http://www.witness.co.za/index.php?showcontent&global[_id]=37984

Jika Joe residents battle cops over disconnections

Thami Magubane

The police remove electricity connections from Ash Road [aka Jika Joe]

26 Mar 2010

RESIDENTS of the Jika Joe informal settlement in the lower CBD were
yesterday engaged in running battles with police after they allegedly
disconnected illegal electricity connections.

AbM and the Gauteng LPM are both part of the Poor People's Alliance but Mnikelo Ndabankulu is not an LPM spokesperson - he is an AbM spokesperson.

http://www.witness.co.za/index.php?showcontent&global[_id]=36655

Land claim delays ‘will create suffering’
02 Mar 2010
Thami Magubane

DELAYS in settlements of land claims will destabilise societies and
cripple the agricultural sector, say local land rights organisations.

The organisations were speaking after the recent disclosure by the Rural

http://www.witness.co.za/index.php?showcontent&global[_id]=33005

Amnesty blasts SA government
19 Dec 2009
Sharlene Packree

ANGLICAN Bishop Rubin Phillip has backed Amnesty International’s claims that South Africa has failed to investigate the human rights abuses at the Kennedy Road informal settlement in Durban.

Phillip has worked closely with the Abahlali baseMjondolo movement, who fight for the rights of shack dwellers.

In a statement, Amnesty International criticised the government’s failure to investigate murders, violence and other atrocities the community has faced in the past year.

Govt urged: ‘Halt this destruction’
13 Nov 2009
Thando Mgaga

BRUNTVILLE residents in Mooi River yesterday called on the government to intervene
and stop the destruction of hostel blocks, which was allegedly ordered by an ANC ward
councillor.

The Inkatha Freedom Party, the opposition in the Mpofana Municipality, and hostel
dwellers who spoke to The Witness on condition of anonymity for fear of being
victimised, said that hostel blocks were damaged because the councillor, Sifiso Mkhize,

http://www.witness.co.za/index.php?showcontent&global%5B_id%5D=30227

Bishop of Natal honoured in Germany
31 Oct 2009
Julia Denny-Dimitriou

THE Anglican Bishop of Natal, Bishop Rubin Phillip, received a prestigious international award in Germany last night.

In a ceremony in the Bremen Town Hall, Phillip received the 2009 International Bremen Peace Award in recognition of his work for “justice, peace and integrity of creation”. He received the award in the category for “persons in the public arena, who have shown sustainable and courageous commitment for peace and justice, especially in the ecumenical spirit of the reconciliation process”. He was accompanied by his wife, Rose.

http://www.witness.co.za/index.php?showcontent&global[_id]=30091

Kennedy Road: sharing the facts
29 Oct 2009

WITH reference to last week’s article by Willies Mchunu, (The Witness,
October 20).

MEC Mchunu makes several statements, to which we feel it is necessary to
respond. The first relates to the claim that his invitation to
stakeholders, dated October 8, received no response from churches. On
October 14, a letter was addressed to the MEC, and copied to the
provincial premier, Zweli Mkhize, and President Jacob Zuma, and was

Click here to read the full version of this article at the South African Civil Society Information Service and here to read the version published in the Cape Times.

http://www.witness.co.za/index.php?showcontent&global[_id]=30103

The age of innocence has died
29 Oct 2009

KADER Asmal was quite right to warn that powerful people in the African National Congress (ANC) are actively working to build an anti- democratic constituency. Fikile Mbalula’s response, crafted with all the delicate subtlety of a blue-light cavalcade shooting motorists out of its path, offered quick confirmation of the patently antidemocratic depths to which political discourse has sunk in the ANC.

The article by Willies Mchunu, the Safety & Security MEC who notoriously claimed to have have 'liberated' Kennedy Road after the attack on the AbM, to which the letter below was written in response, is online here.

http://www.witness.co.za/index.php?showcontent&global[_id]=29984

Questions for Willies Mchunu
27 Oct 2009

SAFETY and Security MEC Willies Mchunu’s article (The Witness, October 20) evades almost every key aspect­ of the Kennedy Road situation. Abahlali baseMjondolo (ABM) is respected internationally and throughout South Africa as a democratic, nonviolent social movement. It is, in fact, Mchunu, and not his critics, who brings the African National Congress into disrepute with his vicious, undemocratic attack on ABM.

The article by Willies Mchunu, the Safety & Security MEC who notoriously claimed to have have 'liberated' Kennedy Road after the attack on the AbM, to which the piece below was written in response, is online here.

http://www.witness.co.za/index.php?showcontent&global[_id]=29985

The Kennedy Road Informal Settlement controversy: Why an independent inquiry is essential
27 Oct 2009

Jared Sacks

ON October?20, in an article titled “The Kennedy Road Informal Settlement controversy: the ANC side of the story”, MEC Willies Mchunu replied to an opinion piece of mine, which laid the blame for the attacks on local shebeen owners who were in cahoots with members of the local branch of the African National Congress.

http://www.witness.co.za/index.php?showcontent&global[_id]=29444

Shack dwellers’ victory
15 Oct 2009
Sharlene Packree

RESIDENTS of the Kennedy Road settlement in Durban were jubilant
yesterday at the ruling of the Constitutional Court that a law that
would have allowed mass evictions in KwaZulu-Natal is unconstitutional.

Members of the Abahlali baseMjondolo Movement SA, which fights for the
rights of shack dwellers, were present at the Constitutional Court when