http://www.themercury.co.za/index.php?fArticleId=4780987

Rights group to launch election boycott campaign

January 05, 2009 Edition 1

Aziz Hartley

CAPE TOWN: The Anti Eviction Campaign, an organisation that fights for the rights of the homeless, is to launch a national campaign to boycott the coming general elections because it says the government has failed the poor and politicians cannot be trusted.

Mncedisi Twalo, a campaign leader in Gugulethu, Cape Town, said yesterday the body was using "no land, no house, no jobs - no votes" as its slogan.

http://www.themercury.co.za/index.php?fArticleId=4771963

Shack people plead for help to rebuild lives

December 23, 2008 Edition 1

GUGU MBONAMBI

RESIDENTS of the Kennedy Road informal settlement in Clare Estate, Durban, are still waiting for assistance such as blankets, food parcels and building materials so they can rebuild their lives after they lost all their belongings in a fire on Saturday night.

They told The Mercury yesterday that they felt helpless and neglected because nobody from the municipality, including their ward councillor, visited them to assess the damage when about 30 shacks were razed by fire.

http://www.themercury.co.za/index.php?fArticleId=4771015

Blaze leaves 200 people homeless

December 22, 2008 Edition 1

GUGU MBONAMBI

DEVASTATED residents of the Kennedy Road informal settlement in Clare Estate, Durban, will not be spending Christmas in their homes after fire gutted nearly 30 shacks at midnight on Saturday.

At least 200 people have been left homeless in the eighth fire in the informal settlement since the beginning of the year.

Residents interviewed by The Mercury said by the time help arrived they had lost all their possessions in the blaze.

http://www.themercury.co.za/index.php?fArticleId=4719651

Developments need to be based on partnerships
Without government and communities working together, even the best-intentioned projects can do more harm than good

November 19, 2008 Edition 1

Imraan Buccus

NATIONAL attention remains fixed on the unlovely aftermath of Polokwane and the new political party, Congress of the People (Cope).

At times like this, we often forget the ordinary people who keep the country going, and in whose name most of the major battles continue to be fought.

http://www.themercury.co.za/index.php?fArticleId=4700038

Slums Act hearings begin in Durban

November 07, 2008 Edition 1

Tania Broughton

DANCING and singing, a crowd of red-T-shirt-clad shack dwellers descended on the Durban High Court yesterday to hear legal argument in their attempt to have the KwaZulu-Natal Slums Act deemed unconstitutional and scrapped from the law books.

"Phansi, Slums Act, Phansi," their T-shirts and banners proclaimed as they blew vuvuzelas and chanted freedom songs outside the court building at the start of the two-day hearing.

http://www.themercury.co.za/index.php?fArticleId=4647626

Opinion
Housing Concerns

October 07, 2008 Edition 1

A report released yesterday on housing rights and "slum eradication" in Durban makes for sobering reading.

In it the Geneva-based Centre on Housing Rights and Eviction praises the eThekwini Municipality for its zeal in building a considerable number of homes, but also expresses a number of serious concerns.

These include the size, quality and location of the houses being built, the failure to provide adequate levels of basic services to shack dwellers, the authoritarian methods used to evict people and to silence dissenters, and the strong perceptions in communities of corruption and political patronage in the municipality's housing system.

http://www.iol.co.za/index.php?set_id=1&click_id=124&art_id=vn20081006055013156C457741

'Change outlook on housing'

October 06 2008

By Mercury reporter

South Africa in general, and Durban in particular, need to abandon the idea that a "world-class" city is a place where the poor are hidden from view.

This is among the recommendations in a report released on Monday by the Centre on Housing Rights and Evictions, which is based in Geneva.

The centre argues in a report on housing issues in the eThekwini region that the South African government, cities and civic organisations should undergo a general paradigm shift regarding housing policy.

http://www.themercury.co.za/?fArticleId=4646145

Housing 'a cause for concern'

October 06, 2008 Edition 1

Mercury reporter

A MAJOR housing study released today has raised concerns about apparently high levels of state repression and perceptions of political patronage and rampant corruption in the eThekwini's municipality's housing system.

While pointedly commending the municipality for its zeal in building a "considerable number" of houses for the poor, the 200-page report into housing rights and slum eradication in Durban raised several worries. These concern the standard and location of new houses, methods used in evictions and the municipality's reluctance to properly consult and communicate with those affected.

Clearly shack dwellers don't count as 'residents' in this article...If they did, and were spoken to, the journalist would soon have discovered all kinds of worries on that side of the fence too....Like the fact that the building of the government shacks is still not complete months after the fire (unlike in Kennedy where people, with City help in getting building materials for the first time, rebuilt themselves in a week; like the fact that the government shacks are being allocated with shocking political bias resulting in long standing residents being left homeless while outsiders with the right connections get the government shacks....