Independent Newspapers 13/12/2007

Joe Slovo eviction application dismissed

December 13 2007 at 10:31AM

An urgent application to stop the relocation of 20 000 Joe Slovo informal settlement residents to Delft, on the Cape Flats, was dismissed by the Cape High Court on Thursday morning.

Western Cape Judge President John Hlophe said he would give reasons for the decision at a later stage.

The legal teams for both parties have now launched an application for consent to evict residents of the Joe Slovo settlement, which is next to the N2 highway.

The state-owned developer Thubelisha Homes wants to construct formal housing there as part of the Western Cape's N2 gateway project.

http://www.iol.co.za/index.php?set_id=1&click_id=15&art_id=vn20071122091820152C486964

November 22 2007 at 10:21AM
Where are Durban's street children?

by Sharlene Packree and Heinz de Boer

Durban's usually bustling street child colonies have all but disappeared from the city after what is believed to be a major police crackdown ahead of this week's Fifa preliminary draw.

City officials remain at odds over the fate of dozens of children, who are believed to have been rounded up by SAPS and Metro Police units before being taken to Westville Prison.

The Herald 21/11/07

Haunted by the ‘why‘ of 1970s forced removals

Ben Maclennan in CAPE TOWN

BEN Mafani never met Piet Koornhof, who died last week at the age of 82.

But he hopes to come face to face with Koornhof in the afterlife, because he has a question for the apartheid-era cabinet minister.

Mafani wants to know why he, his family, and thousands of other people were forcibly removed from “white” South Africa three decades ago and dumped in plank houses at Glenmore on the edge of the Ciskei. It is a question that has gnawed at Mafani since the day in April, 1979, that police arrested him at his home in Coega, near Port Elizabeth, and officials destroyed his dwelling and trucked him and his belongings to the resettlement camp.

the video is online at:

http://www.archive.org/details/JoeSlovoMarchAgainstForcedRemovalsInCapeTown

The press release for this march is below:

JOE SLOVO COMMITTEE - ANTI-EVICTION CAMPAIGN
Press Statement
3pm
2nd August 2007

The residents of Joe Slovo informal settlement in Langa are to march to parliament on Friday, 3rd August 2007, 10am from District Six (Keizergracht str) against their pending forced removal.

There are about 6000 residents living in shacks in Joe Slovo. They have been threatened by the N2 Gateway project with forced removal to Delft and told only that this will take place next month. There have been no negotiations with the community, who are being treated like animals by the government.