Bonteheuwel Development Forum - BHDF

25/02/2026

https://www.backabuddy.co.za/campaign/henriette-abrahams
Please help us publish our book and run workshops on it for our working class women's collectives.

25/02/2026

Please watch our introduction to our book and click on our Back a Buddy link to help us reach our goal, which is to print about 300 books and run 6 to 10 workshops for women's collectives in working-class communities.

https://www.backabuddy.co.za/campaign/henriette-abrahams

25/02/2026

Please help us get our book From The Ashes We Rise authored by 12 BDF women published. The funds we are raising is to run workshops on our six themes for our working class women in various communities in order to build our Women's Assembly Movement Accross our province and country.

Your pre-order and or sponsorship will assist us greatly in reaching our goal by May this year.

Please share with others that may be able to chip in.

FROM THE ASHES WE RISE A feminist book, a collective process, an offering to women and movements From the Ashes We Rise is a 350+ page feminist p...

20/02/2026

Hearty congratulations to Duncan Keith, Clive Carollissen, and the entire Bridge and Mentorship Team for nearly two years of steady, committed leadership in guiding our young learners from Arcadia, Boundary, Rosewood, and Bell Park Primary Schools, as well as Modderdam High School.

Your work in bridge classes and mentorship, culminating in yesterday’s tournament, stands as a powerful example of what sustained investment in young people can achieve. Thank you as well for inviting the Bonteheuwel Development Forum to be part of the tournament and medal award ceremony.
It was truly an honour to witness this milestone.

I am in complete awe of our youngsters. The critical thinking, analytical reasoning, discipline, and confidence they are developing through this programme are skills they carry into their school subjects and into their everyday lives. These are life skills that strengthen decision-making, self-belief, and resilience.

Special congratulations to the winning teams:
1st place: Arcadia Primary School
2nd place: Boundary Primary School
3rd place: Modderdam High School
4th place: Rosewood Primary School
5th place: Bell Park Primary School

Every learner who participated is a winner. Showing up, thinking deeply, working as a team, and competing with integrity already disrupts the narrow and harmful narratives so often imposed on Cape Flats youth.

I am deeply thankful to the team for creating alternative pathways for our children and for actively changing the stereotypical story told about where our children come from and what they are capable of becoming.

We also appreciate the invitation for BDF to come on board to support the programme through our psychosocial support work. This kind of partnership strengthens children not only academically, but emotionally and socially.

This initiative speaks directly to Taking Back Our Streets, changing the narrative, and disrupting gang recruitment and reducing vulnerability to substance abuse. When young people are engaged, challenged, and supported, the streets lose their power.

Thank you for believing in our children and walking this journey with our communities. This is how we build safer streets, stronger minds, and freer futures.

28/01/2026

RISE UP FOR ROJAVA

MYTH 1: Rojava is “just a Kurdish issue”

Truth: Rojava is multi-ethnic and multi-faith. Kurds, Arabs, Assyrians, Yazidis, Christians, Muslims, and others build democracy together. Like Palestinians, Kurds were denied self-determination by colonial powers. Rojava rejects divide-and-rule, just like our anti-apartheid struggle.

MYTH 2: Supporting Rojava distracts from Palestine
Truth: One struggle, many fronts. Palestine, Rojava, Sudan, Congo, Lebanon, Syria, Iraq, Iran, Venezuela, all resist the same imperial system. Supporting Rojava strengthens Palestine. Silence weakens all struggles.

MYTH 3: Rojava is backed by the US and not progressive
Truth: Tactical alliances under siege do not erase political autonomy. US withdrawal now enables attacks on Rojava. Imperial powers use people when convenient and discard them when no longer useful. South Africans know this story.

MYTH 4: Opposing ISIS and religious authoritarianism is Islamophobic
Truth: Rojava opposes fundamentalism, not faith. Muslim leaders and communities are central. Patriarchy weaponised through religion must be named and resisted. Faith ≠ fascism.

MYTH 5: This war is about security
Truth: It’s about territory, trade, water, oil, and political imagination. Rojava shows that another society is possible, women co-lead, communities govern themselves, difference is respected. That is intolerable to militarised nationalism and imperial powers.

MYTH 6: Rojava is only about women
Truth: Rojava is feminist by design. Women co-lead, run justice systems, and defend communities. Patriarchy is a political problem. Kill women’s liberation, and you kill the revolution.

MYTH 7: International solidarity won’t change anything
Truth: South Africa exists thanks to internal resistance and international solidarity. Rojava calls for sanctions, investigations, and protection of civilian self-administration. Solidarity is strategy, not charity.

WHY RISE UP NOW
Rojava faces siege, displacement, and bombings during ceasefires. If it falls: women’s liberation is negotiable, democracy is disposable, imperial borders are permanent. We refuse that future.

OUR CALL TO ACTION

Build local solidarity committees
Organise teach-ins and political education
Counter propaganda and misinformation
Mobilise women and working-class movements
Link local struggles (land, water, safety, dignity) to global resistance

Jin. Jiyan. Azadi.
Women. Life. Freedom.

26/01/2026

What we heard from Councillor Francine Higham the Mayoral Committee Member for Community Services and Health this morning on Lester Kiewiet's show on Cape Talk was a business justification for a public service decision, and that is precisely the problem.

The City keeps talking about costs, staffing models, maintenance cycles, and pilots. What is missing entirely is any discussion about spatial injustice, public goods, or the obligation of the state to redress historical inequality.

Of course public facilities cost money. That is not new information. That is why people pay rates and taxes.

The real question is not whether swimming pools cost money. The question is why the cost of providing public services is suddenly treated as a burden when it comes to working class communities, but not when it comes to tourist areas or prestige spaces.

We never hear this language when it comes to maintaining beachfront infrastructure, city bowl amenities, or tourist facing facilities. Those are treated as investments. Township facilities are treated as expenses.

What was striking in that interview was what was not said. There was nothing about spatial inequality. Nothing about the fact that many communities do not have private alternatives. Nothing about public health during extreme heat. Nothing about youth safety or violence prevention.

When justice language is absent from policy explanations, it tells us exactly whose lives are being centred and whose are being managed.

A pilot is supposed to test something new. Community swimming pools have existed for decades. There is nothing experimental about keeping them open in summer.

What is being piloted here is not service delivery. What is being piloted is how much deprivation working class communities will tolerate before pushing back.

Public infrastructure is not a commercial product. It is a constitutional responsibility. Decisions about access to public goods cannot be reduced to balance sheets alone. They require consultation, equity analysis, and a developmental lens.

Where is the Sport and Recreation Plan that guided this decision? Where is the equity assessment? And who exactly was consulted before weekday access was removed?

If governance is reduced to cost containment without justice, then inequality becomes policy, even if no one says it out loud.

You cannot manage inequality with spreadsheets and then be surprised when communities resist.

When government starts speaking the language of business instead of the language of justice, the poor always pay the price.

Budgets are moral documents. They show what a city values. If we can afford to keep tourist infrastructure operating consistently, then we can afford to keep community pools open during summer.

What is missing is not money. It is political will.

The City’s response is clear.....they will use our rates, tax, levies and VAT money and spend it elsewhere where it is more beneficial and profitable for business and return on investment ......NOT on poor communities.

25/01/2026

Bonteheuwel Development Forum response

The City’s statement confirms that weekday access to community swimming pools was removed and is now being partially restored through a temporary pilot
Opening pools only from Wednesday to Sunday still leaves communities without access on Mondays and Tuesdays during peak summer. This is not full weekday access and does not meet the needs of working class communities facing extreme heat, overcrowding, and limited recreational options.

Presenting this as a pilot to test whether weekday operations can be sustained raises serious concerns. Community pools are essential public infrastructure, not experimental projects. Sustainability planning should have been done before facilities were closed, not after communities were forced to mobilise in response.

The City also confirms that this change only comes into effect from 28 January 2026, meaning communities went without weekday access for the half of January, one of the hottest months of the year. This undermines claims of proactive or people centred planning.
While the City highlights investment in pool upgrades, infrastructure improvements do not translate into access if operating hours exclude working class residents for most of the week. Investment without equitable access does not address inequality.

There is also no reference in the City’s statement to learner truancy or education discipline, confirming that claims made by Subcouncil 15 Chairperson Angus McKenzie linking weekday closures to learners bunking school are not grounded in official policy or evidence.

BDF maintains that the appropriate response is full weekday access to community swimming pools throughout summer, applied consistently across the city, and guided by an equity based and developmental approach.

Pilots and partial measures do not resolve structural inequality.

Communities require certainty, access, and respect.

Bonteheuwel Development Forum

23/01/2026

Stop the City of Cape Town Apartheid style decision making modi's operandi.

23/01/2026

Dear Councillor McKenzie,

As Bonteheuwel Development Forum (BDF), we wish to place the following concerns formally on record.

As Chairperson of Subcouncil 15, you are not only a political representative but also a civil servant entrusted with advancing the interests, wellbeing, and development of the communities under your jurisdiction. Subcouncil 15 is overwhelmingly made up of working class communities, including Bonteheuwel, Langa, Bishop Lavis, Matroosfontein, and surrounding areas, all of which rely heavily on public amenities for sport, health, safety, and youth development.

It is precisely for this reason that we find it deeply concerning that you have chosen to publicly defend, and in doing so legitimise, a unilateral City decision that further marginalises these communities, rather than interrogating or opposing it on their behalf.

The weekday closure of community swimming pools during the hottest months of the year has real and measurable consequences:

- It limits access to safe recreational space in communities already experiencing high levels of violence and overcrowding.

- It undermines youth development, organised sport, school fitness training, and water safety education.

- It excludes unemployed residents, parents, ECDs, and senior citizens who rely on weekday access when facilities are less congested.

- It disproportionately affects working class areas, while pools in tourist and affluent areas continue to operate daily.

As Subcouncil Chairperson, your responsibility is not to rationalise City decisions after the fact, but to challenge policies that deepen inequality and erode access to public goods in your constituencies.

We are particularly concerned by the framing of this issue as one of learner discipline. There is no official City policy, directive, or evidence base that identifies learner truancy as the reason for weekday pool closures. Education oversight falls within the mandate of schools, parents, and the Department of Education, not the blanket withdrawal of community infrastructure from entire neighbourhoods.

To publicly attribute the closures to “learners bunking school”:

- Shifts responsibility away from City decision making.
- Stigmatises young people in working class communities.
- Deflects from the core issue, namely a policy choice that restricts access to public amenities in poor areas while preserving it elsewhere.

Leadership, particularly in historically marginalised areas, requires standing with communities, not vilifying civic organisations for raising legitimate concerns, and not defending decisions that entrench spatial and class based inequality.

We therefore urge you, in your capacity as Subcouncil 15 Chairperson, to:

1. Publicly acknowledge the unequal impact of weekday pool closures on working class communities.
2. Support calls for the immediate restoration of weekday access during summer.
3. Advocate within Council for an equity based approach to public amenities that prioritises youth development, safety, and wellbeing.

Our objection is not political noise. It is grounded in lived reality, community work, and a mandate to protect public space for those who need it most.

We remain open to constructive engagement, but we will continue to challenge decisions that marginalise our communities and silence their voices.

Yours sincerely

Bonteheuwel Development Forum

20/01/2026

Defend Rojava. Defend Women’s Liberation.

A South African Call to Action

1. Why This Matters Now

Since 6 January, Kurdish communities in North and East Syria, collectively known as Rojava, have faced coordinated attacks by the Syrian Transitional Government, allied militias, and Turkish forces.

Negotiations between DAANES, the Autonomous Administration of North and East Syria, and Syrian authorities collapsed despite reportedly nearing agreement.

Instead of a political settlement, communities were met with siege, bombardment, and mass displacement.
This is not distant. It is an assault on a living feminist, democratic project with profound lessons for South Africa and the Global South.

2. Rojava: The Death Nail in Patriarchy

Rojava is a working model of feminist democratic self-governance, and this is why it is so threatening to patriarchal and militarised powers.

Leadership is inclusive and co-led by women across councils, local administrations, and defence forces, ensuring decision-making is shared and representative. Autonomous women’s institutions govern education, justice, and community care, normalising female leadership and preventing gendered violence. Across diverse ethnic and religious communities, people lead collectively, proving that societies can be just, democratic, and non-patriarchal simultaneously.

Women also take frontline roles in the YPJ forces, challenging male-dominated power structures. Religious fundamentalists, authoritarian regimes, and imperialist actors seek to destroy Rojava because it demonstrates that societies do not need coercion or hierarchy to survive. Its survival is a political threat, its example an inspiration, and its inclusive, feminist governance a roadmap for democratic futures worldwide.

3. What Is Happening on the Ground

According to the Kurdistan National Congress and allied civil society groups, Kurdish neighbourhoods Sheikh Maqsoud and Ashrafiyeh were placed under siege in late December, with food, fuel, and medical supplies blocked.

On 6 January, Syrian Transitional Government forces and militias launched heavy artillery and mortar attacks on civilians. Local Internal Security Forces and residents armed with light weapons defended their communities. Syrian Democratic Forces were absent under existing agreements. Hospitals, including Khalid Fajr, were deliberately shelled while patients and wounded civilians were inside.

By mid-January, dozens of civilians had been killed, hundreds remained missing, and approximately 150,000 people were forcibly displaced. Humanitarian access was repeatedly denied, resulting in severe shortages, closure of schools and health facilities, and widespread trauma among women and children.

4. Gendered Violence and International Crimes

Documented acts may amount to war crimes and crimes against humanity under Articles 7 and 8 of the Rome Statute.

These include killing of civilians, indiscriminate shelling of neighbourhoods, bombardment of hospitals, abduction of women with sexualised threats, desecration and burning of bodies, and forced displacement of entire families. These are deliberate instruments of patriarchal and political domination.

5. Escalation and International Complicity

Despite repeated ceasefire announcements, Syrian forces violated agreements while Turkish drones and allied militias expanded attacks.

On 19 January, forces aligned with the Syrian government attacked Al-Shadadi prison, releasing thousands of ISIS detainees. Kobane, the historic site of women-led resistance against ISIS, came under renewed assault.

Meanwhile, international actors failed to act. On 9 January, while Kurdish neighbourhoods were under bombardment, the European Commission pledged €620 million to Damascus authorities for reconstruction, legitimising a regime actively engaged in human rights violations.

Silence in this context is not neutrality. It is complicity.

6. Call to Action: Stand with the People of Rojava

The people of Rojava are building non-patriarchal, democratic communities under siege. Their courage and vision are our guide. South African feminist and progressive forces including organisations, unions, youth movements, faith-based activists, artists, and academics must act immediately.

Publicly affirm solidarity through statements, teach-ins, and social media campaigns that amplify the voices of the people of Rojava. Counter misinformation and propaganda by sharing verified news, producing digital media content, and translating Kurdish or Turkish materials into English to ensure the truth reaches a global audience.

Those able to edit reels, add subtitles, or support digital campaigns are particularly encouraged to join coordinated media efforts. Fighting the propaganda is essential. Truth is a weapon against war, and showing the realities on the ground exposes attempts to erase democratic and feminist achievements.

Reject militarism and gendered violence through visible actions that support civilian governance. Hold the South African government accountable and demand opposition to military aggression, occupation, and complicity in crimes against civilians. Solidarity must be action, not silence.

7. Why Feminist Solidarity Must Be Political

Feminist solidarity is not charity. Across these regions, militarised power claims legitimacy through violence, organising is attacked or erased, sexual and gender-based violence is weaponised, and international institutions prioritise stability over justice. Humanitarian language cannot replace political accountability.

Rojava proves that communities can govern, defend themselves, and build plural societies even under war. Patriarchal and authoritarian forces seek to destroy that possibility. The people of Rojava are showing a different way forward, a living roadmap for feminist and democratic futures. Standing with them is an obligation.

8. From Cape Town to South Africa

If self-determination can be destroyed in Rojava, Palestine, Sudan, or Congo without consequence, it sends a message that liberation is conditional and expendable. We reject that. From our communities to Palestine, Sudan, Kurdistan, the Congo, and Rojava, South African feminists stand with all those resisting oppression.

We choose solidarity over silence.

Henriette Abrahams
BDF Chairperson
20 January 2026

11/01/2026