From
The Commune:
marikana: the suffering goes on
6
05
2013
As the homeless residents of Marikana, we are here because we do
not have anywhere else to go. We are also now jobless which means we
cannot afford to pay rent to live in someone’s backyard. We always vote
for this government but they always treat us like dogs in our own
country. The government sends the Anti-Land Invasions Unit, Law
Enforcement and SAPS to demolish our houses. They did this on Sunday,
Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday and again on Friday the 3rd of May.
They’ve now arrested four of us for public violence even though the
police were the ones that hurt us, shot us and beat us.
On the 1st of May, a public holiday which celebrates the resistance
of the workers and the poor against the oppression of the rich, the
City even again took the side of the rich and stole our building
material. This is thousands of Rands worth of our property which we
don’t think we will ever see again because they don’t tell us where they
have taken it. Without this material, we have nowhere else to go
because even if we had a little money, we can’t now rent somewhere build
a shack there.
So we have nowhere else to go. Since Wednesday, we have been sleeping
out in the open, in the rain. While we sleep in the bush, at least the
snakes have forgiven us for moving onto their land. They don’t chase us
away and now treat us with respect. They have become like our brothers
and sisters.
But the same cannot be said for our government which is chasing us
away as if we are not their brothers and sisters. As if we are not even
human. But next year, they will need us to go vote for them. But how
can we vote for anyone that takes away our dignity.
Yesterday, on Friday the 3rd, Law Enforcement came again and took
away our waterproof tarps and plastic material the we were using to keep
us dry from the rain. Why did they do this? We can’t build a shack with
that material – we were just trying to keep dry and warm because we are
stuck there with nowhere else to go. But the City of Cape Town is
heartless. They want us to get sick. They want to punish us for trying
to do whats best for our families, for our children. All 50 of us!
But we are not going anywhere. They can take the material. They can
shoot us. They can even kill us. But we will not move from this place.
This piece of land is not being use and has never been used (except by
criminals who go there to kill people, abuse children and rape women) so
we will remain there unless we are given a piece of land that we can
call our own.
We have tried to engage with the City of Cape Town, but they ignore
us. We are trying to attend a meeting between the City, Law Enforcement
and SAPS at the Philippi East police station on Monday the 6th of May.
This meeting is about us but we have not even been invited! When we
spoke to Station Commissioner Colonel Mdimbaza, he told us: “I am sick
and tired of you. I don’t want to see you in that meeting. If I see your
faces in the meeting, I will shoot you”.
So what can we do? The police shoot us, the Law Enforcement evicts
us, and the rest of the City ignores us. So we will just continue to
stay in Marikana until they give up or we die. This is the same story as
the Marikana Massacre of the rich and government oppressing the poor
and it is being repeated all over the country included here in Philippi
East.
Abahlali baseMarikana
