20 June 2014

Abahlali baseMjondolo Press Statement

 

Illegal Evictions in Madlala Village, Lamontville

Despite the latest Constitutional Court ruling on the 6th of June which is in favour of the poor people of the shack settlement known as Madlala Village in Lamontville, Durban, the illegal demolishing of shacks still continues. This morning at about 09:00 the eThekwini Municipality with its implementing agents was busy demolishing shacks in Madlala village, as a result  70 (seventy) shacks were demolished leaving hundreds of people homeless in the harsh conditions of the winter season.

When the demolishing team arrived in Madlala village the shack dwellers there asked if there was a court order granting the right to the eThekwini Municipality to destroy their homes. One respondent from the demolishing team responded by saying there is none and furthermore he said that they are aware of the recent Constitutional Court ruling but that they were working according to the ward councillor’s instructions to demolish these homes.

Abahlali baseMjondolo have always maintained that shack demolishing occurs countrywide and we have always been opposed to all evictions everywhere. But we were amazed at the stance the National Minister of Human Settlement Ms. Lindiwe Sisulu took by condemning the evictions at Lwandle in the Western Cape and even announcing that a commission will be investigating the Lwandle evictions. We wonder whether the Lwandle shack dwellers are different from any other shack dwellers countrywide who are evicted and have their homes demolished without a word of support from the authorities. Will Ms. Sisulu condemn the evictions in Madlala Village today? Will she condemn the evictions in Cato Crest? Will she announce a commission of inquiry into evictions in Durban that are carried out against court orders and accompanied by the murder of activists by assassins and the police?

Residents in Madlala Village have begun the process of forming an Abahlali baseMjondolo branch but are not yet members of the movement.

The contact person in Madlala Village is Pinky Zulu @ 084 200 3916

For comment from Abahlali baseMjondolo please contact T.J. Ngongoma at 084 613 9772

Please note that in our first statement we mistakenly said that 300 families had been affected when in fact we meant to say that 70 families and 300 people were affected.