Another (partial) victory....

Development plan sparks outrage

http://www.sundaytribune.co.za/?fSectionId=&fArticleId=vn20081205110201169C507038

5 December 2008, 12:52
By Heinz de Boer

There were howls of protest when the eThekwini Municipality resolved
that it would compel landowners to allow the city to provide toilets and
water to squatters who invade plots of land.

The decision on who will ultimately foot the bill has not been
finalised, although each case will be decided on individually.

Note how this article conflates community connections and copper cable theft - two completely different things....and how threats from above are normalized while a threat from below, with a clearly spelled out logic, is 'bizarre'...

http://www.dailynews.co.za/?fSectionId=&fArticleId=vn20080820111834480C857906

'No one can have it if we can't'
20 August 2008, 12:14

By Heinz de Boer

"If you remove our cables, you had better move all the power from the area. No-one can have it if we are not allowed to (have electricity)."

slowly, slowly the city is realising that it has to work with shack dwellers' organisations rather than the councillors that work for the local rich and want shack dwellers forcibly removed from their areas. slowly, slowly the city is starting to begin to learn to work with and not for. but still no comment from abm in the article. still talking about, not too...and will the new clean up campaigns require the poor to do the work - another burden on poor women, another subsidy for society carried by the poorest?

http://www.iol.co.za/index.php?set_id=1&click_id=124&art_id=vn20080728110911487C877196

http://www.iol.co.za/index.php?art_id=vn20071113094833488C531147&set_id=1&click_id=124&sf=
http://www.internafrica.org/

November 13 2007 at 04:35PM

By Heinz de Boer

Grime-streaked toddlers run past a forlorn "no dumping" sign as other members of their tent community try to bring some semblance of normality to daily life.

Yet a long road lies ahead before any normality will return for the 98 families which have been dumped at a dusty piece of council land in Joyce Road, and who are now at the centre of a political and social spat that could have major ramifications for the city.

http://www.iol.co.za/index.php?set_id=1&click_id=124&art_id=vn20070710100901378C608216

July 10 2007

Council has in an 11th-hour move agreed to provide tented accommodation for the people it left without homes after a raid by the Land Invasion Unit (LIU).

Informal residents of the controversial Crossmoore settlement in Chatsworth applied for an urgent High Court Interdict last Friday to compel the council to provide them with shelter.

This after the LIU moved on to the property and again demolished the shanty homes of at least 40 families on Thursday, amid claims that some councillors were inciting people to illegally occupy the land.

This article was originally published on page 2 of the Daily News on December 05, 2006. Click here to read an article in the Daily News from 16 July 2003 in which it becomes clear whose interests 'slum eradication' in the area is aimed at serving.

Third force blamed for violent protest
December 05 2006 at 02:59PM

By Heinz de Boer

Monday's violent confrontation between heavily armed police and angry informal settlement residents in Newlands, Durban, has taken a new turn, with councillors claiming a third political force was to blame for instigating the mass action.