The landless people’s movement in KwaZula Natal is gathering momentum as people from the urban shack dwellers movement fight back from the commons, to prevent the implementation of the “Elimination and Prevention of the Re-emergence of Slums Bill”. The Bill makes it mandatory for landowners and local municipalities to evict people who are “unlawfully occupying land or buildings” thereby leaving millions of South Africans without the security of knowing they have a place to live. It is not hard to figure out that there is a connection between the Bill and the 2010 World Cup as munciple authorities in Durban, Cape Town and Johannesburg begin to systematically attack the poor with the aim of removing them from the city centers for the World Cup. Africa’s poor will not be visible in 2010

“The soccer World Cup is a threat to our communities, in a sense, because it is putting pressure on the city to get rid of shacks.

“They think we are stupid and don’t know what they are up to said S’bu Zikode, President of the Durban-based Abahlali baseMjondolo …..The eThekwini Municipality’s idea that they want to develop a world-class city for the 2010 World Cup is sending a clear message to the poor - we are not wanted, and the illegal evictions, threats and brutalisation our communities are facing on a daily basis are proof of that,”

Farmworkers and landless peoples from rural KZN are also fighting back against landowners who continue to occupy African land despite 13 years into independence.

Landless KwaZulu-Natal people have vowed to invade all farms and vacant land in the province saying they “are sick and tired” of waiting for government to provide them with land or homes.

Yesterday the Landless People’s Movement (LPM) said the latest invasions “were just the tip of the iceberg. We will be doing the same with other farms in Vryheid, Pongola, Mooi River, Danhauser and other farms.

The response from the white farmers and landowners is to seek protection through the courts

“This should be stopped now or we will face a disaster as people can go anywhere and claim the land as being theirs,” said a farmer, who did not want to be named.

I wouldn’t imagine it would be that much of a disaster for the white farmers and land owners and frankly, I have no sympathy for this group of people who continue to behave towards Africans as they have always done and benefit economically from the sweat of impoverished people. Certainly it would not be as disastrous as the land grab of their forefathers who “went anywhere and claimed any land they fancied as theirs”, leaving millions of Africans displaced, enslaved and in poverty, living under a year minority racist regime and a post Apartheid government that now finds itself defending the white farmers against the rights of the African masses.

It is not just reclaiming land but demanding reparations for Apartheid. There are international legal precedents for reparations which could be used by the landless of South Africa in an international court. Some examples over the past 50 years are: Japanese interned by the US during World War II received reparations from the US government of $1.2 billion. The families of Jews who were exterminated during WWII received reparations and the return of their individual wealth from the German and Swiss governments. In the 1980s the Sioux Indian nation won a Supreme Court decision of $122 million to compensate them for illegal seizure of tribal lands in 1877 which the Nation refused instead demanding the return of their lands.

The court found that no valid agreement had occurred in 1876 among the Sioux people to cede the Black Hills to the federal government. Not only had their land been taken illegally, it had been seized without compensation. In response, the federal government offered the Nation $17.5 million, the estimated value of the area in 1877. The traditional Indians and tribal councils of all seven Sioux nations refused the offer, demanding instead the return of their land which had never been for sale. In 1979, the government raised the amount to $122 million; in June 1980, the U.S. Supreme Court affirmed that judgement. In April 1981, AIM established a camp in the Black Hills and reclaimed the land for the Indian people. The Oglala traditionalists then contested the decision and sought a temporary restraining order to prohibit the government from paying any part of the award. The request was denied. All the Sioux tribes have refused to take payment and the money remains in a federal escrow account where it continues to gain interest.

This is not to say that the Native Americans have reclaimed all their lands not to speak of reparations for the murder and suffering of millions of their people. And African people throughout the Diaspora have been calling for reparations for slavery from Britain and the US (Spain and Portugal). The silent non-response of the west should be contrasted with the response to Jewish people of Europe in the immediate aftermath of WWII up till the present, for crimes against humanity.

So yes, costs aside, the courts are an option. But how long do Africans have to put up with the appeasement policies of their greedy and more often than not foolish leaders and individuals always willing to pamper to the interests of a group of white men even when they continue to benefit off our backs. Why is it that whenever Black people are involved we are always expected to appease - forgive and forget? How are people supposed to move on with their lives when their legs are still shackled? My friend Andile has the perfect quote for those that receive and cheer for the crumbs off the white man’s table

Dessalines - the leader of the Haitian revolution in 1804 …

“Your struggles against tyranny are not yet over…. our laws, our custom, our cities, everything bears the characteristic of the French… and yet you believe yourselves free and independent of that republic”…

Tags: Shackdwellers; South Africa; Land Rights; Raparations