not that we encourage people to livein shacks, but if you cant provideany alternative it should mean thatpeople must remain in the shacksuntil they get the better life for allthat was promised.

Abahlali, which has membershippredominantly in KwaZulu-Nataland increasingly in the WesternCape, runs well-oiled publicitymachinery and its work hasattracted worldwide attention, withZikode regularly trotting the globeas an advocate of human rights.

For their troubles Abahlali hasbeen branded anything from agita-tors with sinister motives, thirdforce operatives, puppets andworse.

They say we are funded by for-eign agencies to destabilise thisbeautiful, hard-won democracy

But what we are doing is for the loveof our country. Were not a project tofight the ANC or government. We doit out of patriotism.

It is nonsense to say were risingagainst the republic we do what wedo because we have a deep love forour country. We cannot allow ourcountry to be used by individuals,by the elite, to further their ownagenda by excluding millions of South Africans, Zikode says.

Zikode sees the movement asbeing about more than land and

housing.We believe in democracy from

below. The top-down system of democracy and development is prob-lematic.

Zikode is transparent aboutAbahlalis funding. Were a mem-bership-based organisation ourmembership is R10 a year. The sec-ond source of funding is churches.The Anglican church, for instance,believes our struggle is a worthyone.

We are also supported by the

South Africa Development Fund.But its not only the financial sup-port. We have leading lawyers in thecountry who support us, advocateswho represent us on a pro bonobasis.

Born in Loskop, Estcourt, Zikodewas forced to drop out of his legalstudies at the University of Durban-Westville after three months whenhis brother-in-law and guardianfound a job in Johannesburg.

He moved to the Kennedy Roadinformal settlement, renting a shack

for R80. The experience was to openhis eyes profou ndly.

I had a feeling that a humanbeing could not live in those condi-tions. So I took it upon myself to dowhatever it takes to help.

Zikodes involvement has come atgreat personal cost. Following thelandmark Concourt ruling in 2009,Abahlali slaughtered two cows incelebration, but the jubilation wasshort-lived as violence erupted atthe Kennedy Road informal settle-ment, culminating in the death of

two people and many injured.Zikode, who had fortuitously

goneto Estcourt before the attack, isconvinced he had been the target of an assassination plot.

But Zikode remains unshaken. Igrew up as a Boy Scout. Leadershipis in my veins.

As a Boy Scout I made a prom-ise to do my duty to God and mycountry. I cannot quit. I did not jointhis movement, I co-founded it.

The struggle cant be divorcedfrom me.

News Views&OPINION 17/18 BIG ISSUE 19 LETTERS 20 SPORT 21 - 28

PAGE 15June 9

2013

Members of Abahlali Basemjondolo the shack dwellers movement rejoice outside the court after their president Sbu Zikode was released from jail in 2006. Picture:RICHARD PITHOUSE

SUTCLIFFE ON MANASE REPORT/ 19 BURGER AND THE BEST OF THE BOKS/27-28

Saviour of the poor To some he is a hero, to othersan agitator, but this former Boy Scout continues to champion the

cause of the landless.AbahlaliBasemjondolos Sbu Zikodespeaks to Agiza Hlongwane