Media: Show of strength outside court

July 28 2011 at 12:28pm – Cape Times – Shanti Aboobaker, Leila Samodien and Lauren Isaacs

About 300 people gathered on the steps of the Western Cape High Court where Tafelsig backyard dwellers were up against the city council. Photo: Mxolisi Madela

THEY came en masse, bearing placards and chanting as they gathered on the steps of the Western Cape High Court yesterday.

This as about 300 members of the Mitchells Plain Backyarders Association – supported by the Western Cape Anti-Eviction Campaign, Communities for Social Change, the Mandela Park Backyarders and Abahlali baseMjondolo associations – waited outside the court to hear the outcome of the case in which they face being removed from land they were occupying illegally.

This week the occupants submitted their answering papers in the matter that sees them pitted against the City of Cape Town.

In affidavits by some of the occupants, residents there outlined their living conditions which they say were “not conditions in which any human being should live”.

Do not vote, shack dwellers told

April 28 2011 at 10:09am – Cape Times

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DARK DAYS: Mzonke Poni consoles Nolusindiso Ketani, whose child now suffers a disability after injuries sustained in a shack fire in 2005, at the Shack Fire Summit in Khayelitsha. Community members demanded that the city supply their shacks with electricity to prevent fires. Picture: David Ritchie

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.

Media: Nehawu wants details on student loans (aec comment)

PRESIDENT Jacob Zuma must use his State of the Nation address next month to give more details about his plan to give students full loans.

Jan 10, 2011 | Anna Majavu

On Saturday at the ANC’s 99th birthday party in Polokwane Zuma said the government would not make final-year students pay back their third-year loans if they passed. These loans would be converted into full bursaries.

Yesterday one Cosatu affiliate union said Zuma needed to give more details about this plan in his State of the Nation address and in Finance Minister Pravin Gordhan’s budget speech.

Frustrations over service delivery

By Lelethu Mquqo – Bush Radio
29 November 2010

A public protest action has been taking place since the early hours of this morning in Kosovo Main Street to Samora Machel to demand improved service delivery.

A crowd of residents from Ward 33 are protesting the City of Cape Town’s defaulting on cleaning solid waste from the area for three weeks now.

The residents of this area which is mostly dominated by informal settlements complain that the contractors appointed to clean up the rubbish from the area have been appointed on a nepotistic basis.

Telling the world that neither this City nor the World Cup works for us!

25 March 2010

Anti-Eviction Campaign Press Release

The poor in South Africa have mandated their leaders from social movements like the Anti-Eviction Campaign, Abahlali baseMjondolo, the Landless People’s Movement, Sikhula Sonke, the Anti-Privatisation Forum, etc, to speak about issues that are relevant to poor people. The poor have not mandated us to support political parties and their elite agendas.

The poor who make up our rank and file members of our movements want us to tell the world that in South Africa the poor are treated like terrorists and criminals. Our members are intimidated, harassed, arrested, and tortured every single day. And we are tired of being treated as second-class citizens.

As part of our effort to tell the world about our struggle, two Anti-Eviction Campaign members will be embarking on a trip to Germany, Scotland and Switzerland at the invitation of activists from those countries.

Media: Cape Town fears xenophobic flare-up

GLYNIS UNDERHILL – Mail & Guardian

Jul 26 2009 06:00

Cape Town mayor Dan Plato says the city is on “high alert” to prevent a flare-up of xenophobic violence after seven Somali shops in Samora Machel and Gugulethu townships this week were forced by local business operators to close.

“We are aware of the problems and we are working closely with the South African Police Service and engaging community leadership,” said Plato. “We need to work and live together in peace and harmony.”

Although some of the shops have since reopened, tensions are rising over the lower prices offered by foreign-owned shops and their proliferation close to locally owned businesses.

Media: Traders to distance themselves in peace bid

July 01, 2009 Edition 1

Caryn Dolley – Cape Times

IN an effort to keep the peace between the two groups, local and Somali traders in Gugulethu today plan to start moving their stores so they are at least 100 metres apart.

It is not yet clear how long the process will take or how many shops need to be moved.

R10-million to stop City land invasions

Brenda Nkuna
Jun 8, 2009

The City of Cape Town is spending R10-million in the current financial year to fund its Anti-Land Invasion Unit (ALIU) in an effort to safeguard housing projects it says “are being threatened by systematically planned and executed land invasions”.

But anti-eviction organisations have slammed the unit, saying the money could be better spent elsewhere and that it is leading to “war” between communities and the city.

Afrophobia: Traders threatened

29 May 2009 Anna Majavu majavua@sowetan.co.za
UP IN ARMS: A year ago, violence flared up in Cape Town and other parts of South Africa as foreigners were targeted by locals . Left: Western Cape Cope leader Mbulelo Ncedane. FEARS of repeats of last year’s xenophobic attacks are rising among foreign nationals in the Western Cape. This started after Gugulethu traders allegedly held a series of secret meetings discussing how to remove foreign traders from the area. A Gugulethu businessman said yesterday that local business people have held several meetings over the past three weeks, planning “what to do against foreigners”. The next meeting will take place on Sunday. “They are complaining that their business is declining and they are furious. They are talking about foreign businesses being the major problem,” the source said. The story was confirmed by another independent source in the community. Now foreign nationals fear a repeat of the xenophobic violence that swept the country last May, leaving more than 150000 displaced, and hundreds more raped or murdered. Last Sunday in Samora Machel near Nyanga, a group of 25 men identifying themselves as local business people instructed Somali shopkeepers to close shop by today.