History Matters

State of the Nation Address by His Excellency JG Zuma, President of the Republic of South Africa, Joint Sitting of Parliament, Cape Town 3 June 2009 Honourable Speaker; Chairperson of the National Council of Provinces; Deputy Speaker of the National Assembly and Deputy Chairperson of the NCOP; Deputy President of the Republic, Kgalema Motlanthe Former [...]

Abahlali baseMjondolo Press Statement Tuesday, 19 May 2009 Now that the election is over and the politicians have finished hunting for positions they are running away from the people. It is impossible for a poor community to get a meeting with a politician. They only send in the police to break the people’s homes and [...]

On average in South Africa over the last five years there are ten shack fires a day with someone dying in a shack fire every other day. Shack fires are not acts of God. They are the result of political choices, often at municipal level. Shack settlements are a poor people’s solution to a lack [...]

“This is one country where it would be possible to create a capitalist black society, if whites were intelligent, if the nationalists were intelligent. And that capitalist black society, black middle class, would be very effective … South Africa could succeed in putting across to the world a pretty convincing, integrated picture, with still 70 [...]

FINALISED SCHEDULE OF LECTURES: September 10 Housing: Grootboom Case Speakers: Judge Dennis Davis, Peter Roman, student from the SSLJ September 17 Accountability: Metrorail – Public Transport Speakers: Judith February, Mr Van Minnen September 24 Health: TAC Case Speakers: Nonkosi Khumalo, Louis Reynolds October 01 Education: 14 years and still no case Speakers: Mamphela Ramphele Representative [...]

Launch of Abahlali baseMjondolo in the Western Cape …