The week in political activism

Abahlali baseMjondolo

On Monday 18 November 2013 at 9 am, members of Abahlali joined forces with members of the Clare Estate Ratepayers’ association in a protest march near Durban. The protesters marched from Foreman Road shack settlement to local Councillor Bhekisane Ngcobo’s office in Asherville.

“We have agreed on a common programme”, says the Abahlali press statement, “[..] we want to build a Clare Estate for all, a Clare Estate where everyone has a decent house, decent services, good schools, where development is democratically decided and everyone feels at home and can enjoy living in the area in safety.”

Councillor Bhekisane Ngocobo was absent when the protesters arrived at his office, causing frustration, said Abahlali Deputy General Secretary Thina Khanyile in an interview. Khanyile told GroundUp that the protesters are still waiting for a response from the Councillor himself.

The march was also supported by the local taxi association and other local businesses.

For more information and the full list of demands put forward by Abahlahli and supporters, go to: http://abahlali.org/node/13180

People Against Suffering, Oppression and Poverty (PASSOP)

We spoke to Tendai Bhiza from PASSOP, who gave us the latest news on the organisation’s work.

PASSOP’s area of expertise is the protection and fight for the rights of asylum seekers, refugees and immigrants in South Africa.

The team helps asylum seekers by writing appeal letters to the Refugee Registration Office (RRO) if their application for refugee status is declined, and also help write letters to the Cape Town Refugee Centre (CTRC).

Most recently, PASSOP has been busy preparing Christmas parcels for the Disabled Children’s Support Project (DCSP), using donations received from a clothing bank. Find out more about the initiative at http://www.passop.co.za/programmes/disabled-children-support-project.

For more info on PASSOP, go to their website: http://www.passop.co.za/

Treatment Action Campaign

Marcus Low, head of policy at TAC, told GroundUp that TAC is concerned about continued stockouts of essential medicines at public sector clinics. Low said that at TAC’s National Council last week members from various provinces reported stock-outs. A detailed report on stock-outs in the country will be released shortly by the Stop Stock-outs Project, with which TAC is involved. TAC is preparing to highlight stockouts and other health problems, especially in the Eastern Cape, on World AIDS Day on 1 December.

For more on TAC go to: http://www.tac.org.za/

Also see the Stop Stockouts project: http://stockouts.org/

Women’s Legal Centre (WLC)

The WLC is a non-profit, independently funded law Centre, started by a group of lawyers in Cape Town in 1999, with a vision to achieve equality for women in South Africa.

The WLC is currently working on a project called “Harmful Cultural and religious practices in South Africa”. Practices such a ukuthwala (forced marriage of young girls), ukungenwa (whereby a widowed woman becomes the wife of her brother-in-law), female genital mutilation and virginity testing violate the human rights of women and girls in South Africa, and perpetuate gender roles that are unequal and harm women.

Gcobisa Silwana from the WLC said: “The first part of the project involves getting information from people on the ground who know about cultural and religious practices that are impacting women in South Africa. We are interested in hearing from people in all parts of the country, especially those who have experienced harm due to cultural or religious practices. People are welcome to call us on 021 424 5660 (we can call you back if you ask us to), or leave a message on Facebook, https://www.facebook.com/WLCCapeTown or send an email to communications [at] wlce.co.za.”

For more information visit www.wlce.co.za

Democratic Left Front (DLF)

The DLF is a front of popular movements, independent trade unions, political groups and individuals from around South Africa who have joined together to promote radical and anti-capitalist alternatives.

Currently, the DLF is busy promoting an Assembly of the Unemployed, which will take place 7 to 9 December in Grahamstown (see Abahlali’s posting on this for more: http://abahlali.org/node/13176). The assembly will be a platform for the unemployed, who can voice their views there. The assembly will also discuss employment strategies which could help guarantee decent work for all.

The DLF assembly links to other campaigns that the DLF actively support, such as the Million Climate Jobs Campaign, which sees the move to a low-carbon economy as an opportunity to create a huge amount of jobs (you can join the campaign here: http://www.climatejobs.org.za/).