S'bu Zikode

Biography

He 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 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. 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 dwellers' movement Abahlali baseMjondolo 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 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 and Libération.

Awards

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

In 2012 the Mail & Guardian newspaper declared him to be one of the two hundred most important young South Africans.

Repression

In 2006 Zikode, along with a number of other members of the movement, was forced out of his job after his boss came under pressure from the Mayor. 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 he, along with two others, successfully sued the Minister of Police for violence against his person.

Political Commitments

Zikode has called for 'a living communism' and stressed that land is fundamental to his politics. He is an advocate of land occupations.

In the 2014 national election Abahlali baseMjondolo controversiallycalled for a tactical vote for the centrist Democratic Alliance following a process of discussion within the movement about their orientation to the election in the way of the assassination of two housing activists and the killing of a third by the police. At the time Zikode stated that "Our move to endorse the DA does not dismiss our commitment to the politics of the left. This decision is a tactical one."