Wasting the Nation.indd - Groundwork

Chapter 1: Dust and Asheslazy, criminal and dangerous” [Pithouse 2006: 21], a stereotyping that associates themwith waste – unclean and dangerous – and makes them appear less than human andincapable of thinking and acting for themselves. Hence it is used to exclude them fromthe city authority’s decision making process which has the intention to remove themfrom the central city. For several years the residents of Kennedy Road acted within theofficial process. They moved to protesting both the process and the agenda when thepromises made to them were repeatedly broken. Two things followed from this: first,the city authorities effectively branded them as enemies of the state and, second, theystarted organising for effective resistance within both the settlement and other shacksettlements across the city.In the years since its inception, AbM has matured. This is not about the mere passingof time, but about an insistence on democratic practice and on people thinking andspeaking for themselves. In May 2008, people from other African countries weresubject to a series of ‘xenophobic’ attacks by South African citizens. The attacks tookplace mainly in poor areas because, it was said, foreigners were taking what properlybelonged to South Africans. In its response, AbM emphasised that its membership,and indeed its leadership, includes “people born in other countries”. At meetingscalled in response to the crisis, it opened up the issue to debate but questioned thosewho attributed anti-social behaviour only to foreigners. The message was that peopleshould respond to the behaviour, not to the identity of the person. “An action canbe illegal. A person cannot be illegal. A person is a person where ever they may findthemselves. If you live in a settlement you are from that settlement and you are aneighbour and a comrade in that settlement.” At the same time, the AbM asked “whyit is that money and rich people can move freely around the world while everywherethe poor must confront razor wire, corrupt and violent police, queues and relocationor deportation?” 77 Abahlali baseMjondolo Statement on the Xenophobic Attacks in Johannesburg, Wednesday, 21 May 2008.Wasting the Nation - groundWork - 21 -