This article was also published in The Star as 'Private Profits from Public Utility' on 3 February.

http://www.dailynews.co.za/index.php?fArticleId=5334495

Why Eskom will never beat the reconnectors

February 01, 2010 Edition 1

Richard Pithouse

The fiasco at Eskom has been oscillating between tragedy and farce at such a rate that it's become difficult to tell them apart.

No one in their right mind is likely to disagree that Eskom, an institution that should serve the public good, has been captured by an avaricious elite and turned into a vampiric excrescence on our society.

http://www.iol.co.za/index.php?set_id=1&click_id=15&art_id=nw20091118184500946C943453

Clergy pray for Kennedy Road murder accused

November 18 2009 at 06:57PM

By Kamini Padayachee

Clergy from the Diakonia Council of Churches gathered outside the Durban Magistrate's Court on Wednesday to pray for 13 people charged with killing two men at the Kennedy Road informal settlement in Sydenham, Durban.

The council has come out in support of the 13 men, claiming that police had falsely arrested the members of shack dwellers' movement Abahlali baseMjondolo.

http://www.iol.co.za/index.php?set_id=1&click_id=6&art_id=vn20090804031925973C101871

Rich Tokyo spends night among poor
Xolani Mbanjwa
August 04 2009 at 05:48AM

Tokyo Sexwale, the Minister of Human Settlements and one of the country's richest men, has spent the night in Diepsloot, north-west of Joburg.

Monday night's experience was meant to acquaint Sexwale with the hardships faced by millions of South Africans living in informal settlements.

It marked the first of many visits Sexwale plans to make to informal settlements on a nationwide fact-finding mission to uncover the reasons behind the service delivery protests that rocked the country and to assess the massive backlog in housing.

http://www.sundaytribune.co.za/?fSectionId=&fArticleId=vn20090725062037924C708152

Cops warn of more arrests after shops looted
25 July 2009, 15:52

By Fiona Gounden

The leader of hundreds of people responsible for looting shops in Durban this week should not think "she has got away with it", warned police, saying they are still conducting intense investigations to charge the rest of the group.

However, the members of the South African Unemployed Peoples' Movement (SAUPM), which is based in Durban, claim they are not "afraid of police", and one person who was involved in the looting of shops has opened a case of assault against a police officer.

http://www.thestar.co.za/?fSectionId=&fArticleId=vn20090722235931853C208309

Violent protests amid claims of land grab
23 July 2009, 06:19
Fiery and violent protests have left scores hospitalised amid allegations of Zimbabwe war vets-style land grabs taking place.

A community have also been dumped in the veld surrounded by their meagre belongings.

More than 20 people were injured and at least 20 arrested when residents of Pielie's Farm near Meyerton, 20km south of Joburg, protested along the R59 highway between Joburg and Vereeniging yesterday.

http://www.thestar.co.za/?fSectionId=&fArticleId=nw20090722100936156C937701

Residents blocking R59 nabbed
22 July 2009, 10:10
By Beauregard Tromp

At least 20 people were injured and 20 others arrested on Tuesday morning when residents of Pielie's Farm in Meyerton, 20km south of Joburg, erected barricades on the R59 highway and pelted passing motorists with stones.

Residents of the informal settlement hid behind shacks flimsy corrugated the cover of as police in full riot gear, armed with shotguns and backed by two Nyalas, went in to the settlement, seeking out those involved in the protest action.

http://www.thestar.co.za/?fSectionId=3268&fArticleId=nw20090715092346872C392070

Bus set alight in violent protest
15 July 2009, 09:33

A service delivery protest in Khayelitsha on Tuesday has put one person in hospital, according to the organisers, Abahlali baseMjondolo.

"More than 15 people were shot at with rubber bullets by reactional SAPS and metro police members at yesterday's protest at Khayelitsha and one of them is in critical condition at Groote Schuur Hospital," said the anti-poverty organisation Abahlali baseMjondolo in a statement.

Click here to see pictures from the protest.

http://www.themercury.co.za/index.php?fSectionId=&fArticleId=vn20090706060754336C149753

Empty promises spark protest
6 July 2009, 06:26

By Poloko Tau and Jacques Breytenbach

Diepsloot was plunged into darkness on Sunday night after a housing protest turned violent.

Roads were barricaded with burning tyres and furniture, large rocks littered the streets, and on several occasions, police resorted to firing rubber bullets at the unruly crowd. Criminals took advantage of the chaos as they looted shops.

Tokyo Sekwale, owner of a R56 million house, and a man who cited matchbox houses as one of his reasons for taking up arms against apartheid, declares protest against 'housing' far worse than apartheid's matchbox houses to be 'anarchy' that will be met with 'zero tolerance'....Click here to read the transcript of this press conference.

http://www.iol.co.za/index.php?set_id=1&click_id=124&art_id=vn20090701051810350C862668