On 25 April, 2025, thousands of members and supporters of the shack dwellers movement Abahlali baseMjondolo marched through the streets of Durban, KwaZulu Natal, South Africa to commemorate UnFreedom Day. Street traders, hostel dwellers, environmental justice activists, fisher folk, taxi drivers, farm dwellers, unemployed peoples and more marched from Curries Fountain to the Durban City Hall, where a memorandum of demands was handed over to the Minister of Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs. Abahlali’s “Unfreedom Day” is a sharp critique that hits at the heart of South Africa’s unfinished democratic project. AbM insists that true freedom means access to land, housing, food, and dignity – not just the right to vote. Unfreedom Day actions were also held in Mpumalanga and Gauteng provinces. Solidarity with the people of Palestine and the people of the Democratic Republic of the Congo were central to this year’s Unfreedom Day actions with protestors marching with flags calling for an immediate end to apartheid and genocide. Significantly this year marks Abahlali baseMjondolo’s twenty year anniversary.

The post Unfreedom Day hits at the heart of South Africa’s unfinished democratic project appeared first on Peoples Dispatch.

From Peoples Dispatch via this RSS feed