PRESS RELEASE:
For Immediate Release
August 23, 2022
The Kairos Center condemns the murder of Lindokuhle Mnguni, a leader of the South African shack dwellers movement Abahlali baseMjondolo
We at the Kairos Center cry out once again in righteous anger at the murder of another leader with Abahlali baseMjondolo (the shack dwellers movement) in South Africa. Last weekend, Lindokuhle Mnguni, a brilliant organizer and organic intellectual, was gunned down in his home. Mnguni was the 28-year old chairperson of the eKhenana Commune and the third young leader from eKhenana to be assassinated this year alone. In fact, in its 17 years of steadfast organizing for the rights of the poor, Abahlali has lost 24 leaders to assassination.
Abahlali is an organization of poor people with over 100,000 members in 86 branches who live, work, and struggle for a better world from within informal settlements across South Africa. Mnguni, who had been relentlessly targeted and framed by the police before his death, was murdered in his home early Saturday morning after a hit squad kicked open his door and opened fire. Eyewitnessess confirm the murderers, affiliated with the ruling ANC party, were the same who killed Ayanda Ngila, the deputy chairperson of the EKhenana commune, in March. The assailants also hit Mnguni’s partner, who is now fighting for her life in the hospital.
We pray for Mnguni’s partner and his family. We pray for the eKhenana settlement and for the Abahlali community as they continue to endure violence and death in their struggle for land, dignity, and freedom. We are grateful for the courage and the spirit of the Shack Dwellers movement, which has inspired our own struggles for justice and freedom here in the United States, and many others around the world. We call on our network to speak out and spread the news about this tragedy and remind the forces of injustice that took Mnguni’s life that he and Abahlali are not alone. Rather, they are cherished leaders in a nascent, but rising global movement of the poor.
Earlier this summer, Mnguni explained that “when poor people commit themselves to politics, they don’t commit themselves to mere ideas…we join politics because we have problems we want to solve”. Mnguni and the fallen leaders of Abahlali have had their lives stolen from them because they dared to not only call out the root causes of poverty in their country, but offer real solutions. We stand with Abahlali as they continue their brave and sacred struggle, and join them in firm commitment to moving together in power, and not one step back.
Amandla!
_________________________________________________________________
You can read more about Mnguni and Abahlali here.
Thanks also to People’s Dispatch for their reporting on Mnguni’s murder