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 cultu ...

'' "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 Estcourt () is a town in the uThukela District of KwaZulu-Natal Province, South Africa. The main economic activity is farming with large bacon and processed food factories situated around the town. The N3 freeway passes close to the town, link ...

, in the midlands of

KwaZulu Natal KwaZulu-Natal (, also referred to as KZN and known as "the garden province") is a province of South Africa that was created in 1994 when the Zulu bantustan of KwaZulu ("Place of the Zulu" in Zulu) and Natal Province were merged. It is locat ...

, 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 ...

Movement. A few years later he enrolled as a law student at what was formerly known as The

University of Durban-Westville The University of Durban-Westville (UDW) was a university situated in Westville, a town situated near Durban, South Africa, which opened in 1972. It is now one of the campuses of the University of KwaZulu-Natal. It was initially established for ...

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 ru ...

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 Max du Preez (born 10 March 1951) is a South African author, columnist and documentary filmmaker and was the founding editor of ''Vrye Weekblad''. Vrye Weekblad Online or Vrye Weekblad II was launched on 5 April 2019 again with Max du Preez as ...

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. It was founded in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'', and changed its name in 1959. Along with its sister papers ''The Observer'' and ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardian'' is part of the Gu ...

'' 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's ...

Awards and recognition

On 16 December 2009 he was presented with the Order of the Holy Nativity by Bishop Rubin Phillip. 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 and xh, eGoli ), colloquially known as Jozi, Joburg, or "The City of Gold", is the largest city in South Africa, classified as a megacity, and is one of the 100 largest urban areas in the world. According to Demo ...

, was named after Zikode. In 2019 a new land occupation in

Tembisa Thembisa, formerly Tembisa (Dindela), is a large township situated to the north of Kempton Park on the East Rand, Gauteng, South Africa. It was established in 1957 when black people were resettled from Alexandra and other areas in Edenvale, Kem ...

outside of Johannesburg was named after Zikode On 25 March 2021 he was announced as the 2021 recipient of the

Per Anger Per is a Latin preposition which means "through" or "for each", as in per capita. Per or PER may also refer to: Places * IOC country code for Peru * Pér, a village in Hungary * Chapman code for Perthshire, historic county in Scotland Mat ...

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 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

, 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 Amnesty International (also referred to as Amnesty or AI) is an international non-governmental organization focused on human rights, with its headquarters in the United Kingdom. The organization says it has more than ten million members and sup ...

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 Zodwa Nsibande was the General Secretary of the Abahlali baseMjondolo youth league in 2009. She was critical of the impact of the FIFA 2010 World Cup on shack dwellers in Durban. In 2006 she was badly burnt in a shack fire. In 2009 she had to g ...

)
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 Frantz Omar Fanon (, ; ; 20 July 1925 – 6 December 1961), also known as Ibrahim Frantz Fanon, was a French West Indian psychiatrist, and political philosopher from the French colony of Martinique (today a French department). His works have be ...

, 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 Aryan Kaganof (born 1964 as Ian Kerkhof) is a South African film maker, novelist, poet and fine artist. In 1999 he changed his name to Aryan Kaganof. Partial filmography * 1992: '' Kyodai Makes the Big Time'' (91min, Netherlands), drama feat ...

Abahlali
by the

Dlamini King Brothers The Dlamini King Brothers are an isicathamiya choir from the Kennedy Road shack settlement in Durban, South Africa.

{{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