S'bu Zikode
Sibusiso Innocent Zikode is the president of the South African shack dwellers' movement Abahlali baseMjondolo.[1][2] According to the Mail & Guardian "Under his stewardship, ABM has made steady gains for housing rights." [3]
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[edit] Biography
He was born in the village of Loskop in 1975 and grew up in the town of Estcourt, in the midlands of KwaZulu Natal, South Africa.[4][5] He was raised by a single mother working as a domestic worker. He completed Matric at Bonokuhle High School where he joined the Boy Scouts Movement.
A few years later he enrolled as a law student at what was formerly known as The University of Durban-Westville and is now part of the University of KwaZulu-Natal. However he was unable to pay fees or rent and in 1997 had to abandon his studies and move to the Kennedy Road shack settlement. He found work at a nearby gas station as a petrol pump attendant.[6][7]
[edit] Activism
Zikode has been the elected head of the South African shack dwellers' movement Abahlali baseMjondolo since October 2005. Before that he was the Chairperson of the Kennedy Road Development Committee. Although the movement campaigns for basic services, like water[8] and electricity,[9] as well as land and housing,[10] Zikode is clear that its demands go beyond immediate material needs.[11] He has said that ""The house on its own cannot solve the problem. It's not only money that creates dignity. All governments should accept that our communities are part of the greater society."[12] He argues for an immediate assertion of equality[13] and for meaningful engagement with the poor by saying that, "The government and academics speak about the poor all the time, but so few want to speak to the poor".[14]
Commenting in response to Zikode's newspaper article 'We are the Third Force' veteran South African journalist Max du Preez commented that "I have never read anything as compelling, real and disturbing as the piece written in The Star last week by S'bu Zikode".[15]
He had been critical of evictions linked to the 2010 FIFA World Cup[16] and supported the August 2010 Public Sector Worker's strike in South Africa.[17]
Mark Hunter argues that Zikode evokes a conception of housing rooted in an idea of dignity rather than a technical, numbers driven approach to the housing crisis.[18]
His writing has been anthologised in the Verso Book of Dissent.[19]
[edit] Awards
On 16 December 2009 he was presented with the Order of the Holy Nativity by Bishop Rubin Phillip.[20][21][22]
[edit] Repression
In 2006 Zikode, along with a number of other members of the movement, was forced out of his job after his boss came under pressure from the Mayor[citation needed]. In September 2006 Zikode, and the then Deputy Chair of the movement Philani Zungu, were arrested on trumped up charges and tortured by Superintendent Glen Nayager in the Sydenham Police Station.[23]
In September 2009, Kennedy Road was attacked by a mob reportedly affiliated with the African National Congress. Violence continued for days.[24][25][26] Zikode's home was destroyed during the violence and he and his family fled.[27] Zikode, who is in hiding[28][29] because he fears for his life, considers himself a political refugee.[30][31]
[edit] References
- ^ Freedom's prisoners, Mail & Guardian
- ^ South Africa's new apartheid?. Riz Khan, Al Jazeera, 23 November 2010
- ^ 200 Young South Africans in Civil Society, Mail & Guardian
- ^ 200 Young South Africans in Civil Society, Mail & Guardian
- ^ Order of the Holy Nativity Awarded to S'bu Zikode
- ^ 'Unrest in South African shanty towns – ready to host the World Cup?', The Observers, 23 July 2009
- ^ When Choices Can No Longer be Choices
- ^ Report Details Toll Taken by Lack of Water, Sanitation, Moyiga Nduru, IPS, 2006
- ^ Economies Go Underground, Robert Neuwirth, Forbes, 2010
- ^ Abahlali baseMjondolo March on Jacob Zuma, Durban, South Africa, 22 March 2010, UK IndyMedia
- ^ In the country of the blind… Bob Catterall, City, 2007
- ^ Economies Go Underground Robert Neuwirth, Forbes, 09.09.10,
- ^ "The Will of the People: Notes Towards a Dialectical Voluntarism", by Peter Hallward, Radical Philosophy, 2009
- ^ "The real winners and losers: of the beautiful game", Sunday Herald, 9 August 2009
- ^ "Shacks of Fear", Max Du Preez, Daily News, 17 November 2005
- ^ "World Cup 2010: football brings defining moment for South Africa", The Guardian, 12 June 2009]
- ^ Hospitals blocked as South African unions resume massive strikes, France 24, 19/08/2010
- ^ Love in a Time of AIDS, Mark Hunter, UKZN Press, 2010
- ^ [1] The Verso Book of Dissent
- ^ Order of Service for the Presentation of the Order of the Holy Nativity to S'bu Zikode
- ^ Shack Dweller's Leader Honoured, SABC
- ^ Anglican Church honours Abahlali leader, Paul Trewhela, Politicsweb, 18 December 2009
- ^ "Shack Dwellers on the Move", Radical Philosophy, January 2007
- ^ "'Attackers associated with ANC'". News24. http://www.news24.com/Content/SouthAfrica/News/1059/94212f4a70a54a77a811b7fb94c15069/28-09-2009-10-36/Dbn_attackers_associated_with_ANC.
- ^ "The Attacks Continue in the Presence of the Police and Senior ANC Leaders". Abahlali baseMjondolo. http://abahlali.org/node/5771.
- ^ "Joint Statement on the attacks on the Kennedy Road Informal Settlement in Durban". Professor John Dugard SC, et al. http://antieviction.org.za/2009/09/28/joint-statement-on-the-attacks-on-the-kennedy-road-informal-settlement-in-durban/.
- ^ "S'bu Zikode's House after the attack". Abahlali baseMjondolo. http://abahlali.org/node/5772.
- ^ SOUTH AFRICA: Poor people's movement draws government wrath, IRIN,UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, 22 April 2010
- ^ Freedom's prisoners, Mail & Guardian
- ^ "‘The ANC has invaded Kennedy Road’". PambazukaNews. http://pambazuka.org/en/category/features/59122.
- ^ "Call for solidarity among shack dwellers". Mercury. http://www.themercury.co.za/index.php?fArticleId=5186050.
[edit] External links
[edit] Online articles and speeches
- We are the Third Force
- Transcribed speech given at the University of KwaZulu-Natal
- We are the Restless Majority
- Make Crime History
- Silencing the Right to Speak, is taking away Citizenship
- When Choices Can No Longer Be Choices
- Land & Housing: The burning issues
- 2008 AGM Speech
- Meaningful Engagement
- The ANC Has Invaded Kennedy Road
- Party Politic Vs Living Politic in Kennedy Road
- Democracy is on the Brink of Catastrophe
- Serving our Life Sentence in the Shacks (with Zodwa Nsibande)
- Land is a Political Question
- When Loyalty Becomes a Threat to Society
- When the Poor Become Powerful Outside of State Control
- Presentation at CUNY Graduate Center for Place, Culture and Politics
- The Politic of Land and Housing, Presentation to University of Chicago Students in Cape Town
- Transcription of talk on Frantz Fanon, Rhodes University, South Africa, 2011
[edit] Interviews
[edit] Online films
- Txaboletan bizi direnak by Elkartasun Bideak, 2009 (English dialogue with Basque subtitles)
- Amandla Awethu by Elkartasun Bideak, 2009
- From the Shacks to the Constitutional Court by Dara Kell & Christopher Nizza, 2008
- Dear Mandela by Dara Kell & Christopher Nizza, 2008
- A Place in the City by Jenny Morgan, 2008
- The Right to Know: The Fight for Open Democracy in South Africa by Ben Cashdan, 2007
- Nayager Falls, Abahlali Rises by Sally Gilles and Fazel Khan, 2007
- Breyani & the Councillor by Sally Gilles and Fazel Khan, 2006
- Kennedy Road and the Councillor by Aoibheann O'Sullivan, 2005
