No Line Item for Democracy in Durban

Sutcliffe took some hits in the Durban papers on Monday for trying to ban the Abahlali march (The Daily News article is below). His first response was to say that Abahlali are criminal (when of course it is his office that violates the law with regard to the Gatherings Act) but then he hit back with a front page article about the cost of marches, followed up today with a report at ‘outrage’ at the costs of marches (see below). It seems that he’s setting things up for middle class support for further restrictions on popular political expression. (Of course there was no outrage at millions and million in public subsidies for the rich via public money being spent on the A1 Grand Prix, casinos, Hilton Hotel, the new sports stadium, ICC, Anand Singh’s film studio etc, etc).

Richard

http://www.dailynews.co.za/index.php?fSectionId=500&fArticleId=3127837

Outrage at the cost of marches
February 23, 2006

By Bongani Mthembu

Stop your marches! eThekwini ratepayers yesterday expressed outrage when they learnt in the Daily News yesterday that a whopping extra R30 million in overtime pay for the Metro Police had to be allocated primarily as a result of the marches through the city.

In all ratepayers are expected to fork out R44 million for overtime pay for the 2005/2006 financial year.

The Daily News yesterday revealed that frequent marches through central Durban had greatly contributed to the R30 million overtime pay for Metro Police.

This is contained in the report approved by eThekwini’s executive committee this week which indicated that the Metro Police were expected to exceed their budget by R34 515 580, of which R30 million alone will go to overtime.

In a snap survey conducted in Durban yesterday, people felt that it was important for council to be strict when it comes to granting permission for marches.

This sentiment was also echoed by the city manager Mike Sutcliffe this week who said that the council was considering restricting marches in certain streets such as West Street.

Yugesh Dhoorgalu felt people had to exercise their rights to protests in less busy streets. He said marchers had to avoid busy streets of the central business district which formed part of the economic hub of the city:

“I strongly believe that stadiums such as Curries Fountain, which were used as venues for meetings during the struggle for freedom, are ideal venues for people to gather if they want to voice out their grievances.”

He said the money that the council spends on monitoring marches could have been used to provide essential services to the poor.

Lawrie Watson said that it was about time people stopped marching through the city centre whenever they complained about something, saying that protesting made no difference.

“It is a pity that we have to cough out such a lot of money because of something like this which does not make any difference to those who do it. It only creates a headache for people who use the streets during the march,” he said.

Danish Moola and Angela Jackson said marches were not only costing taxpayers a fortune, but also creating a terrible headache for business people who have to close their shops during the marches.

“Lives have also been lost during marches and looting has happened in other parts of the country,” Moola said.

Helen Mulol felt that people should be allowed to exercise their rights to march and that they should not be forced to march where they would not get attention of the city fathers.

http://www.dailynews.co.za/index.php?fSectionId=500&fArticleId=3121547

Sutcliffe slammed over city march
February 20, 2006

By Bongani Mthembu

Eethekwini municipal manager Mike Sutcliffe has come under scathing attack for allegedly refusing to grant a shack dwellers’ organisation permission to hold a march in the city centre today.

The shack dwellers’ movement, known as Abahlali base Mjondolo, claims that it handed an application to the chief director of the Metropolitan Police, Eugene Manzi, on January 25 asking to hold a march today.

The organisation represents people from more than 20 informal settlements in Durban.

The president of the organisation, S’bu Zikode, said the council’s refusal to grant them permission was a clear indication that Sutcliffe was undermining the shack dwellers.

“He is doing this for the second time now. Another application to have a march was refused in November last year despite the organisation having followed the right channels when seeking permission.”

Zikode said the aim of the march was to hand over a memorandum to Local Government Minister Mike Mabuyakhulu which explained how shack dwellers had been neglected by the municipality.

He said the march was scheduled to start at Botha’s Park in West Street and finish at the City Hall.

Sutcliffe denied that he was undermining shack dwellers.

“They were asked to provide certain information to us before we granted permission. The fact that they have not done that shows the organisation is not interested in working within the law. We have also seen from their attitudes during meetings that we have had with them that they have no respect of the law,” he said.

Sutcliffe said it cost the council a fortune to manage marches and that they needed to know everything about the marches to plan properly to avoid traffic congestion.

http://www.dailynews.co.za/index.php?fSectionId=502&fArticleId=3127745

Mike Sutcliffe is not telling everyone the whole truth
February 23, 2006

Mike Sutcliffe is simply not telling the truth when he claims (Daily News, February 20) that he prevented the shack dwellers’ movement from marching because they are “not interested in working within the law”.

In fact the shack dwellers have always scrupulously followed the procedures required to stage legal marches.

It is Sutcliffe’s banning of their marches that is illegal. Indeed the legal expert at the highly respected Freedom of Expression Institute recently called Sutcliffe’s actions in this regard “illegal and unconstitutional”.

His anti-democratic behaviour is a serious threat to democracy in Durban.

Richard Pithouse