The mission of Abahlali baseMjondolo (Shack Dwellers) Movement is to improve the lives and living conditions of shack dwellers and the poor with a special focus on asserting the human dignity of shack dwellers and the poor in South Africa.
The Abahlali baseMjondolo (Shack Dwellers) Movement began in Durban, South Africa, in early 2005. Although it is overwhelmingly located in and around the large port city of Durban it is, in terms of the numbers of people mobilized, the largest organization of the militant poor in post-apartheid South Africa. Its originary event was a road blockade organized from the Kennedy Road settlement in protest at the sale, to a local industrialist, of a piece of nearby land long promised by the local municipal councillor to shack dwellers for housing.