Landmark judgment in favour of poor

NIREN TOLSI | DURBAN, SOUTH AFRICA –

Oct 18 2009 06:00 – Mail & Guardian

In a major legal victory for poor people’s rights to housing and shelter, the Constitutional Court this week struck down the KwaZulu-Natal Slums Act. The court upheld shackdweller movement Abahlali base Mjondolo’s (ABM) application that the Act was unconstitutional.

AbM in Media: Shack dwellers’ victory

15 Oct 2009 – The Witness
Sharlene Packree

RESIDENTS of the Kennedy Road settlement in Durban were jubilant yesterday at the ruling of the Constitutional Court that a law that would have allowed mass evictions in KwaZulu-Natal is unconstitutional.

Media: KZN Slums Act ruled unconstitutional

October 14 2009 at 11:57AM – SAPA

The Constitutional Court ruled on Wednesday that a law that would have allowed mass evictions in KwaZulu-Natal was unconstitutional.

AbM HAVE WON THE CASE AGAINST THE SLUMS ACT IN THE CONSTITUTIONAL COURT!

Abahlali baseMjondolo Press Statement
14 October 2009 – For Immediate Release

** Click here for a copy of the Constitutional Court Judgment **

** Click here for the media summary **

We have WON the Slums Act Concourt case and we have WON it with costs.

Statement by the Most Reverend Njongonkulu Ndungane, the Anglican Archbishop of Cape Town: “This indicates that we need now is an engaged citizenry. What we’ve tended to do is to stand back and allow things to happen to us, even in our own name. What Abahlali baseMjondolo have shown us is ‘not in our name and not on our watch’“.

For comment contact from the Constitutional Court contact:

Mnikelo Ndabankulu 079 745 0653

Zodwa Nsibande 082 830 2707

Mazwi Nzimande 074 222 8601

Bongo Dlamini 074 875 6234

Shamita Naidoo 074 315 7962

Stuart Wilson (The AbM lawyer) 072 265 8633

The Judgment

There is a summary of the judgment below and the full judgment can be accessed here.

Constitutional Court to rule tomorrow on KZN elimination of slums act

CONSTITUTIONAL COURT OF SOUTH AFRICA
Abahlali baseMjondolo Movement SA v Premier KZN and Others
Case CCT 12/09
Date of hearing: 14 May 2009

MEDIA SUMMARY

The following explanatory note is provided to assist the media in reporting this case and is not binding on the Constitutional Court or any member of the Court.

Phiri Water Case: Constitutional Court Fails the Poor and the Constitution

PUBLIC STATEMENT
Thursday 8th October 2009

JUDGMENT SHOWS A LAZY LEGALISM AND WHOLLY BIASED AND CONTRADICTORY REASONING IN RULING THAT FREE BASIC WATER POLICY IS ‘REASONABLE’ AND PRE-PAID WATER METERS ARE ‘LAWFUL’

Media: State turns against shack dwellers

by Jeanne Hromnik – The Weekender
Published: 2009/10/10 09:03:17 AM

THE appellants in the Joe Slovo shack dwellers’ case against Thubelisha Homes might be forgiven for thinking the law is an idiot and an ass (and a bachelor, no doubt) after a recent ruling of the Constitutional Court.

S’bu Zikode: ‘The ANC Has Invaded Kennedy Road’

29 September 2009

The ANC has invaded Kennedy Road. We have been arrested, beaten, killed, jailed and made homeless by their armed wing. This is what it took for Yakoob Baig and Jackson Gumede to finally take back the settlement.

This is not just an attack on the KRDC. It is not just an attack on AbM. It is an attack on our politic.

This attack is an attempt to suppress the voice that has emerged from the dark corners of our country. That voice is the voice of ordinary poor people. This attack is an attempt to terrorise that voice back into the dark corners.

Yakoob Baig says that ‘harmony’ has been restored. For the ANC harmony means their power and our silence. For us our silence means evictions, shack fires, children dying of diarrhoea and the organised contempt that we face day after day. Therefore we have to speak. We have to break the ‘harmony’ that is our silence in the face of our oppression.

Our movement has won many victories. We have forced the state to accept that there will be nothing for us without us. We have forced the state to accept that they must negotiate our development with us. Our politics is a common politics. We have, in many places, raised the common politics above the politicians’ politics. For this some politicians hate us.

And we must not forget that we have exposed the corruption of many senior officials – most recently in Siyanda, eShowe, Mpola and Howick. We have also exposed how ‘housing delivery’ is actually a form of oppression breaking up communities and forcing people into ghettos far outside the cities. We have done this most famously with our case in the Constitutional Court against the Slums Act. That judgment will be coming out very soon.

For all these reasons the strength of the movement, the strength of those who are supposed to be weak and silent and powerless, is taken as a threat.

Our crime is a simple one. We are guilty of giving the poor the courage to organise the poor. We are guilty of trying to give ourselves human values. We are guilty of expressing our views.

In this time when we are scattered between the Sydenham jail, hospitals, the homes of relatives and comrades, or even sleeping in the bushes in the rain, we are asking for solidarity. In this time when we do not know if the state will allow us to continue to exist we are asking for solidarity. In this time when we do not know if we will also be attacked in Motala Heights or Siyanda or anywhere else we are asking for solidarity.

Our message to the movements, the academics, the churches and the human rights groups is this:

We are calling for close and careful scrutiny into the nature of democracy in South Africa.

Sibusiso Innocent Zikode
President of Abahlali baseMjondolo (and, consequently, political refugee)
083 547 0474

COHRE releases scathing report on the N2 Gateway

COHRE, the UN affiliated human rights NGO based in Switzerland, has just released a scathing report on the N2 Gateway project. Click here to download the report. See the Press Release by COHRE below.

For comment on how the N2 Gateway has effected the lives of poor people in Cape Town, contact:

Ashraf Cassiem at 076 186 1408 (Western Cape Anti-Eviction Campaign)

Kareemah Linneveldt 078 492 0943 (Symphony Way Anti-Eviction Campaign)

Evelyn Mokoena at 0763317624 (Symphony Way Anti-Eviction Campaign)

Mzwanele Zulu (Joe Slovo Task Team)

Luthando Ndabamba (Joe Slov N2 Gateway Phase 1 Flats)

—

COHRE RELEASES N2 GATEWAY PROJECT REPORT
FRIDAY, 11 SEPTEMBER 2009

The Centre on Housing Rights and Evictions (COHRE) today released a report on housing rights violations in the context of the N2 Gateway development project in South Africa. The report is based on research conducted by COHRE during a fact finding mission to South Africa in 2008 and its amicus curiae (‘friend of the court’) submission to the South African Constitutional Court in the recently decided “Joe Slovo” case (Residents of Joe Slovo Community, Western Cape v Thubelisha Homes & Others, CCT 22/08[2009] ZACC 16). The report –N2 Gateway Project: Housing Rights Violations as ‘Development’ in South Africa — is available at http://www.cohre.org

*** CLICK HERE TO DOWNLOAD THE CORHE REPORT ***

Media: MEC admits to shoddy N2 Gateway construction

Eyewitness News | 2009/08/25 08:33:40 AM

The Western Cape Housing MEC has admitted some flats in the N2 Gateway development are so badly built they should be demolished.

Bonginkosi Madikizela says he now understands why tenants refuse to pay rent.