http://www.dailymaverick.co.za/opinionista/2013-05-22-welcome-to-marikana-cape-town/

Welcome to Marikana, Cape Town

by Jared Sacks

Earlier this month, I spent a night with the Marikana community in Philippi East, Cape Town. What I found was a community fighting hard to protect itself – and others – from the might of the City of Cape Town, which has forcibly evicted them over half-a-dozen times. For these people, who are down to one tent to protect them from the elements, the struggle is only beginning.

PADKOS BIOSCOPE NO 4

Street Dreams: The Occupation of Symphony Way

We know some of our regulars were gutted they couldn't make it - but thanks to everyone else for great support and discussions at the “Occupy Wall St” showing! Continuing the occupy theme, but locking it down in our own context, we're watching “Street Dreams” next week: Thursday, 16 May 2013 at 1pm as usual at the padkos bioscope.

Produced by the Special Assignment team at the SABC, the 25-minute, 2009 documentary “Street Dreams” told key parts of the story of the militant occupation of Symphony Way in Delft, Cape Town. That area of Delft, Cape Town has been the scene of active militant occupation – and typically illegal and violent state response – at the settlement of Marikana. We have attached some outstanding reportage and analysis from Jared Sacks in 2 pieces from the Daily Maverick.

http://mg.co.za/article/2013-05-10-00-shock-and-awe-tactics-used-on-shack-dwellers

'Shock and awe tactics' used on shack dwellers

by Jared Sacks

On April 27, while political parties were spending fortunes to celebrate freedom, the shack dwellers' movement Abahlali baseMjondolo commemorated – or "mourned" – what it called UnFreedom Day in Sweet Home, the shack settlement in Philippi on the Cape Flats.

On the same day, a group of shack dwellers from the Philippi East area increased their occupation of a piece of land just off Symphony Way, between Stock and Govan Mbeki roads. But a day later, the City of Cape Town decided to show them exactly how unfree they still are.

http://www.dailymaverick.co.za/article/2013-05-08-in-langa-cape-town-a-dark-combo-of-housing-corruption-police-brutality

In Langa, Cape Town: A dark combo of housing corruption & police brutality

by Jared Sacks

Twenty-seven-year-old Siyabonga Magcida is in Groote Schuur Hospital today, under 24-hour police surveillance, because he is considered a flight risk. Yet he is severely injured, is connected to drips on both arms and is unable to walk or even speak. By JARED SACKS.

http://www.dailymaverick.co.za/opinionista/2013-05-06-city-of-cape-town-makes-up-law-to-justify-eviction-of-the-poor/#.UYcXFaLTx34

City of Cape Town makes up law to justify eviction of the poor

by Jared Sacks

The City of Cape Town has been caught red-handed using a fraudulent legal pretext to justify the eviction of shack dwellers who had occupied a vacant piece of City-owned land, by citing a non-existent law they claim is called the “Protection of the Possession of Property Act”. After speaking with legal experts in the field of property and evictions, I was told that not only was the eviction of the 'Marikana' shack dwellers in Cape Town’s Philippi East illegal according to the PIE Act, but city officials had also lied about the living conditions of the shack dwellers.

http://www.dailymaverick.co.za/article/2013-05-02-marikana-unfreedom-day-land-occupation-ends-in-violent-workers-day-eviction/

'Marikana' UnFreedom Day land occupation ends in violent Workers’ Day eviction

I found myself among a community of homeless and backyard-dwellers on Sunday through connections with the shackdwellers’ movement Abahlali baseMjondolo, which held its controversial UnFreedom Day rally on 27 April in the settlement of Sweet Home Farm in Philippi, Cape Town. What follows is a personal account of the beginnings of the 'Marikana' land occupation. By JARED SACKS.

http://dailymaverick.co.za/article/2013-01-07-shack-fires-a-devil-in-the-detail-of-development

Shack fires: A devil in the detail of development

by Jared Sacks

According to the City of Cape Town, within the boundaries of the municipality alone, there are more than 100 deaths from shack fires every year. JARED SACKS examines the root causes of the problem and the city’s failure to address it.

On New Year’s morning a devastating fire broke out in BM Section shack settlement leaving about 4,000 people homeless and at least five dead.