A documentary shot by Giles and Khan covering the attempts to fight Spt. Glen Nayager of the Sydenham Police, whose racism and brutality are a matter of record.

Sunday, 29 April 2007

To all COMSA members

Comrades,

As you all know, last week I was finally fired after a 7 month disciplinary process. I am not the first person to have been forced out of this university on political grounds in recent months. When I was fired I was clearly told that I will not be the last.

When the media asked me questions about my removal from a photograph and article in UKZNdaba last year I answered them honestly and in good faith. I was certainly not being dishonest and anyone who reads the transcript of my
hearing will see that the University failed to prove their claim that I had been dishonest.

http://www.southafrica.indymedia.org/news/2006/02/9636.php

Threats made to shack dwellers at Joe Slovo settlement in Mobeni Heights in Lamontville
by Steph Lane and Fazel Khan

Two weeks ago at the Joe Slovo informal settlement, bulldozers came in and destroyed the house of an outspoken member of the community. He had invited a journalist to the settlement to talk about corruption in the housing allocation process at Joe Slovo, accusing the local community leader of giving preferential treatment to family members, and of excluding Xhosa residents from new housing. Other members of the community, including Mrs. B. Gule, are worried that their houses are next to be razed.

The Fire Spreads: Quarry Road joins the squatters' movement

by Fazel Khan

For far too long our communities have survived in conditions that are intolerable. We have been promised many things and these promised (sic) have never been fulfilled. We now see that all they want is for us to vote for them. We cannot and will not continue to suffer this way…”
- extract from the handwritten memorandum presented to Councillor Jayraj Bachu by Quarry Road residents, 4 October, 2005

On the 4th of October over a thousand residents of informal settlements around Clare Estate and Reservoir Hills embarked on a protest march. They were demanding toilets, land and decent housing within the area, and the resignation of their Ward 23 counsellor – Jayraj Bachu. Although most of the marchers were from Quarry Road Informal Settlement, a sizeable number were from the many much smaller settlements scattered around the area. This is the third time in three months that people have marched on their councillor from their settlements. But this protest marked a new stage in the development of the abahlali base emijondolo movement because it involved twelve settlements from all over Reservoir Hills (Ward 25) as well as settlements on the Clare Estate (Ward 23). With the exception of the Quarry Road settlement all the Ward 25 settlements were new to the emerging movement.

Thursday - September 8, 2005 1:14 PM

So, after years of neglect the government, in various forms, is suddenly very interested in Kennedy Road. Militant struggle produces the interest that passive suffering does not. On Monday 29 August a cavalcade of yellow cars from various departments rolled in (up to two hours late) for a meeting to discuss the work being done, by the community, for people with AIDS. The community organisation currently provides various forms of support to orphans (including food, clothes, liaison with schools etc), food for the sick, assistance with grants, linkages with hospitals and clinics and so on. The meeting was opened by an official from the Department of Agriculture, Health and Welfare. She said the following in her opening statement: