Category Archives: cohre

COHRE: Letter to Obed Mlaba on evictions in Siyanda

The Honorable Cllr Obed Mlaba
Office of the Mayor of eThekwini
City Hall, West Street
Durban 4001
Republic of South Africa

Re: Forced relocation of shack-dwellers in Siyanda, KwaMashu

Dear Cllr Mlaba,

The Centre on Housing Rights and Evictions (COHRE) is an international human rights non-governmental organisation based in Geneva, Switzerland, with offices throughout the world. COHRE has consultative status with the United Nations and Observer Status with the African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights. COHRE works to promote and protect the right to adequate housing for everyone, everywhere, including preventing or remedying forced evictions.

COHRE recently learnt of the threatened forced relocation of shack-dwellers in Siyanda in KwaMashu, to make way for the construction of a freeway in the area. According to a press statement by the newly-formed Siyanda branch of Abahlali baseMjondolo, at least 50 shacks have been demolished this year in the area by the eThekwini Municipality without notice, a court order or the provision of alternative accommodation. COHRE has learnt that eThekwini Municipality promised that all those displaced by the new MR577 freeway would be moved to newly-constructed houses in the Kulula Housing Project. Siyanda residents have now been informed that an unspecified number of families will be moved to eNtuzuma and placed in ‘transit camps,’ which consist of government-built shacks or temporary structures, ordinarily used for emergency housing. As eNtuzuma is further on the periphery of the city, transport costs will be much higher for families as they will be further from jobs and schools. At the same time, the Municipality has reportedly decided to move families from other areas like Umlazi and Lamontville, who are not affected by the freeway construction, into the newly constructed Kulula houses. This has understandably caused much confusion within the community, and the situation is extremely tense at present.

COHRE is disturbed with the trend in Siyanda, and in Durban in general, to use state repression against peaceful protestors legitimately airing their grievances against housing rights violations. In May this year, residents protesting shack demolitions in Siyanda marched to the Kulula project contractor’s office to submit a memorandum of grievances, where they were fired upon with rubber bullets and sprayed with water canons by Durban Metro Police. During this incident five people, including a pregnant woman, were shot and injured, and subsequently arrested at the hospital for ‘public violence.’ The charges were eventually dropped against all of the protestors.

On 15 September 2008, a peaceful protest held by affected Siyanda residents to air their grievances about the allocation process of alternative housing in Siyanda, was again met with a heavy Durban Metro police presence, with one police officer allegedly brandished a loaded weapon at the crowd, shouting that he would shoot them with live ammunition if they did not disband.

COHRE has maintained that the manner in which unlawful evictions of shack-dwellers has occurred in Durban is unacceptable, and people have been treated inhumanely and without dignity in the process. In terms of international human rights law, for evictions to be considered as lawful, they may only occur in very exceptional circumstances and all feasible alternatives must be explored. If and only if such exceptional circumstances exist and there are no feasible alternatives, can evictions be deemed justified. However, certain requirements must still be adhered to. These are:

1. States must ensure, prior to any planned forced evictions, and particularly those involving large groups, that all feasible alternatives are explored in consultation with affected persons, with a view to avoiding, or at least minimising, the need to use force.
2. Forced evictions should not result in rendering individuals homeless or vulnerable to the violation of other human rights. Governments must therefore, ensure that adequate alternative housing is available to affected persons.
3. In those rare cases where eviction is considered justified, it must be carried out in strict compliance with international human rights law and in accordance with general principles of reasonableness and proportionality. These include, inter alia:

§ Genuine consultation with those affected;

§ Adequate and reasonable notice for all affected persons prior to the scheduled date of eviction;

§ Information on the proposed evictions, and where applicable, on the alternative purpose for which the land or housing is to be used, to be made available in reasonable time to all those affected;

§ Especially where groups of people are involved, government officials or their representatives to be present during an eviction;

§ All persons carrying out the eviction to be properly identified;

§ Evictions not to take place in particularly bad weather or at night unless the affected persons consent otherwise;

§ Provision of legal remedies; and

§ Provision, where possible, of legal aid to persons who are in need of it to seek redress from the courts.

In the past the eThekwini Municipality has not complied with the above principles, particularly with regard to obtaining a court order and providing adequate notice for evictions. On 6 October 2008, COHRE released a report on the situation in Durban entitled Business as Usual? Housing rights and ‘slum eradication’ in Durban, South Africa. The report found that unlawful evictions are commonplace in eThekwini Municipality, and while the Municipality is to be commended on building a considerable number of houses each year, the houses that are being built are often located so far out of town that living there is unviable for many of the urban working classes due to unaffordable transport costs to work, schools, and hospitals. The report also expresses serious concern about the size and quality of the houses that are being built and over the failure to provide adequate levels of basic services to shack dwellers while they wait for formal housing.

While COHRE approves of the provision of adequate alternative accommodation in the event of an eviction, we condemn the existence of so-called ‘transit camps’, which are found to be highly inadequate and serve to destroy the already fragile socio-economic fabric of people’s lives. COHRE also condemns the current practice that effectively entails moving people from their own well-located shacks into government shacks on the urban periphery, without any certainty of the time period they will be there, or indeed what permanent housing options will made available to them in the future. If the Siyanda forced relocations are allowed to proceed it will only add to the excesses of the eThekwini Municipality documented in the recently released report, and roll back the significant recent progress made to improve relations between organised shack dwellers’ and the eThekwini Municipality.

COHRE therefore urges the Municipality to immediately halt all forced evictions of shack dwellers within its jurisdiction, and to cease the use of violence against those peacefully and legitimately protesting against their housing rights violations. COHRE appeals to the Municipality to ensure that all Siyanda residents affected by the new freeway are provided with housing, as promised, in the Kulula Housing Project, and to investigate the allocation of these houses to other residents from outside Siyanda.

We look forward to your response and to an ongoing dialogue with the Municipality on the rights of its people to adequate housing. Thank you for your time and consideration.

Sincerely,

Salih Booker
Executive Director

cc.

The Honorable Lindiwe Sisulu
Minister of Housing

Dr Michael Sutcliffe
eThekwini City Manager

Business Day: Poor should not be hidden, rights group tells SA

http://www.businessday.co.za/Articles/TarkArticle.aspx?ID=3361458

Poor should not be hidden, rights group tells SA
Chantelle Benjamin

Chief Reporter

SA, AND the eThekwini municipality in particular, need to move away from the idea that the poor should be hidden from view in world-class cities, the Geneva-based Centre for Housing Rights and Evictions (COHRE) warns in a scathing report.

Durban might be hailed for the many low-cost homes it is building, but it has been accused by the centre of evicting hundreds of shack dwellers illegally, of building houses far from the city, and of building small, poor-quality homes.

The municipality was also criticised for its failure to provide sufficient basic services to those shack dwellers still waiting to be placed in houses, leading to a high number of shack fires and sanitation problems, allegations that have been denied by the city’s head of housing, Couglan Pather.

The Swiss-based research has implications ahead of the 2010 Soccer World Cup, with concerns by civil rights organisations that instead of the government dealing effectively with the poor, they will simply be shipped out of the cities ahead of the event.

Durban was criticised during the Fifa 2010 preliminary draw in November for its removal of street children, some of whom were allegedly housed at Westville Prison.

COHRE said SA as a whole had seen a “disturbing shift in recent years from pro-poor and rights-based discourse with regard to shack settlements to one that is more security based and sometimes anti-poor”.

COHRE executive director Salih Booker said the organisation was concerned with the manner in which evictions had been carried out. “Evictions are a routine occurrence in Durban and our researchers did not come across a single instance in which an eviction by the municipality had been carried out in accordance with the law.”

Booker also expressed concern about the “high levels of state repression” that shack dwellers were subjected to between 2005 and last year, in Durban in particular. He said though evictions were not legal, they were not always forced.

He said to correct the situation the municipality needed to plan for the natural growth of settlements with higher density housing projects, and to consider subsidised transport for people who had been relocated to peripheral sites.

Booker did commend the work being done by Project Preparation Trust, an independent public interest organisation that specialises in projects for historically disadvantaged communities, which had seen talks between the eThekwini municipality and shack dwellers lead to an undertaking by eThekwini to step up the provision of basic services to a number of settlements and to set up two pilot projects in which settlements would be upgraded.

Mercury: Housing Concerns

http://www.themercury.co.za/index.php?fArticleId=4647626

Opinion
Housing Concerns

October 07, 2008 Edition 1

A report released yesterday on housing rights and “slum eradication” in Durban makes for sobering reading.

In it the Geneva-based Centre on Housing Rights and Eviction praises the eThekwini Municipality for its zeal in building a considerable number of homes, but also expresses a number of serious concerns.

These include the size, quality and location of the houses being built, the failure to provide adequate levels of basic services to shack dwellers, the authoritarian methods used to evict people and to silence dissenters, and the strong perceptions in communities of corruption and political patronage in the municipality’s housing system.

Of course it is easy to criticise without fairly considering all the constraints that face municipalities in South Africa. It is simple, from a rich country such as Switzerland, to pronounce on the undeniable right of people to homes and services, without explaining precisely how this should be financed (other than making the good point that national government should drastically increase its housing budget).

Quite how a municipality can meet huge demands in a climate of poverty, high unemployment and a continued inflow of people from rural areas, is another matter.

However, the report touches on many important points. It states that building densities need to be increased, government departments at all levels need to undergo a paradigm shift, replacing the “slums eradication” discourse with a housing rights discourse and they need to abandon the idea that a “world-class” city is a place where the poor must be hidden from view.

Equally seriously, the municipality must be seen to clean up the image of patronage and rampant bribery that sticks to its housing department and it must build trust among communities with better communication and consultation methods.

Moreover, the police need to address persistent allegations of intimidation of community representatives, and worse. Perhaps details in this latest report may just prompt SA police headquarters to finally act firmly on the repeated complaints made against lawless elements in the Sydenham Police Station.

Daily News: City needs transparency when dealing with poor

http://www.dailynews.co.za/index.php?fArticleId=4650172

Opinion
City needs transparency when dealing with poor
Report recommends greater consultation with communities in need of housing

October 08, 2008 Edition 1

Imraan Buccus

The report on housing in Durban by the Geneva-based Centre on Housing Rights and Evictions (Cohre) is a watershed movement for this city. The report is the culmination of almost three years of work by an international team of experts and is the first comprehensive analysis of post-apartheid housing policy and practice in the city.

At 200 pages, it is a lengthy read but the basic findings are that there has been a national failure to implement the progressive 2005 Breaking New Ground policy and that, in recent years, there has been a shift from a pro-poor housing agenda to an anti-poor approach that takes the self-built housing solutions of the poor (shacks) rather than the lack of adequate housing as the key problem. This reached a peak with the highly controversial KwaZulu-Natal Slums Act.

The report echoes recent comments from Archbishop Desmond Tutu that RDP houses are simply too small and poorly constructed to be considered as adequate family housing. It finds that here in Durban the eThekwini Municipality has done relatively well in terms of the number of houses it has built.

However, it also notes that some of the houses have been built too far away from town which makes it difficult for people to access work and schools. There are also pervasive allegations of corruption and party political interference in the allocation of houses.

Harassment

Furthermore, the report finds that the provision of basic services to people living in settlements is inadequate to the point of being life threatening. It notes unlawful police harassment of shack dwellers’ organisations and habitual unlawful evictions on the part of the municipality.

Mahendra Chetty, of the Legal Recourses Centre, is cited as saying with regard to evictions that: “The city, as a matter of regular and consistent practice, acts in flagrant breach of the law.”

The report provides a long list of recommendations for better practice. For example, it is stressed that the city must learn to build houses at far greater densities so that more people can be accommodated on well-located land. The report insists that the city must act lawfully towards its poorest residents.

But the primary thrust of the recommendations is towards greater transparency, especially with regard to the allocation of housing, and greater consultation with the communities in dire need of housing.

City officials may argue that greater transparency invites greater debate and that this, together with consultation, will slow things down. This may be true. But it is clear that rushing ahead with a top down set of policies and practices runs a major risk of creating housing developments that actually worsen people’s situations and increase social tensions.

If we decide that a world-class city is one in which visitors only see wealth and the poor are hidden away, it is inevitable that we will start to design our city around the needs of the rich.

If we decide a world class city is one in which everyone has access to a decent and safe life, then it is inevitable that we will begin our interventions with the needs of the poor.

The Cohre report has shown us some of the consequences for the poor that follow from the decision to build our city around the image of wealth. We can no longer pretend that the poor have an interest in being forcibly and sometimes unlawfully removed to low cost housing developments outside of the city.

This may be “development” for the middle class residents who have shack dwellers removed from their suburbs, or it may be “development” for the people who get the contracts to build the low cost houses. It may even be “development” for officials that can chalk down the number of shacks and chalk up the number of houses built. But it is clear that it is not “development” for the poor. In fact, it is an uncomfortable echo of apartheid practices.

It is now equally clear that all the talk about shacks being eradicated by 2010 or 2014 is just fantasy – or, as the report argues, a form of denialism.

Shacks will be part of our cities for many years. We have to face up to this reality and to begin immediately to humanise the settlements.

The Cohre report is constructive in its intentions. We should respond to it in a similar spirit. Perhaps we need some kind of housing summit at which the city, shack dwellers, town planners, legal experts, businesses and ratepayers can get together to hammer out a vision of a just and inclusive city in which development for the rich does not mean banishment to human dumping grounds for the poor.

Daily News: Shack evictions ‘illegal’

http://www.dailynews.co.za/index.php?fArticleId=4646692

Shack evictions ‘illegal’

Claim by international report

October 06, 2008 Edition 2

IRENE KUPPAN and DASEN THATHIAH

DURBAN might be one of the top low-cost house builders in the country, but it has been accused in a scathing international housing report of evicting hundreds of shack dwellers illegally.

The report, released today, by the Swiss-based Centre on Housing Rights and Evictions (COHRE), claims that not a single eviction carried out by the municipality had been done legally.

These charges were vehemently denied yesterday by the city’s head of housing, Couglan Pather.

COHRE – based in Geneva but with offices worldwide – said it was alarmed by the situation in Durban.

“We have a deep concern about the high number of unlawful evictions carried out by the eThekwini Municipality.

“Evictions are a routine occurrence in Durban and COHRE researchers did not come across a single instance in which an eviction by the municipality had been carried out in accordance with the law,” said Salih Booker, the group’s executive director.

The council also came under fire for the size and quality of houses being built and its failure to provide sufficient levels of basic services to those shack dwellers still waiting to be placed in houses.

Higher costs

The organisation also noted the many deadly fires shack dwellers had to contend with and the lack of proper sanitation in the settlements, especially for women.

It claimed that houses being built were positioned too far away from the town, resulting in higher costs for transport to to work, school and hospitals.

Pather said decisions to evict were taken before a court and he called on COHRE to provide evidence of its findings.

“The allegations are totally untrue and factually incorrect. We have taken all necessary steps in the evictions and we take into consideration the guidelines of the Prevention of Illegal Evictions Act,” he said.

Pather said that the city provided adequate basic services to all informal settlements in Durban.

“We currently provide interim services – such as water and sanitation – to all shack-dwellers while they are awaiting houses. In some cases, we provide communal water and ablution facilities,” he said.

Pather urged affected parties to contact organisations such as the Legal Resource Centre and Legal Aid Board for free assistance if they felt that their rights had been infringed during evictions.

But the municipality also came in for some praise, particularly for making the effort to build a “considerable” number of houses every year.

Pather confirmed that the municipality had built around 18 000 houses last year, beating its expected target of 16 000.

COHRE also found that the council was working at its relationship with shack-dwellers.

“COHRE is pleased to note that since the research phase of the Durban Fact Finding Mission was concluded, relations between the municipality and shack-dwellers has improved significantly,” the report said.

There was also a “dramatic decline” in allegations of police harassment of the shack dwellers, said the group.