Sibusiso Innocent Zikode is the current president of the South African shack dwellers' movement, which he co-founded with others in 2005.

Abahlali baseMjondolo Abahlali baseMjondolo (AbM, , in English: "the residents of the shacks") is a socialist shack dwellers' movement in South Africa which organises land occupations, builds communes

claims to have an audited paid up membership of over 80 000 across South Africa. His politics have been described as 'anti-capitalist'. According to the ''

Mail & Guardian The ''Mail & Guardian'' is a South African weekly newspaper and website, published by M&G Media in Johannesburg, South Africa. It focuses on political analysis, investigative reporting, Southern African news, local arts, music and popular cult ...

'' "Under his stewardship, ABM has made steady gains for housing rights."

Biography

Zikode was born in the village of Loskop in 1975 and grew up in the town of Estcourt, in the midlands of KwaZulu Natal, South Africa. He was raised by a single mother working as a domestic worker. He completed Matric at Bonokuhle High School where he joined the

Boy Scouts Boy Scouts may refer to: * Boy Scout, a participant in the Boy Scout Movement. * Scouting, also known as the Boy Scout Movement. * An organisation in the Scouting Movement, although many of these organizations also have female members. There are t ...

Movement. A few years later he enrolled as a law student at what was formerly known as The University of Durban-Westville and is now part of the

University of KwaZulu-Natal The University of KwaZulu-Natal (UKZN) is a university with five campuses in the province of KwaZulu-Natal in South Africa. It was formed on 1 January 2004 after the merger between the University of Natal and the University of Durban-Westville ...

. However he was unable to pay fees or rent and in 1997 had to abandon his studies and move to the Kennedy Road shack settlement. He found work at a nearby gas station as a pump attendant.

Activism

Zikode has served a number of terms as the elected head of the South African

shack A shack (or, in some areas, shanty) is a type of small shelter or dwelling, often primitive or rudimentary in design and construction. Unlike huts, shacks are constructed by hand using available materials; however, whereas huts are usually r ...

dwellers' movement

since October 2005. Before that he was the Chairperson of the Kennedy Road Development Committee. Although the movement campaigns for basic services, like water and electricity, as well as land and housing, Zikode is clear that its demands go beyond immediate material needs. He has said that ""The house on its own cannot solve the problem. It's not only money that creates dignity. All governments should accept that our communities are part of the greater society." He argues for an immediate assertion of equality and for meaningful engagement with the poor by saying that, "The government and academics speak about the poor all the time, but so few want to speak to the poor". He was critical of evictions linked to the

2010 FIFA World Cup , image = 2010 FIFA World Cup.svg , size = 200px , caption = ''Ke Nako. (Tswana and Sotho for "It's time") Celebrate Africa's Humanity'It's time. Celebrate Africa's Humanity'' (English)''Dis tyd. Vier Afrika se mensd ...

and supported the August 2010 Public Sector Worker's strike in South Africa. He supports the occupation of unused land. Commenting in response to Zikode's newspaper article 'We are the Third Force' veteran South African journalist Max du Preez commented that "I have never read anything as compelling, real and disturbing as the piece written in ''The Star'' last week by S'bu Zikode". Mark Hunter argues that Zikode evokes a conception of housing rooted in an idea of dignity rather than a technical, numbers driven approach to the housing crisis. Zikode's writing has been anthologised in the ''Verso Book of Dissent'' and published in newspapers like ''

The Guardian ''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper A newspaper is a periodical publication containing written information about current events and is often typed in black ink with a white or gray background. Newspapers can cover a wide ...

'' and ''

Libération ''Libération'' (), popularly known as ''Libé'' (), is a daily newspaper in France, founded in Paris by Jean-Paul Sartre and Serge July in 1973 in the wake of the protest movements of May 1968. Initially positioned on the far-left of France ...

Awards and recognition

On 16 December 2009 he was presented with the Order of the Holy Nativity by Bishop

Rubin Phillip Rubin Phillip (born ) is bishop of the Anglican Diocese of Natal. The great-grandchild of indentured labourers from Andhra Pradesh, Phillip is the first of East Indian heritage in South Africa to hold the position of Bishop of Natal. He grew up ...

. In 2012 the ''

'' newspaper declared him to be one of the two hundred most important young South Africans. In 2018 a new land occupation in

Germiston Germiston, also known as kwaDukathole, is a small city in the East Rand region of Gauteng, South Africa, administratively forming part of the City of Ekurhuleni Metropolitan Municipality since the latter's establishment in 2000. It functions as ...

in the East Rand, outside of

Johannesburg Johannesburg ( , , ; Zulu language, Zulu and xh, eGoli ), colloquially known as Jozi, Joburg, or "The City of Gold", is the largest city in South Africa, classified as a Megacity#List of megacities, megacity, and is List of urban areas by p ...

, was named after Zikode. In 2019 a new land occupation in Tembisa outside of Johannesburg was named after Zikode On 25 March 2021 he was announced as the 2021 recipient of the Per Anger Prize, awarded by the Swedish government for humanitarian work and initiatives in the name of democracy.

Repression

In February 2006 Zikode was prevented by the police from taking up an invitation to appear on a television talk show. In September 2006 Zikode, and the then Deputy Chair of the movement Philani Zungu, were arrested on trumped up charges and tortured by Superintendent Glen Nayager in the Sydenham Police Station. In September 2009, Kennedy Road was attacked by a mob reportedly affiliated with the African National Congress. Violence continued for days. Zikode's home was destroyed during the violence and he and his family fled. Zikode, who went underground for some months because he feared for his life, considered himself a political refugee. In its 2012 South Africa report Amnesty International reported that Zikode had been publicly threatened with violence by a senior ANC official. In April 2013 Zikode, along with two others, successfully sued the Minister of Police for violence against his person. In July 2018, following the assassination of a number of its members, Abahlali baseMjondolo issued a statement claiming that Zikode's life was "in grave danger". It was later reported that Zikode was living underground.

Political commitments

Zikode supports building radical democracy from below and has called for 'a living communism' and stressed that land is fundamental to his politics. He is an advocate of land occupations. He is also an advocate of what he terms 'living politics',S'bu Zikode on Living Politics
'Sleeping Giant', 2007 a form of politics that speaks directly to lived experience and is expressed in plain language.

References

External links

Revolutionary Ubuntu

Living Learning

Testimony from Brother Filippo Mondini

Citation for the Order of the Holy Nativity to S'bu Zikode

Is this man the next Nelson Mandela?

Online articles and speeches

We are the Third Force

Transcribed speech given at the University of KwaZulu-Natal

We are the Restless Majority

Make Crime History

Silencing the Right to Speak, is taking away Citizenship

When Choices Can No Longer Be Choices

Land & Housing: The burning issues

Meaningful Engagement

The ANC Has Invaded Kennedy Road

Party Politic Vs Living Politic in Kennedy Road

Democracy is on the Brink of Catastrophe

Serving our Life Sentence in the Shacks
(with Zodwa Nsibande)
Land is a Political Question

When Loyalty Becomes a Threat to Society

When the Poor Become Powerful Outside of State Control

Presentation at CUNY Graduate Center for Place, Culture and Politics

The Politic of Land and Housing
Presentation to University of Chicago Students in Cape Town
Transcription of talk
on Frantz Fanon, Rhodes University, South Africa, 2011
No freedom without land
2013
Despite the state's violence, our fight to escape the mud, shit and fire of South Africa's slums will continue
''The Guardian'', 11 November 2013

Interviews

Resisting degradations and divisions
(text)
Interview with S'bu Zikode, 30 September 2009
(video)

Online films

Txaboletan bizi direnak
by Elkartasun Bideak, 2009 (English dialogue with Basque subtitles)
Amandla Awethu
by Elkartasun Bideak, 2009
From the Shacks to the Constitutional Court
by Dara Kell & Christopher Nizza, 2008
Dear Mandela
by Dara Kell & Christopher Nizza, 2008
A Place in the City
by Jenny Morgan, 2008
The Right to Know: The Fight for Open Democracy in South Africa
by Ben Cashdan, 2007
Nayager Falls, Abahlali Rises
by Sally Gilles and Fazel Khan, 2007
Breyani & the Councillor
by Sally Gilles and Fazel Khan, 2006
Kennedy Road and the Councillor
by Aoibheann O'Sullivan, 2005

Talks

Talk on Repression in Durban
Rhodes University, Grahamstown, 10 October 2013

Poems and songs

Dada South (for S'bu Zikode)
by Aryan Kaganof
Abahlali
by the Dlamini King Brothers {{DEFAULTSORT:Zikode, S'bu Living people South African activists South African communists Shack dwellers 1975 births 21st-century squatters Squatter leaders Abahlali baseMjondolo members Housing in South Africa