AEC Press Release
On behalf of the N2 Gateway Phase 1 Flats (also known as Joe Slovo Phase 1)

Event: Residents of the N2 Gateway flats will march on Helen Zille to demand radical changes in the project’s management and normalization of rents
When: 11h00 on 30 June 2009
Where: from Keizersgracht to the provincial office of Helen Zille
Contact: Luthando 079 896 6126 at and Jimmy at 073 158 4835

NO TO EXORBITANT RENTS AT N2 GATEWAY! NORMALISE OUR RENTS!

WE WANT LOCAL MANAGEMENT UNDER OUR CONTROL!

Since we moved into the N2 Gateway flats we have been very unhappy. The flats were very poorly constructed and the rents were much higher than we had been told when we applied for the flats. We pay up to R1050 in rent for defective flats. That is what people paying for bond houses pay, but we are not buying our houses, but only renting them for life! Because of this, we have been on rent boycott for two years. We have raised these issues time and again with Lindiwe Sisulu, Richard Dyantyi, and the Thubelisha management but our complaints have fallen on deaf ears.

The film is about the eNkwalini community’s struggle for land rights. It highlights the attacks by the local neighbouring farmer who has been trying to evict them since 2005 when he started to demolish their houses. The film tells a story of a rural community that is waging a struggle against ferocious tides of oppression. It is a story about a territorial war between the poor rural community and rich land owner. It is a story that reminds us that although South Africa may be celebrating 15 years of democratic rule, however, conditions under for those who are poor and marginalized, such as the rural and farm dweller communities, have hardly changed. For them it is not yet “uhuru” (freedom).

16 June 2009
Press Statement from Abahlali baseKennedy

Fire Devastates the Kennedy Road Settlement – At Least One Hundred Homes Destroyed

The Red Devil Must be Defeated

Today is the 16 June, Youth Day, the anniversary of the 1976 Soweto Uprising. In Johannesburg and Cape Town our comrades are struggling for the people to take this day back from the politicians.

Here at the Kennedy Road settlement we are burning, again. At about 1:30 last night a fire started after a paraffin stove was left unattended while a couple argued. Before it was put out around 100 shacks had burnt. At least 300 people have been left homeless. One woman has been very badly injured and has, only just now, been taken to hospital.

Click here to read the report on this event in the Cape Argus.

Abahlali baseMjondolo of the Western Cape Press Statement
15 June 2009

June 16th Commemoration to be Held at the Macassar Village Occupation

Every year since 2005 Abahlali baseMjondolo has de-celebrated Freedom Day by holding UnFreedom Day in Durban. Now that tradition will continue in Cape Town and Johannesburg as the Poor People's Alliance organises to begin the process of taking back our history of struggle from the politicians. This history belongs to the people and tomorrow the Poor People's Alliance will be retracing the route of the 1976 June 16th protest in Soweto, Johannesburg. Here in Cape Town we have been focussing on mobilising other communities to support the Macassar Village Occupation. During these meetings we have discussed what would should do to take forward the programme of the Poor People's Alliance on June 16th.

Click here to read this article in a word document, here to read a version published by Pambazuka and here to read previous entries on the Joe Slovo settlement.

The deficiency of reality in the Joe Slovo judgment

Kate Tissington
15 June 2009

The highest Court in South Africa has decided the fate of the 20 000 Joe Slovo informal settlement residents to be evicted to Delft to make way for the N2 Gateway housing project, in what is a disappointing and frustrating judgment that orders their eviction, albeit on the proviso that engagement occurs and that certain mitigating measures are undertaken.

Sunday, 14 June 2009

Urgent Statement from Several Members of the Macambini Development Committee and the eMacambini Anti-Removal Committee

We are concerned about recent statements made by Inkosi Kayelihle Wiseman Mathaba in the media. He was quoted as saying that he is now supporting the project by Ruwaad Holdings in Dubai to build the ‘AmaZulu World’ themepark that will result in the forced removal of 10 000 families from their ancestral land.

He is not speaking for the community. He cannot represent the views of the Macambini masses on this question as they were not consulted. Therefore we, and the people that we have been elected to represent, distance ourselves from his pronouncements.

Can’t this city of prosperity find accommodation for 50 families?

June 10, 2009 Edition 1

The Catholic Justice and Peace Commission paid a pastoral visit to the people of Macassar in Nkanini and has these comments:

The ink from the recent national and provincial elections has not yet dried and peeled off our left thumbs and already the poor of our province, with their children as small as one month old, have been left to fend for themselves in wintry conditions.The judge, the premier, the mayor, the politician, all go home after deciding on the fate of 50 families who have been evicted from a piece of land they have called their home for more than two years. Their shack materials have been confiscated by the powers that be.

Update: Click here for pictures of the march.

Poor Peoples’ Alliance to Re-enact June 1976 Soweto Uprising March

The Poor Peoples’ Alliance (PPA), made up of radical community-based organisations across South Africa, is to march from Morris Isaacs High School to the Hector Pieterson Memorial in Soweto on the 16th June 2009 to re-enact the 1976 march.

We as the Poor Peoples’ Alliance will not celebrate this day, as the government does, but commemorate it by reflecting on the struggle for liberation by the youth still being fought for by poor communities 15 years into our so-called democracy.

To see more short films by Elkartasun Bideak click here.

This film shows some of the first meeting between a community in Howick and AbM. Abahlali were invited to a meeting by the community as they are facing eviction and will have to struggle against the local chief and the state.

Click here to read this letter in pdf.

9 June 2009

The Honourable Mr. Dan Plato
Mayor of Cape Town,
The Mayor’s Office,
City of Cape Town
Cape Town 8001

South Africa

Reference: Violation of housing rights of 60 families in Macassar Village, Cape Town.

Dear Mayor Plato,

The Centre on Housing Rights and Evictions (COHRE) is an international human rights non-governmental organisation based in Geneva, Switzerland, with offices throughout the world. COHRE has consultative status with the United Nations and Observer Status with the African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights. COHRE works to promote and protect the right to adequate housing for everyone, everywhere, including preventing or remedying forced evictions.