Spooks to sniff out who's behind protests

http://www.mg.co.za/article/2010-03-19-spooks-to-sniff-out-whos-behind-protests

TARRYN HARBOUR | JOHANNESBURG, SOUTH AFRICA - Mar 19 2010 08:28

ANC claims that service delivery protests are being coordinated came
under fire this week and, as Gauteng erupted in further protests after
last week's surge, the National Intelligence Agency (NIA) has revealed
that it is monitoring the protests.

Residents of Ivory Park, Rabie Ridge, Kanana, Phomolong, Poortjie and

http://www.mg.co.za/article/2010-03-11-anc-urges-calm-after-gauteng-servicedelivery-protests

KARABO KEEPILE | JOHANNESBURG, SOUTH AFRICA - Mar 11 2010 12:34

ANC urges calm after Gauteng service-delivery protests

By mid-morning on Thursday, five metro police cars were lined up on
Impala Road in Dobsonville, Soweto, keeping a watchful eye where
protests had erupted at about 8am.

Taxi marshal Lucky Mokwena told the Mail & Guardian he watched
protesters who had taken to the streets demanding RDP houses hours

Posted from The Mail and Guardian

A regular "street-cleaning" exercise by eThekwini metro police -- with one eye on the World Cup -- is drawing outrage from hard-hit street children in Durban and the organisations working with them.

Street children who spoke to the Mail & Guardian accused the police of using violence during the round-ups, which usually see them corralled into vans and dumped in "safe houses" far from Durban's central business district.

Said 13-year-old Kheto Ngcobo: "Sometimes they kick us with their boots and they beat us with their hands. Once, when a fight broke out [between two knife-wielding adults] in the police van, I got sprayed with pepper. My eyes burned and burned."

http://www.mg.co.za/article/2009-11-26-hundreds-of-govt-officials-caught-for-housing-fraud

Hundreds of govt officials caught for housing fraud
NATASHA MARRIAN | JOHANNESBURG, SOUTH AFRICA - Nov 26 2009 13:10

A total of 923 government officials have been brought to book by the Human Settlement Department's crackdown on corruption, Minister Tokyo Sexwale said on Thursday.

"We are hot on the steps of other people in government," Sexwale said at a housing settlement meeting in Boksburg. "We cannot allow people to turn the poor into a business. This is morally reprehensible."

http://www.mg.co.za/article/2009-10-09-dumping-ground-for-unwanted-people

'Dumping ground' for unwanted people
YAZEED KAMALDIEN | CAPE TOWN, SOUTH AFRICA - Oct 09 2009 06:00

A man with discoloured skin -- dying alone in a shack of Aids -- speaks volumes about conditions in Blikkiesdorp, described as a "dumping ground" for unwanted people in Cape Town.

Set up in the Cape Flats settlement of Delft, primarily to stifle illegal invasions of newly constructed houses in the N2 Gateway Project, it has seen the resettlement of other people who have been relocated or evicted, including squatters ousted from Salt River's derelict Junction Hotel.

http://www.mg.co.za/article/2009-10-03-ethnic-tension-boils-over

Ethnic tension boils over
NIREN TOLSI | DURBAN, SOUTH AFRICA - Oct 03 2009 06:00

On Monday at 5am Lindela Figlan, huddling with his wife and three-year-old daughter near a bus shelter in Sydenham, Durban, was too terrified to flag down the passing taxis.

During the previous two nights the Kennedy Road informal settlement had been racked by mob violence that resulted in two confirmed deaths and several shacks destroyed. More than 1000 people are estimated to have fled the settlement, fearing for their lives.

http://www.mg.co.za/article/2009-08-20-gateway-never-had-a-chance

Gateway never had a chance
GLYNNIS UNDERHILL | CAPE TOWN, SOUTH AFRICA - Aug 20 2009 06:00

Cape Town's disastrous N2 Gateway project began without a funded budget and was starved of agreed funding by the National Housing Department, according to a confidential report by independent forensic auditors, which was leaked to the Mail & Guardian.

Envisaged as a model solution to South Africa's housing backlog, the Gateway project was to be delivered by the three spheres of government, which, in the Western Cape, were all run by the ANC at the time.