Ayanda Kota is a cofounder of the Unemployed People’s Movement in Makhanda and was elected its first chairperson.
The endemic corruption in South Africa isn’t about a few bad apples — it’s the rotten fruit of an apartheid era that enriched self-interested political elites at the expense of the black masses.
The COVID-19 crisis has hit South Africa’s poor and working-class majority hard, with the government favoring the rich over the unemployed. Our friends at Africa Is a Country spoke with three South African organizers of the unemployed, who are fighting for decent public services — and a basic income.