http://www.iol.co.za/news/crime-courts/shack-dwellers-go-to-court-for-homes-1.1246340

Shack dwellers go to court for homes

by Tania Broughton

Three years ago a group of shack dwellers said they feared they would simply “fall off the radar” if they were forced into a transit camp so their homes could be bulldozed for a new road.

Their words have proved prophetic.

Thirty-nine families that used to live at Siyanda settlement, near Pinetown, are languishing in “atrocious conditions” at Richmond Farm transit camp – even though in 2009 a Durban High Court judge instructed the eThekwini municipality to provide them with permanent housing within a year.

http://www.themercury.co.za/index.php?fArticleId=5243713

ANC councillor 'led xenophobic attacks'
November 13, 2009 Edition 1
Tania Broughton

ETHEKWINI ANC councillor Vusi Khoza was the "war general", leading
January's xenophobic attacks on foreigners living in Durban's Albert
Park area, a survivor testified in court yesterday.

"He was the one leading the mob who were chanting that the kwerekwere
(a derogatory reference to foreigners) should go back home.

"He was the one who pointed at me and said 'there is another one'.

http://www.themercury.co.za/index.php?fArticleId=4879172

Court orders immediate probe
Progress for shack dwellers in housing row

March 09, 2009 Edition 1

Tania Broughton

A Durban High Court has ordered an immediate investigation into the "corrupt allocation" of housing at a low-cost estate in northern Durban, and wants a report on it in two months.

Nelson Mandela's granddaughter, Nandi Mandela, is named in court papers as being involved in the alleged scam because she is a director of the consultancy hired by the eThekwini Municipality and the provincial Department of Transport to do the allocation.

http://www.themercury.co.za/index.php?fArticleId=4845960

Shack dwellers step up court battle

February 17, 2009 Edition 1

Tania Broughton

SHACK dwellers in KwaZulu-Natal have launched a two-pronged court battle in their attempt to get "slum eradication" legislation scrapped.

And they now want the Constitutional Court and the Supreme Court of Appeal to consider the legality of the KwaZulu-Natal Slums Act.

The shack dwellers, under the auspices of Abahlali baseMjondolo, were dealt a blow last month when KZN Judge President Vuka Tshabalala found the Act to be "fair" and even applauded the province for dealing with slums and slum conditions.

http://www.themercury.co.za/index.php?fArticleId=4813533

slum clearance case lost in high court
Shack dwellers vow to fight on

January 28, 2009 Edition 1

Tania Broughton

SHACK dwellers have vowed to continue their battle to scrap "slum eradication" legislation after they lost their case in the Durban High Court yesterday.

"We will take it all the way to the Constitutional Court," said members of the Abahlali baseMjondolo (shack dwellers') movement, after hearing that Judge President Vuka Tshabalala had rejected their attempt to have the Slums Act declared unconstitutional.

http://www.themercury.co.za/index.php?fArticleId=4810365

shack people fight plan to move them
Court battle holds up major road

January 26, 2009 Edition 1

Tania Broughton

RESIDENTS of an informal settlement in KwaDabeka are fighting a court battle to prevent their removal to an "undignified, unsightly and uninhabitable" transit camp to make way for a major arterial road.

The transport department brought an urgent application in the Durban High Court late last year for the eviction of the residents so that their homes could be bulldozed to clear the way for the dual carriageway highway.

http://www.themercury.co.za/index.php?fArticleId=4700038

Slums Act hearings begin in Durban

November 07, 2008 Edition 1

Tania Broughton

DANCING and singing, a crowd of red-T-shirt-clad shack dwellers descended on the Durban High Court yesterday to hear legal argument in their attempt to have the KwaZulu-Natal Slums Act deemed unconstitutional and scrapped from the law books.

"Phansi, Slums Act, Phansi," their T-shirts and banners proclaimed as they blew vuvuzelas and chanted freedom songs outside the court building at the start of the two-day hearing.

http://www.themercury.co.za/index.php?fArticleId=4579195

Judge rules on threat to demolish shacks

August 27, 2008 Edition 2

Tania Broughton

RESIDENTS of a Durban informal settlement will sleep easy after securing a final Durban High Court interdict preventing city officials from demolishing their makeshift homes.

Yesterday's order by Acting Judge Jerome Mnguni is being hailed as a victory for the shack dwellers.

While the matter centred on a narrow issue of "reasonable apprehension" of demolition, their attorney, Mahendra Chetty, of Durban's Legal Resources Centre, said the ruling sent out a message that the rights of those living in informal settlements could not be trampled on.

According to CALS Govenders' attempt to legally evict his tenants has no chance of success. Click here to read the CALS letter to Govender's attorney.

http://www.themercury.co.za/index.php?fArticleId=4569458

Land owner to take legal action to evict tenants

August 21, 2008 Edition 1

Tania Broughton

MOTALA Heights land owner Ricky Govender, who stands accused of waging a "war of attrition" against some of his tenants to force them off the land so that he can develop it, says they are "delusional" and are fabricating stories against him.

http://www.themercury.co.za/index.php?fArticleId=4458497

June 17, 2008 Edition 1

Tania Broughton

RESIDENTS of Motala Heights, near Pinetown, have secured another court interdict against landowner Ricky Govender, who they accuse of waging a "war of attrition" against them, to drive them off the property so that he can develop the land.

And they also hope for a Durban High Court order to compel the Pinetown police to "perform their statutory duties" and come to their aid, instead of "acting in cahoots" with Govender, his relatives and friends.