http://www.mg.co.za/article/2009-06-24-listen-to-the-shackdwellers

Tens of thousands of shack-dwellers in South Africa are doomed to be evicted to transit camps.

Last week the Constitutional Court gave the green light for the eviction of 20 000 people from Cape Town's Joe Slovo settlement to make way for the N2 Gateway Project. Most residents are to be relocated to the Delft temporary relocation area (TRA).

In 2005, 2 400 families from Langa, Cape Town, were relocated to a camp called Tsunami. In Johannesburg, 6 400 families in Protea South, Soweto, fought a plan to move them to a decant camp in 2007. In Durban, 52 families in Siyanda, KwaMashu, were evicted in December last year and moved to a transit camp to make way for a new freeway.

The original article by Kerry Chance, Marie Huchzermeyer and Mark Hunter is here and the response by Mike Mabuyakhulu, to which this letter is a response, is here.

http://www.themercury.co.za/index.php?fArticleId=4867862

Mabuyakhulu misrepresents policy, legislation

March 02, 2009 Edition 1

We welcome MEC Mike Mabuyakhulu's public commitment to national policy and legislation, and indeed to temporary shelter being time-bound (The Mercury, February 9).

http://www.themercury.co.za/index.php?fArticleId=4815373

Forced removals

January 29, 2009 Edition 1

Kerry Chance, Marie Huchzermeyer and Mark Hunter

REJECTION of transit camps and contestations around "adequate housing" are central to urban livelihoods.

Tomorrow the Durban High Court will rule on whether residents of Siyanda shack settlement near KwaMashu will be forcefully moved into a "transit camp" to make way for a new road.

This is a matter of life-changing importance to the 50 households facing removal.