ABAHLALI baseMjondolo embarked on a march in Durban today.
They met at the King Dinuzulu Park and proceeded to the Durban City Hall to hand over their memorandum to the KZN Premier Sihle Zikalala, KZN MEC for Coorporate Governance and Traditional Affairs (Cogta) Sipho Hlomuka and eThekwini municipality.
Abahlali baseMjondolo are demanding an end to state corruption, forced evictions and violence.
The president of the organisation Sbu Zikode, told Daily Sun, that huge resources have been invested to fight the Covid-19 pandemic and protect lives.
He said, however, in South Africa many thugs in suits and ties at high levels of government have seen this crisis as an opportunity to enrich themselves.
“They have stolen amounts of public money in broad day light. There have been shocking media reports that R25 million allocated by the KZN Department of Social Development to provide food relief to the poor has gone missing,” he said.
He said it is reported that this money was meant to provide food relief to about 88 000 people in distress, and yet only 1 026 people benefited.
“We are not just calling for the investigation and prosecution of the culprits. We also demand that the Department of Social Development recover the money and redirect it to people who are still in need of food relief,” he said.
He said it is a known fact that former eThekwini mayor Zandile Gumede is alleged to have corrupted almost R430 million rand from a Durban Solid Waste tender.
“It is now reported that at least R700 million meant to provide water and sanitation has also gone missing in the eThekwini Water and Sanitation unit. This is very disturbing. The act of corruption in the middle of pandemic should be viewed as an attempted murder and the culprits should be charged as such,” he said.
He said they welcome all the arrests and action taken by law against the politicians and officials who have looted public funds in this crisis.
“But we still feel we have the responsibility to assist and to expose corruption at municipal level. We cannot keep quite when more than R2 billion is lost from the eThekwini Municipality,” he said.
He said they are disturbed by the silence of the Department of Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs (Cogta) with regard to this corruption.
“Violent forced evictions during the State of National Disaster have displaced hundreds of families. We demand all that have been displaced during the State of National Disaster be reinstated on their lands. We demand that they be compensated for the destruction of their property. We demand that all the municipal officials and private security workers who engaged in violence during the evictions be held accountable for their actions,” he said.
He said they give the premier as well as the eThekwini municipality and the department of Cogta 14 days to respond to their grievances.
The memorandum was received by three people who promised to pass the grievances to the relevant structures.
From the premier’s office, Linda Nzama received the memorandum on behalf of the KZN premier Zikalala.
Melusi Sibisi received the memorandum on behalf of the KZN MEC for Cogta Hlomuka, and Leonard Masinga received the memorandum on behalf of the eThekwini Mayor Mxolisi Kaunda.
