Thumbnail: Asakhe Mzini organises and mobilises members of his community to secure decent housing in the Western Cape. He leads the Housing Assembly, a social movement serving over 20 communities. Mzini doesn’t get paid for his work, is often threatened, and suffers emotional distress. Nonetheless, he maintains that he will continue fighting for justice and truth.

Profile: Asakhe Mzini’s experience of austerity made him realise the urgent need to fight for housing.

“I got involved,” he says, “because I experienced first-hand what it means to be priced out of a basic human right. In our city, decent housing is treated as a luxury while workers, students, and families are forced into overcrowded rooms, informal settlements, or the street. Seeing that contradiction pushed me to organize. For me, socialism means housing should be guaranteed to everyone as a right, not sold to the highest bidder.”

Currently an organiser for the Housing Assembly, Mzini has led several protests to occupy abandoned buildings and has supported those who were facing eviction in the Western Cape. Mzini describes the Housing Assembly as “a grassroots movement that was formed by the homeless, and workers fighting for decent housing for all. Our work is practical and political.”

Section 26 of South Africa’s Constitution guarantees that everyone has the right to have access to adequate housing. That right is further supported by Article 25 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. But recent studies have shown that South Africa has a severe housing backlog of over 2.2 million homes. Mzini and his colleagues are in the forefront organising, raising awareness, defending the rights of tenants, and campaigning for public housing in Cape Town and its surroundings.

“When evictions are threatened,” says Mzini, “we mobilize residents and allies to stop them through mass presence and public pressure.” In addition, “We demand the state build and maintain quality, non-commercial housing under democratic control, not left to developers and speculators.”

Mzini and his colleagues run soup kitchens and offer food shares, childcare support, and collective security so “no one faces the struggle alone.” They also organise political education programmes for tenants to share knowledge on rights and responsibilities.

Mzini’s activism is risky and costly: “Fighting for housing puts you in direct conflict with powerful interests. Since organising with the Housing Assembly, we’ve faced threats and violent eviction attempts by private security and police, legal harassment with charges of trespass and unlawful assembly used to intimidate residents, smear campaigns in local media labeling us as ‘illegal’ to turn public opinion against us.” In addition, “Organising for housing means taking on landlords, developers, and a state that protects property over people. Many of us have lost jobs or been blacklisted for speaking out. I spend most evenings in meetings and at the building instead of with family.”

There are more downsides: “We often work without pay, relying on solidarity from other workers and community members. We make these sacrifices because decent housing for all won’t come from the market. It has to be won through organised struggle,”

As might be expected, Mzini often faces emotional stress: “Many members have children and elderly relatives in the building, and the stress of possible eviction affects everyone. We respond with collective defense, documentation, and building solidarity with other tenant unions, trade unions, and community groups.”

Mzini summarizes the situation in this way: “The risks are real, but accepting them is worse than accepting homelessness and indignity.”