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Socialist Forum of Ghana has just learnt with deep alarm, of the arrest of Comrades Mgapheli Bonono and Siniko Miya, both members of Abahlahi baseMjondolo (Shack dwellers Movement) by the South African Police. Our
information suggests that the two activists were arrested on a false and indeed incredible charge of ‘conspiracy to commit murder’. Comrade Bonono is the Vice President of AbM a movement of homeless people
that has gained global respect across the world for its direct, democratic, and peaceful solution to South Africa’s shelter and livelihoods crisis – a legacy of Apartheid. It does so by occupying, claiming, and developing underutilized lands and developing coherent and progressive communities on them.
AbM has also gained international recognition for its endurance in the face of violent repression at the hands of those social forces who oppose equitable land rights for all citizens and who have the social power to procure State violence
against AbM’s communities and leaders. Over the last 15 years AbM has suffered threats, physical attacks, wrongful arrests, and even killings at the hands of these forces. And yet its militancy and its commitment to social justice,
the improvement of the living conditions of the working class and its allies
persists.
The Socialist Forum of Ghana (SFG) stands in complete solidarity with the organizations in South Africa and beyond that have condemned the arrest of our comrades and the efforts to intimidate South African working people struggling for social justice. We call for the immediate and unconditional release of our
comrades Mgapheli Bonono and Siniko Miya, and for the recognition of the
social rights of Shack dwellers in South Africa, Ghana, and the entire world.
Blaise Tulo
For Convener