Protests in E Section set to continue after Thursday’s police violence

17 April 2011
Western Cape Anti-Eviction Campaign Press Statement

Residents have vowed to continue their protest against the eviction of a poor family and against Thursday’s police brutality that has left 3 residents seriously injured. Residents will submit a petition to police today and fight for the rights and dignity of resident’s vulnerable to greedy banks and politicians.

Wednesday

As we saw all over the news, on Wednesday the 13^th, the Sheriff of the Court came to E Section with police and security guards to evict Nomachina Magodla and her 7 children because the greedy banks have no interest in helping her find a way to repay her dead husband’s loan. Community members mobilised in support of the family blockading the road, burning tyres, and trying to remove the private security guards the bank has placed inside the home.

Negotiations between the community of E Section and the police on Wednesday provided no solution to the Magodla family. The community then went to night court to find relief for the Magodla family but at night court there was still no solution.

Media: W.Cape shack dwellers call for MEC’s resignation

Malungelo Booi | Eyewitness News

A group of Khayelitsha residents demanded the resignation of Western Cape Human Settlements MEC Bonginkosi Madikizela on Wednesday.

The small group held a demonstration outside the MEC’s office on Wednesday morning.

“Madikizela you’re an idiot and a puppet”, read one of the placards.

Abahlali baseMjondolo, which led the protest, warned it was just the start of their planned rolling demonstrations at the MEC’s office this week.

Protest Day 1: A call for Madikizela, MEC for Human Settlement to resign

PROTEST DAY ONE

Last week Abahlali baseMjondolo Western Cape made a call to MEC for human settlement M.R Bonginkosi Madikizela to sign an undertaking that he will never, ever again within the Western Cape Province demolish or evict people without any order from the court.

This follows number of illegal activities and intimidation carried by his office lead by him. ABM WC gave him seven working days to respond, and as an organization we were only expecting him to sign an undertaking that says he will not demolish people’s structures without following legal rout and a failure to sign such undertaking it simply shows that he is arrogant and thinks that he is above the law.

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.

Cape Town Community Housing Finally meets its match!

Five families in Newfields Village face their verdict for their evictions on the 10/06/2010 (on the day the opening ceremony of the World Cup 2010 will be held).

Background

In 1994 President Nelson Mandela promised to build one million houses and accordingly the City of Cape Town and the National Housing Finance Company (NHFC) tried to make this dream a reality for the poorest of the poor by forming a Section 21 Company called Cape Town Community Housing Company. Eight years ago CTCHC started to build the worst houses in the history of our country with both latent and patent defects. Accordingly, the residents of the nine villages (Newfields Village, Hanover Park Phase 1, 2 and 3, Luyoloville, East Ridge, Woodridge, Manenberg (Tornado Victims) and Phillipi) went on a rental boycott, had marches to the Company, they occupied their administration office, they handed over numerous memorandums of demands and even occupied the administration building in Tijger Valley. The company changed directorship, because of bad management of fances and the pressure from the different communities. All that the community wants is to honour the original understanding and agreements made that they will get a subsidized houses and pay-off the balance over four years with affordable rental.

Shack dwellers up in arms

Durban marchers want better service

23 March 2010

Corrinne Louw – Sowetan

There was a tense stand-off between protesters and police when members of the Abahlali baseMjondolo took to the streets of Durban yesterday to demand that the government take action to help the poor and homeless.

ANGRY: Hundreds of shack dwellers protest in Durban yesterday

Shop owners closed their doors when the police tested their water spray trucks and cordoned off roads with a heavily armed police force when the marchers stormed down West Street.

The march by the Abahlali baseMjondolo (shack dwellers association) and Rural Network had to be diverted from the Durban City Hall, with the police and marchers squaring off. Earlier city officials had obtained a court order to prevent protesters from gathering near the city hall.

Gugulethu residents to march tomorrow against corruption at new Gugulethu Mall

Gugulethu Anti-Eviction Campaing Press Alert
05 November 2009

Gugulethu Anti-Eviction Campaign will be protesting at the new Gugulethu Square Mall tomorrow morning at 08h00am.

Residents are angry that most of the jobs at the mall are going to people who do not reside in Gugulethu.  Despite Mzoli’s assurances, very few of the jobs are going to locals.  Since the mall is being build on land that should rightfully be owned by the Gugulethu community, it is only fair that residents benefit from development happening on their land.

Media: South Africa’s Poor Renew a Tradition of Protest

September 7, 2009

By BARRY BEARAK – New York Times

SIYATHEMBA, South Africa — This country’s rituals of protest most often call for the burning of tires, the barricading of streets and the throwing of rocks. So when the municipal mayor here went to address the crowd after three days of such agitation, the police thought it best to take him into the stadium in a blast-resistant armored vehicle.

Protesters chanted slogans in the township of Siyathemba in late July. Such “service delivery protests” have become a regular occurrence in South Africa.

In Solidarity: A week of radical actions including a march on Parliament by Sikhula Sonke, the farmworkers trade union

MEDIA RELEASE by Sikhula Sonke
Sent in solidarity by the Anti-Eviction Campaign

Farm workers in Stellenbosch demand an end to inhumane forced evictions, appalling housing and retrenchments: 27 July to 1 August 2009

Farm workers embark on a week of radical action, Monday 27 July to Saturday 1 August. They come from the Boland, West Coast, Breede River, Witzenburg, Overberg, Oostenberg, Breede Valley and Swartland. This action takes place on the eve of the famous Stellenbosch wine festival and coincides with several uprisings for service delivery across the country.

AbM-WC march on the Mayor’s office

Click here for additional photos of the march on the IOL website

(higher resolution photos available by contacting abmwesterncape@abahlali.org)