http://www.sowetan.co.za/News/Article.aspx?id=1122216

‘Act on protests to avoid 2010 embarrassment’
12 March 2010
Penwell Dlamini and McKeed Kotlolo

THE Government must deal with service delivery problems to avert protests and embarrassment during the 2010 Fifa World Cup.

Joe Mavuso, facilitator of community and citizen empowerment at the Institute for Democracy in Africa, said protests during the tournament would tarnish the country’s image.

“It would be an embarrassment for our country,” Mavuso said. “The tournament brings with it an opportunity for the country to sell itself to the world.

http://www.sowetan.co.za/News/Article.aspx?id=1089880

Call for release of ‘Kennedy Road 13’
20 November 2009
Mary Papayya

Anglican bishop and KwaZulu-Natal Christian Council chairperson Ruben Phillip has called for the immediate release of the “Kennedy Road 13”.

The 13, who were arrested after the September attacks on the Kennedy Road informal settlement in Durban, are members of the homeless movement Abahlali baseMjondolo.

On Wednesday they made their 6th appearance in the Durban magistrate’s court for a bail hearing.

http://www.sowetan.co.za/News/Article.aspx?id=1086475

'We don’t want to live in Tin Can Town’

09 November 2009
Anna Majavu

‘CONCENTRATION CAMP’: Children walk between the zinc houses that were built in Delft, about 30km from Cape Town, as a “temporary” relocation area before people are moved to houses. Photo: Roger Sedres

CAPE Town’s homeless people have accused the metro police of forcibly moving them to the Blikkiesdorp “temporary relocation area” – only for the city’s land invasion unit to evict them for invading land.

http://www.sowetan.co.za/News/Article.aspx?id=1079962

To be silent is to invite deserved contempt from rulers
20 October 2009
BOLEKAJA! - Andile Mngxitama

Andile Mngxitama

OUR country is now officially designated the most unequal society on earth.

What a dishonourable prize! South Africans are moving in two sharply opposite directions – a minority getting richer and living in unbelievable comfort, while the majority are getting poorer and are left to misery and despair.

Their hope lies increasingly in picking up a rock to throw at the helpless but arrogant local politician in what is fast becoming a nation of service delivery protests.

http://www.sowetan.co.za/News/Article.aspx?id=1078738

Slums may not be cleared away for 2010 World Cup
15 October 2009

A Constitutional Court ruling against a section of the Slums Act will prevent mass evictions in a “clean-up” before the 2010 Soccer World, the Black Sash rights group says.

“I hope this judgment sends a very clear message to all the other provinces that might try to copy this law particularly in their haste to ’clean up’ before the World Cup,” said Evashnee Naidu, regional director for the Black Sash in KwaZulu-Natal.

http://www.sowetan.co.za/News/Article.aspx?id=1078149

‘Electricity hike will hit poor hardest’

14 October 2009
Anna Majavu

OUTRAGE: Eskom’s proposed tariff rise has been slammed from many quarters. PHOTO: MARIANNE SCHWANKHART

COSATU says Eskom’s request for a whopping 45percent a year electricity tariff hike over the next three years will destroy small businesses and force the poor to abandon electricity completely.

“Many of the poor will not be able to afford electricity at all and will turn to more dangerous sources of heat and light, such as paraffin and gas,” said Cosatu spokesperson Patrick Craven.

Call on Zuma to probe attacks
The Sowetan
01 October 2009
Mary Papayya

ACADEMICS, clerics and other civil rights activists are calling on
President Jacob Zuma to intervene in the latest attacks that have
ravaged one of Durban’s biggest informal settlements – the Kennedy Road
Shack Settlement in Sydenham.

At the weekend a group of armed men, allegedly ANC supporters carrying
an assortment of weapons, destroyed shacks and beat up locals . Two
people died.

But police said the attacks “were criminally motivated”, adding that

http://www.sowetan.co.za/News/Article.aspx?id=1060093

Evictions suspended - shack dwellers reprieved
04 September 2009
Anna Majavu

THE Constitutional Court has suspended its order upholding the eviction of 10000 residents of the Joe Slovo informal settlement in Langa, Cape Town.

In March 2008 controversial Cape Judge President John Hlophe ruled that the Joe Slovo shack dwellers must be evicted to make way for the N2 Gateway Housing project.

But community leaders from the Joe Slovo task team took the matter on appeal to the Constitutional Court. In June the court upheld Hlophe’s ruling but ordered that the Joe Slovo residents be removed in phases and placed 20km away in Delft.

http://www.sowetan.co.za/News/Article.aspx?id=1053188

High-rise flats for the homeless
21 August 2009
Anna Majavu and Sapa

THE City of Cape Town is planning to build 14-storey blocks of flats in a bid to beat its massive housing backlog.

City housing director Hans Smit said yesterday that the buildings would be grouped in a “town” around facilities such as shops, community centres and schools.

There would be about 200 housing units in each block and from 5000 to 6000 units in each town.