http://www.sowetan.co.za/News/Article.aspx?id=833970

‘The poor need proper homes’

01 September 2008
Mary Papayya

MILITANT: Sbu Zikode giving the Diakonia Council of Churches lecture in Durban.
Shack dwellers call for land to be expropriated to provide housing

The shack dwellers movement, Abahlali baseMjondolo, has called on local authorities to expropriate land from so-called rich landowners such as Tongaat-Hulett to house the poor.

Speaking at a Diakonia Council of Churches lecture in Durban on Friday, the organisation’s chairman, Sbu Zikode, said they were concerned about the plight of shack dwellers, particularly their safety.

http://www.sowetan.co.za/News/Article.aspx?id=826420

'There is no way I'll go to starve and die in Delft'

21 August 2008
Anna Majavu

This morning an important case comes before the Constitutional Court, involving 20 000 Cape Town residents whose informal settlement is set to be bulldozed.

State-owned company Thubelisha Homes (now bankrupt), Housing Minister Lindiwe Sisulu and Western Cape housing MEC were granted an eviction order on March 10 this year against occupants of the Joe Slovo informal settlement in Langa.

http://www.sowetan.co.za/News/Article.aspx?id=824896

'We'll sleep on court steps'

19 August 2008
Anna Majavu

More than 100 residents of the Joe Slovo informal settlement in Langa will travel from Cape Town to Johannesburg today to attend the Constitutional Court appeal against the forced removal of 20 000 of their community.

The residents said they were prepared to sleep "on the steps of the Constitutional Court" ahead of the case on Thursday.

The Joe Slovo community has lived next to Cape Town's N2 highway for about 18 years.

http://www.sowetan.co.za/News/Article.aspx?id=814858

5 siblings die in locked-up shack

04 August 2008

Five siblings burnt to death when their shack caught fire at the weekend.

eThekwini’s fire department divisional commander Dennis Govender said the children were unable to escape the shack in Cato Crest, an informal settlement outside Durban, because the burglar gate was locked.

“The mother had locked in the children and went out when the shack caught fire, ” he said.

The mother was too traumatised to give the ages of the children .

http://www.sowetan.co.za/News/Article.aspx?id=801752

Back-yard dwellers highlight their plight

15 July 2008
Anna Majavu

Scores of Guguletu's back-yard dwellers protested outside the municipal buildings yesterday in a bid to highlight their winter plight.

They said that elderly backyard dwellers and children had become very ill during the recent floods and had been overlooked during the city's relief efforts.

"We are not happy that we don't get blankets and medicines during the winter floods even though we are also flooded on a yearly basis," the group's representative, Mncedisi Twalo, said.

http://www.sowetan.co.za/News/Article.aspx?id=797246

Shack dwellers unite against move to areas far from cities

07 July 2008
Anna Majavu

A war of words has erupted between residents of a Khayelitsha informal settlement and the Western Cape local government because of plans to remove the shack dwellers from flood areas.

Residents of section QQ informal settlement in Khayelitsha launched a shack dwellers movement at the weekend to resist removals to areas far from the city.

“We want to unite informal settlements across South Africa against forced removals,” said newly elected Abahlali baseMjondolo Western Cape chairman Mzonke Poni.

http://www.sowetan.co.za/News/Article.aspx?id=786260

Kicked out into cold of winter

18 June 2008
Vusi Ndlovu

COLD COMFORT: Wedson Kapene, 77, says that his shack in Ennerdale South was demolished by metro police who were watched by the local councillor. PHOTO: VATHISWA RUSELO

It’s relocation demolitions

Four families were yesterday left out in the cold at Ennerdale South informal settlement when their shacks were destroyed by the local councillor and Johannesburg metro police.

The residents said they were taken by a surprise when they saw a metro police truck and other metro police vehicles arriving in the area with officers armed with crowbars and hammers. They said the metro police, who were accompanied by the local ward councillor, Thembalethu Nyembe, picked on four shacks and started demolishing them one after the other.

http://www.sowetan.co.za/News/Article.aspx?id=785508

The Sowetan 17/6/2008

‘Give us land to build on’

17 June 2008
Mhlaba Memela

No dignity in hand-outs

Protesters numbering about 3000 yesterday took to the streets to highlight their need for houses – and also that, instead of developers, they want to build them themselves.

The protesters, mainly women and youths, demanded that city officials provide them with land so they can build “better houses than the low-cost houses the government is providing”.

http://www.sowetan.co.za/News/Article.aspx?id=762324

Sowetan 8/5/2008

Activist bashed to death

08 May 2008
Len Kumalo

Grieving: Maria Sikhosana holding a picture of her deceased son Jan Matshobe. Photo: Len Kumalo

Residents claim cops are culprits

The Independent Complaints Directorate (ICD) is investigating a case in which a Sebokeng resident and community activist was allegedly beaten to death by police.

This follows accusations by the community that Jan Matshobe, 27, whose body was found on Thursday morning last week in an open veld in Zone 20, was allegedly beaten with golf clubs and batons by a number of police officers.

http://www.sowetan.co.za/News/Article.aspx?id=721900

Sowetan 7/3/2008

Families evicted

07 March 2008
Sne Masuku

Homeless: Angry community representatives waiting outside the offices of eThekwini Municipality in Durban yesterday to hand over a memorandum containing their grievances about the way the process of allocating them houses had been badly handled. PHOTO: MAKGOTSO GULUBE

Two hundred people have been forced to live in tents after they were evicted from the homes they had occupied for about 15 years.