South Africa Worsening Violence as the Election Comes Closer
Abahlali baseMjondolo Press Statement 25 October 2026
Our country is one of the most violent in the world, worse than some war zones. The rate of violence against women and the rate of murders committed by young men against other young men are among the highest in the world. There is violence in the home and in communities, violence from ordinary people, politicians, criminals and the armed forces in service of the state and the rich.
Our country and its people have been deeply damaged by generations of oppression, which has continued into the present for many people, especially the poor. The ANC has never pursued a project of healing, a project of restoring the humanity of our people and our society. They have just made themselves rich, leaving most of us poor and living in a broken society, a broken society in which the poor continue to be ruled with violence.
Things are getting worse. In KwaZulu-Natal armed mobs now parade through the streets accompanied by the police. People have been driven from their homes and livelihoods, assaulted and killed. The rise of the right, including violent fascist organisations, is a matter of grave concern for our movement and all people of good conscience.
As the election approaches, violence is worsening. So far 43 people have been killed, including people from the ANC, IFP and MKP. The political killings that are taking place are another grave concern for our movement. In a free, democratic country everyone should be free to campaign for election without fear. We know very well that the killing will not be confined to politicians. As killing becomes more common, more and more activists will be targeted in the years ahead.
Right now, the atmosphere in Durban is particularly threatening. Political intolerance has reached a fever pitch. The danger can be felt everywhere. Many politicians and parties have been complicit, and none have built a project in support of healing and a just peace. People are being assaulted and sometimes beaten to death in the streets. The political assassinations continue and will continue after the election as the politicians fight for power and money.
While the situation is at its worst in Durban and KwaZulu-Natal, it is moving into other parts of the country. ANC people have been killed in Katlehong.
People are being encouraged to hate, attack and kill as the election comes closer. But elections come and go. Every time there is an election, politicians come into our communities with promises, food and t-shirts and then they leave. We don’t see them until the next election comes. To them we are voting fodder, people who can be lied to and bribed, and not citizens of a democracy, or even just full human beings.
We have had elections for more than thirty years and the poor remain poor and without land, water, sanitation, electricity and housing. Our dignity continues to be vandalised by the state and the organised power of the rich. We continue to live with our suffering. This election will not resolve any of the problems that we face, and yet we are being encouraged to hate, attack and kill, and to support politicians and parties that are encouraging hate and are involved in political violence.
We cannot now glorify elections as the only thing that can resolve our problems and ensure that our dignity as human beings is recognised. Elections can be important, but all our advances as a movement and as a class have come from building our own power, popular democratic power. We must never allow politicians to divide us. We must never be divided by people who only come to our communities to lie to us when they seek power and then leave us poor and oppressed.
After careful discussions, we have agreed to encourage our members, and others who look to our movement for political direction, to vote according to their conscience if they wish to vote, but not to support those who have disappointed and betrayed them in the past, and who have made the poor suffer for more than thirty years. They must not vote for people who are trying to divide the poor with ethnic politics and political intolerance, for the corrupt who steal from the poor or for people who are xenophobic. They must not vote for any politicians or parties that encourage hate and violence.
When this election has passed, the oppressed will remain oppressed, there will be greater political intolerance and our society will be even more violent.
It is essential that all people of good conscience work together to build a culture of peace, to work towards a just peace, and for the oppressed to organise themselves and work together to build a fair and just society in which the dignity of every person is recognised.
Thapelo Mohapi 084 576 5117
Sinenhlanhla Mcanyana 073 832 3331
Mqapheli Bonono 073 067 3274
https://abahlali.org/node/18763/?
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Introducing BRICS from above, BRICS from the middle and BRICS from below
BRICS FROM ABOVE
Heads of state, Business Forum, elite allies
*BRICS as anti-imperialist (ANC & Pretoria rhetoric – “Talk Left, Walk Right”, e.g. national-liberation tradition, foreign ministry on global geopolitics, finance minister on IMF reform, sports minister on FIFA)
*BRICS as sub-imperialist (Pretoria relegitimising world capitalism, lubricating neoliberalism in - and exploiting - Africa, intensifying class war against SA’s poor/workers/women/nature on behalf of global/local capital, ensuring maximum greenhouse gas emissions alongside BASIC/US no matter local/continental/global consequences, and playing “deputy sheriff” role to imperialism)
*BRICS as inter-imperialist (Pretoria's potential support for a new internet delinked from US, promotion of Putin v Obama in September 2013 at G20, and mainly backing Russia in Crimea/Ukraine conflict - as well as earlier episodes where SA lined up with China in UN e.g. in relation to Burma)
BRICS FROM THE MIDDLE
Academic Forum, trade unions, NGOs
BRICS advocates (most of Academic Forum, Johannesburg & Pretoria “think tanks” and others who suffer persistent “failure of analytical nerve”)
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*critics (those associated with brics-from-below network who consider BRICS to be “sub-impis” and sometimes also “inter-impis”)
BRICS FROM BELOW
Grassroots activists whose visions run local to global
*localist (stuck within local or sectoral silos, including myriad “popcorn protests” - even some against BRICS corporations or projects - that are insurgent, unstrategic, momentary, at constant risk of becoming xenophobic, and prone to populist demagoguery)
*nationally-bound (most activists who are vaguely aware of - and hostile to - BRICS yet so overwhelmed by local, national and sectoral battles, they fail to link across borders - even BRICS hinterlands)
*solidaristic-internationalist (“global justice movement” allies aspiring for joint campaigning against common BRICS enemies such as Vale, China Development Bank, DBSA, Transnet/mega-shipping, fossil fuel corporations and other polluters, coming BRICS Development Bank)
JEALOUS PRO-WEST CAPITALISTS
Most white organic intellectuals of capital connected to Old Money, multinational-corporate branch plants, Business Day, northern-centric big biz, Democratic Alliance and their ilk.
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