There has been lots of talk about other provinces following KwaZulu-Natal and developing their own Slums Acts. But now there is talk of a national Slums Act from Gauteng housng MEC and share holder in Lindela Nomvula Mokonyane....Most of this article is a response to the DA's xenophobia but the statement about the national slums act is at towards the end.

http://www.businessday.co.za/articles/topstories.aspx?ID=BD4A790368

http://www.businessday.co.za/articles/opinion.aspx?ID=BD4A770341

Opinion & Analysis
Posted to the web on: 21 May 2008
New ANC leaders need to look down

DO POLITICIANS have rights that others do not have? Or do they only notice when their rights are threatened? These questions are raised by the new African National Congress (ANC) leadership’s assault on the Scorpions.

The new leaders’ hurry to get rid of the Scorpions is usually seen as a sign that they are protecting themselves. But, since only a few are under investigation, many ANC leaders seem to want the investigative unit to go because they see it as a bully and a rights abuser.

http://www.businessday.co.za/articles/topstories.aspx?ID=BD4A761632

Whether it lasts is in hands of citizens
Steven Friedman

A FELLOW columnist said in a conversation last week, “You know it can’t last.” Whether he is right depends on what “it” is. An irony of our current politics is that, while doom and gloom have engulfed many in business and the professions, democracy is, in important ways, doing better than it has for a long while.

Parliament continues to hold the government to account more than ever before, most recently by threatening a vote of no confidence in the SABC board. The African National Congress (ANC) now differs with the government on electricity price rises and Zimbabwe, to name but two issues. Public consultation on national problems is about to be revived with an energy summit later this month. And by far the most impressive sign of democratic health is citizens’ action, which prevented a Chinese ship carrying arms for Zimbabwe’s regime from docking here. Just as AIDS activists badly wounded one key blot on government policy over the past few years, workers who refused to handle the ship’s cargo and church leaders who blocked the government’s decision to allow the ship to dock severely damaged another: failure to support democracy in Zimbabwe.

http://www.businessday.co.za/articles/topstories.aspx?ID=BD4A754363

Top Stories
Posted to the web on: 23 April 2008
Officials ‘took houses meant for poor’
Nick Wilson

Property Editor

MORE than 30000 public servants face possible prosecution for defrauding the poor out of low-cost homes.

The Special Investigations Unit is investigating 31000 government employees, including school principals and police captains, who “corruptly or fraudulently” acquired fully subsidised houses.

Xolani Xundu, spokesman for the housing department, said the housing subsidies were meant for the “poorest of the poor” — households that earned less than R3500 a month.

http://www.businessday.co.za/articles/topstories.aspx?ID=BD4A752683

Top Stories
Posted to the web on: 21 April 2008
Why getting bail is harder than one might think
Jean Redpath

FEW people (ANC president Jacob Zuma included) seem to know that people arrested for criminal offences have fewer rights when it comes to bail than they did under apartheid.

That’s right, despite our “constitutionally guaranteed” procedural rights, bail is far less likely to happen speedily or at all under current legislation than it was even a mere 10 years ago.

Abahlali baseMjondolo is a multi-ethnic, multi-racial and multi-national movement that takes the position that everyone who lives in the shacks is from the shacks. The movement has organised in solidarity with Zimbabweans in Zimbabwe and in South Africa and welcomes Zimbabwean members. This aspect of the movement needs to be given wider recognition given the horrific upsurge in xenophobia sweeping the country.

Top Stories
Posted to the web on: 01 April 2008
Xenophobia emerges as a ‘new apartheid’
Wilson Johwa

Political Correspondent

DRUNK on the alcohol they had just looted, some sang Awuleth’ umshini wami and continued into the night. By morning, two Zimbabweans were dead. They were victims of the latest xenophobic attacks.

http://www.businessday.co.za/articles/topstories.aspx?ID=BD4A724355

Top Stories

Posted to the web on: 11 March 2008
‘Know your rights’ drive kicks off
Sibongakonke Shoba

THE public service and administration department’s campaign to educate the public about their service rights was widely welcomed by nongovernmental organisations (NGOs) and researchers, but organisations that joined in service delivery protests said it would not make a difference.

Public Service and Administration Minister Geraldine Fraser-Moleketi launched the campaign in Johannesburg yesterday.

http://www.businessday.co.za/articles/topstories.aspx?ID=BD4A639698

Stones unturned in crackdown on housing graft
Andile Sokomani

ON THE face of it, the government appears to be cracking down on housing fraud. According to recent media reports, more than 50000 public servants who appear to have been receiving low-cost houses irregularly have been identified, and the state is in the process of bringing them to book. The Special Investigating Unit has also started investigations into an estimated R3bn fraud committed between 1994 and 2004 by unscrupulous housing developers and contractors. Does this therefore suggest the government is nipping the problem in the bud? Unscrupulous public servants, private developers and contractors are indeed part of the problem, but they are not the exclusive culprits. For a start, the risk posed by private developers is no longer significant. The increasing emphasis on municipalities as developers removes the private developer from the payment transaction chain.

OCCUPANTS of two derelict buildings in Johannesburg’s inner city will not be evicted and the city will have to improve their living conditions until suitable housing can be found, in terms of an agreement commissioned by the Constitutional Court.

The agreement submitted to the Constitutional Court yesterday follows two judgments in the Johannesburg High Court in which the state, or more specifically municipalities, have been held responsible for providing housing for the poorest of the poor in the city.

The decisions could have serious implications for municipalities where housing is not available for people in the lowest income bracket.