http://www.witness.co.za/?showcontent&global[_id]=11832

Congolese traders live in fear of policemen
18 Aug 2008
Shilrey Jones

Congolese refugees at the Albert Park refugee camp in Durban have accused police of beating up four men and arresting one on a charge of assaulting a police officer at the weekend. Police, however, have no record of the incident.

Refugee Frederick Ecabakeni said yesterday that the first attack took place in the market area of the CBD on Saturday. The group, who run a pavement hair salon, saw a man in civilian dress chasing a woman. He said a plastic bag containing CDs was thrown into the salon during the drama.

Residents told, no budget for homes
17 Aug 2008
Thando Mgaga

While frustrated Eastwood residents grabbed land owned by the Msunduzi
Municipality on Tuesday, nearby Thembalihle, Tamboville and Q-section
residents are fed up with living in mud houses and are demanding
low-cost housing from the municipality.

Chairman of the Eastwood Community Forum, Fred Wagner, said the
municipality allocated R58,6 million in the current financial year to
build houses in these communities, but there is nothing to indicate that

http://www.witness.co.za/?showcontent&global[_id]=10863

Citizenship and belonging
25 Jul 2008
Thabo Manyathi

The regrettable incidents of xenophobic attacks against Africans by other fellow Africans have come and gone. However, the scars of those attacks will remain with us for some time. Most important is the manner in which local, provincial and national governments dealt with and continue to deal with people on the move.

Our migration policies, which contain structural forms of discrimination, have helped to fuel xenophobic attacks against people on the move. The inability of the government at all levels, jointly and collectively, to deal with the crisis resulting from xenophobic attacks leaves much to be desired. The vicious and non-caring manner in which Durban City and its security apparatus have dealt with the refugees, consisting mainly of women and children, is appalling, to say the least.

http://www.witness.co.za/?showcontent&global[_id]=9617

The Witness

Dwellers threaten to rebuild mud huts

26 June 2008
Thando Mgaga

Residents of the Ash Road (Jika Joe) informal settlement in the downtown area of the city say they are fed up with living in tents and are threatening to rebuild their shacks and mud houses if the Msunduzi Municipality does not address their complaints.

A strongly-worded statement outlining the residents’ complaint is in The Witness’s possession, but the writers do not wish to be named for fear of intimidation. They said the tents do not provide protection against the cold winter nights.

There have been no attacks or harassment of any sort in any of the settlements affiliated to Abahlali or with an Abahlali branch. (The movement has members in Durban, Pinetown, Tongaat & Pietermaritzburg.)

Witness

Foreigners attacked in PMB
26 May 2008

Bongani Hans

REPORTS of sporadic attacks on foreign nationals have surfaced in
Pietermaritzburg. The past weekend saw property set alight and a
Zimbabwean national leaving Imbali, covered in blood.

In the early hours of Sunday morning, a shack in the city centre
occupied by a Congolese man was burnt down. The occupant was threatened

Houses: 26 govt employees fined
15 May 2008
Witness Reporter

ANOTHER 26 government employees were fined yesterday after they pleaded
guilty in the Pietermaritzburg Regional Court to charges of fraudulently
acquiring subsidised houses.

Thirty more are to be charged every month until November in
Pietermaritzburg. The accused, charged with fraud, pleaded guilty to
lying that they were unemployed at the time.

The employees, many of whom are teachers and nurses, were given fines
ranging from R2 000 or R5 000 suspended for six months and 12 months’

The Witness

KZN housing cheats named
24 Apr 2008

THE identities of 29 KwaZulu-Natal housing crooks have been revealed.

These civil servants have been convicted of lying about their income to
obtain government houses they were not entitled to, and have been given
suspended fines ranging from R3 000 to R10 000.

They have signed acknowledgement of debt agreements binding them to pay
back the cost of the houses, with interest.

The 11 government employees who pleaded guilty on Wednesday are from
Pietermaritzburg, while the 18 who pleaded yesterday are from various

As in New Orleans a flood becomes the excuse to expel the poor from the city...

http://www.witness.co.za/?showcontent&global[_id]=2369

Over 300 shack-dwellers homeless again
16 Jan 2008

The urgent need to once again relocate Jika Joe shack-dwellers was highlighted yesterday when the informal settlement was wrecked by floods on Monday night.

Some 40 shacks were washed down the Dorpspruit River, displacing about 300 people, including children.

Yesterday morning, hundreds were left homeless after a sleepless night during which they helplessly stood by and watched their homes and possessions being washed away in the deluge.

Municipality approves electricity provision for Edendale
•Fri, 5 Oct 2007

By Thabisile Gumede

RESIDENTS in the greater Edendale area can look forward to brighter surroundings after the Msunduzi Municipality’s executive committee (Exco) yesterday approved the long awaited provision of funding for electricity connections to indigent households inclusive of low-cost housing schemes and informal settlements.

Edendale councillors previously expressed dissatisfaction with council’s failure to spend the budget of R5,81 million received from National Treasury for Free Basic Electricity (FBE), while neglecting the Greater Edendale area when it comes to the provision of free basic electricity to the Greater Edendale Development Initiative (Gedi) and indigent households. The municipality has only managed to spend R12 574,27 from FBE budgeted for the 2007/08 financial year.

•Wed, 18 Jul 2007

Ignorance is a potent weapon for those who deliberately want to undermine the facts staring them in the face. This line floated through my head when I read the statement issued to the media by the so-called shack dwellers’ movement in which they are said to be opposed to the newly passed Elimination and Prevention of Re-emergence of Slums Bill.

The arguments provided by the movement as reasons for its rejection of the legislation, which is still awaiting the premier’s signature, are a clear indication of the danger posed to the nation by a lack of reading. These are populist statements based on a debt of ignorance about the intentions of the bill. The objective is simply to grab headlines and to use the bill to popularise the activities of mushrooming “centres” which claim to be fighting poverty and neglect, whereas they use the same to market themselves at the expense of the plight of our people.