Transcript: KPFA Weekend News
Host: South Africa is the only African nation yet to appear on the Global Map of actions by the Occupy Movement. KPFA's Ann Garrison spoke to Ayanda Kota, Chair of the Grahamstown, South Africa Unemployed Peoples' Movement about Occupy South Africa.
KPFA/Ann Garrison: Could you tell us where Occupy South Africa is taking place?
Ayanda Kota: In many parts of the country, in South Africa, like in Grahamstown, in East London, in Capetown, in Durban, in Johannesburg as well.
KPFA: Are there any demands yet?
Ayanda Kota: The message is very clear, to fight against the corporate and government greed. The poor, the unemployed, the wretched of the earth, they bear the brunt of the crises of the system of capitalism.
KPFA: Do you think the movement will participate in elections?
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| Ayanda Kota |
Ayanda Kota: Elections are very important as another site of struggle. But again, the elections are embedded within the system of capitalism. The elections are for those who have money, who can put the placards everywhere, who can buy the air time, on your broadcast news, on your radio stations, etcetera.
KPFA: Is this a multi-racial movement?
Ayanda Kota: As a grassroots movement, we are very anti-racist. We are not non-racist. Non-racism is something else. Anti-racist means anti the concept of racism itself.
KPFA: And that was Ayanda Kota, Occupy South Africa activist and Chair of the Unemployed Peoples' Movement in Grahamstown, South Africa. In one of Occupy South Africa's angrier and more emphatic actions, shack dwellers emptied the buckets distributed to families, in lieu of proper toilets and plumbing, at the entrance to the Makana Municipal Building in Grahamstown. For Pacifica, KPFA, and AfrobeatRadio, I'm Ann Garrison.
Thanks to Ayanda Kota for waking up at 1 A.M. in Grahamstown, South Africa, to talk to KPFA Radio in Berkeley, California. Thanks to Winds of Change Media for this video, which inspired me to find Ayanda Kota's cell phone # and call, even though I knew what time it was in Grahamstown:
