‘We see what you do, we watch you’, warns Revd Brittion

Revd Sue Brittion has warned the authorities that the church is watching them and it will remember when the time comes for the truth to be told.

Revd Brittion was speaking at a prayer service organised by Diakonia Council of Churches for the ‘Kennedy 12’ outside the Durban Magistrates’ Court on Friday 5 February 2010.

She expressed disgust at how the prosecutors and the political leadership have treated the accused and lamented the fact that none of the perpetrators of this horrific attack on Abahlali has been brought to book. “No charges have been put to the accused. The state prosecutor has been highly negligent in preparing a case to the extent of failing to appear in court at one of the eight hearings even if he was seen in the court building. A call by religious leaders for a Commission of Enquiry into the events of 26 September 2009 has been ignored by the authorities”, she said.

http://www.timeslive.co.za/sundaytimes/article284174.ece

A crisis of dignity - 5 humiliating years later
One of a human being's most private acts is a daily ordeal for these families
Jan 30, 2010 8:25 PM | By Buyekezwa Makwabe

Ntombifuthi Mdibaniso dreads answering the call of nature. The matric pupil has been cleaning up human excrement for the past decade - often with only plastic bags to cover her hands - to earn the right to use a neighbour's toilet.

The humiliating ritual has become a way of life for the 19-year-old, who lives in a shack with her parents in a section of the sprawling township of Khayelitsha in Cape Town.

Third NYC Encuentro for Dignity & Against Displacement

Movement for Justice in El Barrio

An echo that turns itself into many voices, into a network of voices that, before the deafness of power, opts to speak to itself, knowing itself to be one and many, acknowledging itself to be equal in its desire to listen and be listened to, recognizing itself as different in the tonalities and levels of voices forming it. A network of voices that resist the war that power wages on them. – Words of the Zapatistas at the “First Intercontinental Encuentro for Humanity and Against Neoliberalism.”

19 January 2010
Statement by the Kennedy Road Development Committee (K.R.D.C)

What is happening in Kennedy Road after the Attack on Abahlali baseMjondolo?

After the 26th September 2009 attack on Abahlali baseMjondolo in Kennedy Road by the shebeen owners and the ANC the life of the people has changed into misery. Everything is out of their control and some people are even abandoning the area due to a high level of crime activities making it unsafe. These activities are being started in the shebeens which are operating right through the night again.

The operation of evicting relatives, friends and very active supporters of the so called ‘forum’ and the K.R.D.C. is still continuing. They are under the severe intimidation and their shacks are being demolished mostly every weekend during the night. Our movement is banned from the settlement. But people are also fleeing from the shacks for the safety reason as substantial criminal behaviour is happening during the night.

HELP ZILLE-RAINE HEIGHTS FIGHT EVICTION
FROM BAD TO WORSE…

24 January 2010

On Friday the 29th of January, over 260 women, men, children and elderly will be represented in court for our appeal trial against forceful relocation from Zille Raine Heights informal settlement in Grassy Park to Happy Valley, 35 kms away from Cape Town.

Four years ago, we, the community of Zille Raine Heights, occupied land in Civic Road, Lotus River. Most people lived in overcrowded flats for most of their lives, some were backyarders, and others were facing evictions from their landlords. For approximately fifty years there has been no housing delivery in the LOGRA area (Lotus River, Grassy Park, Ottery and Retreat) and we decided we needed a solution to our housing problem. The following day after we occupied the open field, our places were demolished by the City without any court order.

JOIN THE UNEMPLOYED PEOPLE’S MOVEMENT (UPM)

A TOOL TO UNDERSTAND THE WAY THINGS ARE AND THE WAY THINGS CHANGE

A paper delivered by the Convenor of the Unemployed People’s Movement at the meeting held at Rhodes University, Politics Department, Grahamstown on the 22 January 2010.

The Chairperson, Rhodes University Staff Members and students, distinguished guests, militants of the Unemployed People’s Movement, ladies and gentlemen please receive my revolutionary greetings. Revolution is no tea party or a gathering of friends; those who pursue it do so under cruel and hostile circumstances. At times we wonder and we want to quit. Our undying love for our people, our country and our freedom give us the strength to continue.

This video and the situation in Haiti, will be discussed at this weekend's Abahlali baseMjondolo meeting.

Update: 27 January 18:32 - the bosses have flown down from Jo'burg to negotiate with the strikers and the strike has been suspended while the negotiations are ongoing. So far things are looking very positive.

150 contract workers at National Print, in Westmead, Pinetown, have walked off the job. The night shift workers will also refuse to work tonight.

The contract workers have decided to go on strike in protest at the attempt by the CEO to suddenly reduce their working hours and, therefore, their income. January is the month when poor families struggle to pay school fees and to buy school uniforms, books and stationery. This is a very bad time for people to suddenly lose most of their income.

Update:The application for bail was delayed until the 5th of February. This is 8th postponement of the bail hearing and the five members of the Kennedy 12 that remain in custody have now been illegally detained for four months without a bail hearing or any evidence being brought against them.

JUSTICE DELAYED IS JUSTICE DENIED
AN URGENT CALL TO A PRAYER SERVICE

22 January 2010 – Durban Magistrates’ Court

To all clergy, faith leaders and people of Durban.

By now many will be aware of the events in Kennedy Road and the subsequent arrests of thirteen members of the grassroots movement known as Abahlali baseMjondolo (AbM).