20 years and still fighting - Motsoaledi Concerned Citizens

Motsoaledi residents have been fighting for their basic human rights to be met since the early 1990s. 

When activist Mzamani Nyalungu was a youngster in the late 1990s, he left his home in Chavani Limpopo and travelled to Johannesburg. Mzamani visited Motsoaledi informal settlement and saw “people were waiting for the government to provide proper water, electricity, and housing, and they were getting fed up. Many were unemployed or had casual jobs.” Mzamani joined residents in their struggle. Mzamani and the Motsoaledi community eventually developed a community structure and started projects in Elias Motsoaledi, Soweto. 

“Here we challenged the ANC neoliberal policies head-on,” says Mzamani. “We put pressure on the government to install electricity and sewage infrastructure and to build houses.”

By the 2000s, a community structure called the Motsoaledi Concerned Residents (MCR) was formed. MCR became a united call to hold leaders to account and to challenge austerity.

MCR started a community newspaper called Motsoaledi News, or Vuka Motsoaledi, which means ‘Wake up, Motsoaledi!’, which was distributed for free. “We used the paper to organise meetings and make announcements, but the focus was on linking lived experiences and daily life to the bigger political questions. For example, we articulated a critique of capitalism and linked it to the horrible conditions in which we lived as the black working class, and we argued that real change needed much more than voting or choosing bosses.”

On 16 June 2005, the MCR had its first protest demanding better services. 

“During the protest I carried an ANC poster with Thabo Mbeki, former South African President after Nelson Mandela. It had a big question mark on it sending the message that, ‘We voted, but you are forgetting us. Why?’” 

A month later, Mzamani and comrades organised another protest to challenge empty promises and deteriorating service delivery in Motsoaledi. 

Education and activism go hand-in-hand.

To support its organising efforts, MCR soon initiated programmes that aimed to educate his community about the value of food sovereignty, literacy, and organising, the Pambili Motsoaledi Community Project, a community center that housed a garden, library, and meeting place was started.