AEC in Athlone Magistrates court on May 13 and at Constitutional Court on May 14

Upcoming Anti-Eviction Campaign and Poor Peoples Alliance events:

May 14 in Joburg – The AEC and other Poor Peoples Alliance members will be attending Abahlali baseMjondolo’s Constitutional Court challenge of the KZN Slums Act.  See this previous press release.  For more information, contact:

• Ashraf Cassim AEC Cape Town 076 186 1408
• Mnikelo Ndabankulu ABM-KZN 079 745 0653
• Mbhekiseni Mavuso Rural Network KZN 072 279 2634
• Mzonke Poni ABM Cape Town 073 256 2036
• Maureen Mnisi LPM-Gauteng 082 337 4514

Morning of May 13 in Athlone – The Gugulethu AEC will turn out in numbers to support activists Mncedisi Twalo and Mbulelo Zuba for their final appearance in Athlone Magistrate’s Court.  We expect the case to be thrown out for lack of evidence as it is a trumped up charge.  If the case is actually heard, residents will be presenting damning accounts of police brutality and of ANC leaders such as Mcebisi Skwatsha’s harasment of residents. For more information, contact:

• Pule at 073 6448 919 or 078 580 8646
• Ashraf Cassim at 076 186 1408

Also in the news:

A damning audit report of the N2 Gateway housing project was released showing widespread corruption, mismanagement and criticising the government attempts to evict the poor.

New Zealand’s 60 minutes profiles anti-Apartheid activist John Minto’s trip to South Africa including his visits to the AEC communities of Gugulethu, Old Crossroads and Symphony Way.  He also met with ‘high profile’ people such as Desmond Tutu and the former Springbok captain.

• To watch the video, click here.
• To see the photo essay, click here.

Photo-Essay: Anti-Apartheid Leader Tours South Africa For First Time

Note: New 60 minutes video on John Minto’s visit to South Africa including his visit to Joe Slovo, Gugulethu and Symphony Way.  John watched the Gugulethu Anti-Eviction Campaign put an evicted family back in their home and elect the committee of the new Crossroads Anti-Eviction Campaign

Sunday, 10 May 2009, 12:15 pm
Article: Jon Stephenson

Source: Scoop

Activist John Minto, the public face of the campaign to stop the 1981 Springbok Rugby Tour of New Zealand, recently travelled for the first time to South Africa, in the midst of that country’s elections.

Minto has been a strong critic of the ANC government, which has just been returned to office with a two-thirds majority — this time led as president by the controversial Jacob Zuma.

Minto has been especially critical of the ANC’s free market economic policies, and last year rejected nomination for an Oliver Tambo award because “The anti-apartheid campaign was not waged simply to enrich a few black millionaires but to bring economic and social change to benefit all South Africans.”

Argus: ‘Fifteen years is a long time to prove yourself’

Media: ‘No land, no home, no vote’

April 19 2009 at 09:26AM
By Susan Comrie

Source: Weekend Argus, page 8

The new bank-bonded houses on Symphony Way in Delft are standing empty – bright signs invite people to “come in and have a look” – but around the perimeter the razor-wire fence sends a different message.

Just metres away, the Symphony Way pavement dwellers look on angrily.

They have spent the past 14 months living in makeshift homes along this small section of road in Delft after they were evicted from houses they illegally occupied in the N2 Gateway Project in February last year.

Earlier last week veteran New Zealand anti-apartheid activist John Minto, the man who helped spearhead protests against the Springbok tour there in 1981, flew out to stand in solidarity with the remaining 127 families who, 15 years after apartheid ended, say life is no better for them.

“Symphony Way is a microcosm of the bigger problem in South Africa,” says Minto. “We didn’t expect things to change overnight – we didn’t expect miracles.

“But when we were protesting during apartheid we didn’t do it to make a few black people rich. It’s a huge disappointment.”

The New Zealand activist has been a thorn in the side of several governments, leading protests against human rights abuses by the US and Israel, and attracting international attention with the 1981 anti- Springbok protest under the banner Halt All Racist Tours.

Standing outside the Symphony Way creche, where earlier last week Minto spent the night, he explains that rugby was never the issue – instead he and others saw a chance for New Zealand to “punch well above its weight” to ensure there was nowhere safe for the apartheid government to hide.

Now in his 50s, Minto is turning his ire on South Africa’s democratically elected government, claiming the poorest citizens are still living under a form of apartheid.

“In South Africa the links between politicians and business are very strong, but the links between politicians and people are very weak.

Media: Poor are worse off now, says activist

April 15, 2009 Edition 1
Francis Hweshe

Source: Cape Argus

Just before bedding down for the night on a pavement in Delft, a veteran New Zealand anti-apartheid activist said that despite democracy in South Africa, there was greater economic inequality now than under white minority rule.

John Minto, in the country for the first time, made headlines last year when he rejected then-president Thabo Mbeki’s nomination for the Companions of Oliver Tambo Award.

In rejecting it, he wrote to Mbeki that “it seems the entire economic structure which underpinned apartheid is essentially unchanged. Oppression based on race has morphed seamlessly into oppression based on economic circumstances”.

Commenting on the timing of his first visit to South Africa, Minto said it was a mere coincidence that it co-incided with the coming elec-tions on April 22.

He said the purpose of his visit was to see “what has happened 15 years on and what has changed for the most vulnerable”. He said he wanted to take a message home for those who had fought against apartheid.

Asked whether his anti-ANC stance regarding the party’s social and economic policies had changed, he said: “The faces at the top have changed from white to black but the substance of change is an illusion.”

John Minto to Visit Abahlali baseMjondolo on Saturday, 17 April 2009

Abahlali baseMjondolo Press Statement
Friday, 17 April 2009

In January 2008 John Minto, a militant anti-apartheid activist from New Zealand, shocked the ANC by announcing, in an open letter to Thabo Mbeki, that he would refuse, on principle, to accept an award from the ANC. John stated clearly that:

Receiving an award would inevitably associate myself and the movement here with ANC government policies. At one time this may have been a source of pride but it would now be a source of personal embarrassment which I am not prepared to endure.

John’s open letter to Thabo Mbeki is online at: http://abahlali.org/node/3248

Abahlali were deeply impressed by John’s decision, a decision which very few people would take for the benefit of shack dwellers, the poor and all those who were meant to benefit from the struggle waged by the Halt All Racist Tours movement against apartheid South Africa. We salute that struggle as we salute John’s refusal to accept an award from a small black elite who only enrich themselves at the expense of the poor.

Open letter to the President of South Africa from John Minto

Open letter to the President of South Africa

January 28, 2008

Tena koe Thabo Mbeki,

I understand a nomination has been put forward for me to receive a South African honour later this year, the Companions of O R Tambo Award, on behalf of HART and the anti-apartheid movement of New Zealand for our work campaigning to end apartheid in South Africa.

I note the particular honour is conferred by the President of South Africa and awarded to “foreign citizens who have promoted South African interests and aspirations through co-operation, solidarity and support”.

We are proud of the role played by the movement here to assist the struggle against apartheid and I appreciate the sentiment behind the nomination. However after the most careful consideration I respectfully request the nomination proceed no further. Were an award to be made I would decline to accept it either personally or on behalf of the movement.

Bio of famous New Zealand anti-apartheid activist who is to visit AEC communities today

AEC Note: Famous anti-apartheid activist John Minto will be visiting Anti-Eviction Campaign communities on April 14 and April 15.  He will be sleeping on Symphony Way today (April 14) in solidarity with the Symphony Way residents.  He can be interviewed in person on Symphony Way between April 14 at 15h00 and April 15 at 10h00.

To interview Mr Minto and for more information, contact Ashraf at 076 186 1408 or Mncedisi at 079 305 1066 between the hours of 15h00 today and 10h00 tomorrow.

Short bio on John Minto:

John Minto is visiting to South Africa for two weeks from 12 to 26 April.

John is a political activist who was spokesperson for HART – the New Zealand Anti-Apartheid Movement during the 1980s and was the public face of the campaign to stop the 1981 Springbok tour to New Zealand. (He was arrested numerous times during the protests and has a medium-sized criminal record!)

Early last year there was public controversy when he wrote a letter to Thabo Mbeki rejecting a nomination for the Companion of OR Tambo Award as he said the anti-apartheid campaign was not waged simply to enrich a few black millionaires but to bring economic and social change to benefit all South Africans (M&G article).

He is very critical of the economic policies of the ANC, in particular it’s reliance on free-market strategies which wherever they have been applied bring wealth to the few at the expense of the many.

After completing a physics degree John trained as a high school teacher and has taught most of the last 25 years. However he currently works for Unite Union – a trade union for low-paid workers in New Zealand. He is a spokesperson for Global Peace and Justice Auckland and the Quality Public Education Coalition.

It is John’s first visit to South Africa. The main purpose of the visit is to see first hand the development of post-apartheid South Africa and meet with groups struggling for a better deal under ANC policies. For example he will visit groups such as Abahlali baseMjondolo (the Durban-based shack-dwellers movement), Western Cape Anti-Eviction Campaign, the Anti-Privatisation Forum and meet with union representatives and activists in Ditsela (Development Institute for Training, Support and Education for Labour). He will address two university-based seminars – in Durban and East London.

He will also be meeting with South African activists from the sports boycott era.

John is 55 years old with two teenage boys and lives in Auckland.