Militant March in Johannesburg led by the Gauteng Housing Crisis Committee

On Wednesday 21st Oct some 500 people from the area surrounding Eldorado Park converged on Johannesburg city centre. They marched in a lively formation to the office of the Gauteng Premier David Makhura. There were shouts of Black Power-No Sharing! demanding to be listened to and, that the government act on releasing land to them and build houses for the communities.

This demand is a long aching cry from the people. In 2017 after an uprising in the area the minister of human settlements. Ms Lindiwe Sisulu was flown in pomp and ceremony to try and placate the people at an meeting in Soweto held at the UJ (Soweto) campus.

In a rowdy meeting of discontent she promised to deal with the peoples complaints and get something on the go to ease their hunger for land and housing. But these turned out to be false promises merely intended to placate people.

The Gauteng housing Committee has tirelessly continued with mobilising people to ensure that government meets their demands. Time after time the government has continued to disrespect the people by government’s officials not turning up at meetings to continue the process of solving people’s grievances, but the landless community has not given up.

This arrogance on behalf of government’s officials led to the protestor’s recent militant march. It was impressive that a majority of the participants found their own way to the march & did not rely on transport hand out by the NGO’s.

The land that people want to settle on is partially owned by the state and private ownership.

The government, pushed on by the EFF recently passed an amendment bill making land reform possible without compensation. However it is slow to do anything about it. Capitalism in most of its form relies on the protection of private property by the state.

The ANC government does not want to rock the boat unnecessarily on this issue, for fear of irritating business and foreign investors and will continue to stand in the way of peoples land thirst.

The Community in their fight for land and housing have bonded across the divide of African and so called ”coloured” people and this is to the credit of the Black Consciousness Movement (BCM) and the Gauteng Houses Crisis Committee (GHCC) activists involved in the struggle.

We salute their struggle.

Capitalism is the enemy, Socialism is the future!

Solidarity, Power.