2nd week: We continue a call for Madikizela to step down as MEC for Human Settlements

Tomorrow: 19th April 2011
Time: 10: am till 12:00
Place: Cape Town
Start point: Keizerngracht street, Cape Town (next to CPUT) (10: am)

Tomorrow the 19th April the call for Madikizela MEC for human settlement to step down as MEC continues, this follows a failure from him and his office to sign an undertaking that he will not ever again demolish people’s structure or evict people within the Western Cape province without any order from the court.

This call by Abahlali baseMjondolo follows number of illegal evictions and demolitions carried by the provincial human settlement department, led by Madikizela.

Civic action group threatens protests over evictions

Madikizela is conveniently ignoring the fact that while a land occupation is illegal it is a minor civil offense (trespass) while his own actions, when he authorizes evictions without a court order, are a criminal offense.

Malungelo Booi – EWN

Civic action group Abahlali baseMjondolo on Thursday warned of rolling protests if government does not stop evictions and demolitions in the Western Cape.

The group says it wrote to Human Settlement MEC Bonginkosi Madikizela on Wednesday.

The organisation wants him to sign an undertaking within seven days that no structures will be destroyed, even if erected illegally on government land.

[Abahlali] Metro Police Have Left Motala Heights – one shack destroyed

The Metro Police have left Motala Heights.

Between four to six Metro Police officers came from behind the library and attacked the home of Mr. Buthelezi. They came without warning and caught the community by surprise and were able to smash his home. However by the time they
started on the second home the community had rallied, under the leadership of James Pillay (Halala Qawe!), there was a commotion and the second home was saved. The Metro police were led by a man called Siven. They refused to say who
had ordered them to attack the community.

Four evictions yesterday in Gugulethu with promises of more to come

Gugulethu Backyarders Press Release
29 September 2010

The Gugulethu community experienced four major evictions yesterday and, according to the presiding Sheriff of the Court, there are many more evictions to come.

As of yesterday evening, three out of the four evictions have been reversed by community members with the support of anti-eviction activists. But the events are a wake up call to us – we need to unite and be on alert if we are going to be able to prevent further evictions in our neighbourhoods.

AbM: “A Quiet Coup” reviews attacks on AbM

A Quiet Coup
South Africa’s largest social movement under attack

By Toussaint Losier
Originally published in Spanish at Desinformémonos
An earlier version of this article appeared in Left Turn Magazine

At roughly 11:30pm on September 26th, a group of 30 to 40 men – survivors are still unsure about the actual numbers –surrounded the community hall in Kennedy Road shack settlement in Durban, South Africa. Brandishing sticks, machetes, and automatic weapons and echoing the language of the state-sponsored internecine political conflict that tore through South Africa during the last years of apartheid, the mob launched an attack on a meeting of the Abahlali baseMjondolo (AbM) Youth League taking place inside the hall. In the melee that followed, over a dozen people were injured, with four people left dead and the attackers left in control of the hall.

Solidarity: Residents of Soetwater being evicted without court order

AEC Solidarity Press Release
14 April 2010 – For Immediate Release

The residents of Soetwater in Ocean View are currently being evicted by the City Police services.

The community did not get any proper notification of this eviction and there has been no court order. They are acting on orders from individuals and there has been no due-process.  This makes the eviction an illegal and a criminal act.

The community urgently needs your support as they are fighting against the eviction please phone Renal on 073 616 5683.

Media: Get a lawyer, evicted families told

January 26, 2010 Edition 1
KOWTHAR SOLOMONS Staff Reporter – Cape Argus

SIXTEEN families evicted from the Blikkiesdorp relocation area for the illegal occupation of houses say they will have to sleep on the streets until they get a lawyer to argue their case in court.

Evicted families sleeping on street

By Nikita Sylvester

January 22 2010 at 04:51PM

Staff Reporter – IOL

A family with a week-old baby is among the 60 illegal occupants evicted from structures in the city’s temporary relocation area Blikkiesdorp and now sleeping on the street.

The families were evicted at about 5pm on Wednesday by law enforcement officials, police and metro police, who threw them out with their possessions, Blikkiesdorp committee member Johan Jordaan said.

Illegal evictions from Blikkiesdorp by City of Cape Town

*** Media urged to rush to Blikkiesdorp to witness 60 people sleeping
outside having been evicted by the very same city officials who put
them in ***

Blikkiesdorp, Delft, Cape Town
20 January 2010
8pm

At 4pm today, 48 law enforcement officers from the City of Cape Town invaded the city’s Temporary Relocation Area, Blikkiesdorp, and removed about 60 people from the one roomed dwellings.
This was done completely unlawfully without any high court eviction order, without any explanation, and even more inexplicably by the same city officials who installed the people in the first place.

Among the 60 evicted people are a pregnant woman, a few tiny babies and several primary school children. There is also one unaccompanied 17 year old minor girl who was put into Blikkiesdorp by the city officials – installed alone into a single dwelling – and then evicted again.

We are demanding an investigation into city officials Jimmy Jacobs and Lodewyk Petersen. They are the ones who bring people against their will to Blikkiesdorp and install them willy-nilly into the dwellings and they were also the ones who came today and led the eviction.

The families who get scooped up from under bridges and from derelict buildings and installed in the Tin Can Town are told by Jacobs and Petersen that they will be given “structure papers” later but clearly this is a pack of lies.

We are particularly concerned about the primary school children who were removed from their homes in the past by the city, forcibly moved to Delft where they had to begin at new and hostile schools, and now evicted to sleep outside for a night. The children’s belongings have been confiscated and put into a separate building by police which poses extra difficulties for them.

“This is a city-sponsored concentration camp so they feel they can do what they want here because there is no law” said Blikkiesdorp resident Willy Heyn.

For more information contact Willy Heyn, Blikkiesdorp AEC on 0731443619 or Johan Jordaan, Blikkiesdorp J Block Committee member on 073 2772095

Media: Illegal Evictions at Gunpoint Happening Now in Mpola

Abahlali baseMpola
Emergence Press Statement 11:38, 26 November 2009

The eThekwini Municipality is currently illegally evicting families at gunpoint in Mpola.  Thirty people already have been left homeless.  The community requests all press to rush to the scene and to witness the rampant criminality of the eThekwini Municipality for themselves.