The State of the Nation Address in a Time of Escalating Crisis

Abahlali baseMjondolo press statement 12 February 2026

This evening the attention of the country will be focussed on the State of the Nation Address. As usual it will be a case of well-funded and well-organised lying.

The actual state of the nation is a state of crisis and social devastation. More than 10 000 children die from starvation each year. More than 40% of people are without work. More than 60% of young people are without work. The grants cannot sustain even a family of three for a month.

Around 8 million people live in shacks. We have one of the highest murder rates in the world, and a deeply corrupt police force that kills people at a much higher rate than the police in the United States. Most children and young people are failed by an education system that works to keep the rich rich and the poor poor. Healthcare is in crisis, cities and towns are falling apart and today even the rich don’t have reliable access to water and are protesting in the streets. Decades of austerity, mismanagement, corruption – and the criminalisation of the ruling party and the state have left our country as ruined as a field after a plague of locusts has passed through.

Instead of facing and dealing with the scale and severity of the crisis the politicians try and blame migrants for our problems. They try to turn our anger towards migrants so that we don’t hold them to account for their historic betrayal of the people and struggle that brought them to power.

There is no party in parliament that is genuinely on the side of the people. Corruption, xenophobia and arrogance run across party lines. All the parties are funded by different factions of the rich. There is no party that is present in the day-to-day struggles of the people. There is no party that sees its role as accompanying the people as they build their power in struggle.

The only way out of this long and deep crisis is to build the democratic power of the oppressed from below, linking, uniting and developing struggles as we go. Unity must be built in struggle and organised around clear principles. We remain committed to building new forms of solidarity and democracy from below, and working with all principled forces of the left among the membership based organisations of the poor and the working class so that the historic betrayal of the ANC can be confronted from below.

As we head towards the local government elections the different parties will, as usual, be trying to infiltrate our movement and capture local leaders, and even whole branches. They must know that we are clear. Our dignity is not negotiable and our movement – ibutho labampofu – is not for sale. We have a very clear rule that nobody can be a leader in our movement while also being a member of any of the currently existing political parties.

We want an end to neoliberal policies and the criminalisation of politics and the state. We want an end to indignity, hunger and violence. We want an end to the contempt for the poor and the routine vandalisation of our dignity.

We want a peaceful and just country, a country in which everyone is safe, nobody is hungry, everyone has a decent income and access to housing, schools and hospitals. A country in which democracy is participatory, government is run by honest people who understand that they are there to work for the people and land and wealth are shared. We want a world in which the humanity of all people is recognised and defended.

We have waged twenty years of struggle to defend our dignity and build a movement for democratic socialism. Many of our comrades have given their lives for this struggle. We are not going to back down now.

Contact
Thapelo Mohapi 084 576 5117
Mqapheli Bonono 073 067 3274
Snenhlanhla Mncanyana 073 832 3331

https://abahlali.org/node/18585/

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