Daneel Knoetze, GroundUp
In yet another crackdown on shackdwellers in Philippi East’s “Marikana” settlement, dozens of shacks were demolished by the City of Cape Town's Anti-Land Invasion Unit on 11 August. Police providing back-up and support, humiliated, assaulted and jeered at residents as they were evicted.
As one woman wept while the building material of her demolished shack was carried away, police gathered around to taunt and mock her.
Daneel Knoetze, GroundUp
Tracts of private suburban land will have to be expropriated by the state at below market value if spatial apartheid in South African cities is to be reversed. The property clause in the Constitution can be interpreted in a revolutionary manner to allow for this. Expropriated land, subsidised by existing government property, should be used to provide housing for shackdwellers from the city fringe, so that informal settlements can be less dense and upgraded. These were the concluding opinions in a roundtable discussion on the Urban Land Question in the Cape Town CBD on 7 August.
“The clause should be read and interpreted with reference to the Bill of Rights as a whole, and in light of the Constitution's preamble, which (prioritises) values of social justice,” said Zackie Achmat, founder of Ndifuna Ukwazi, which hosted the discussion.
by Daneel Knoetze, GroundUp
Shortly after returning to KwaZulu Natal from the Abahlali baseMjondolo (AbM) Western Cape relaunch, Thuli Ndlovu, a branch chairperson in the shackdwellers’ movement, was gunned down in her shack.
Thirty-six-year-old Ndlovu, the movement’s chairwoman in KwaNdengezi, was one of the delegates to counsel AbM’s newly elected Western Cape board.
AbM Western Cape was relaunched in Sweethome Farm informal settlement on Saturday.
“We have so much to learn from those comrades,” said newly re-elected Western Cape chairman Siyamboleka James. Continue reading
http://www.iol.co.za/news/crime-courts/meet-the-pioneer-of-poo-protests-1.1539955#.UdGyxfkwfUV
Meet the pioneer of poo protests
Daneel Knoetze
Cape Town – The man who pioneered faeces-dumping protests at government offices has expressed his support for the shack dwellers in Cape Town who have adopted the strategy.
But Ayanda Kota, founder of the Grahamstown-based civic organisation the Unemployed People’s Movement (UPM), says he is concerned that the fight for better sanitation in informal settlements has been mired in “party politics and electioneering” between the ANC and DA ahead of next year’s general election.
In October 2011, the UPM joined the Occupy movement and staged an “Occupy Grahamstown” in solidarity with poor and marginalised people from around the world.
The Occupy movement is an international protest against social and economic inequality.
The Occupy Grahamstown protest reached a climax when Kota and a handful of his fellow activists charged into Grahamstown’s City Hall (where the Makana municipality’s offices are housed) and dumped bucket loads of human excrement in the foyer.
“This is their s***, this is not our s***,” Kota had told protesters moments before.
Speaking to the Cape Argus in Grahamstown at the weekend, Kota reiterated his support for faeces dumping as a form of protest.
“It takes the suffering that is usually hidden away as a private shame and makes it a public embarrassment to the government… When people experience their suffering as a private shame, things don’t change. But when this suffering becomes politicised and collective action can be taken, especially in elite spaces, things really can change.”
Questioned about the current spate of similar protests and subsequent political and civic debates about sanitation in Cape Town, Kota stuck to his views.
He noted with concern, however, that the ANC had seized the opportunity to denounce the DA’s sanitation service delivery in the province as part of a bid to win back the province in next year’s elections.
Although the ANC has denounced the ringleaders – former ANC ward councillor Andile Lili and ANC Youth League member Loyiso Nkohla – President Jacob Zuma expressed his disgust at the DA’s lack of service delivery during a visit to the Imizamo Yethu informal settlement outside Hout Bay last month.
Lili and Nkohla have also denounced the DA, and the DA has responded by variously claiming that the protests are part of the ANC’s campaign to reclaim the province, and by denying the existence of a sanitation crisis in Cape Town’s informal settlements.
Kota said: “This should not be about party politics; it is about both the DA and the ANC’s failures where they respectively hold government offices. These challenges are being experienced all over the country.”
He pointed out that the UPM’s 2011 protest in Grahamstown was against an ANC municipality.
“The ANC goes all out to attack the DA for the way that it treats poor black people in Cape Town while saying nothing at all about how badly poor black people are treated in Johannesburg or Durban.
“What is happening in Cape Town is not motivated by a concern for human dignity. It is motivated by a concern for elections and for access to the state and the tenders that come with state power.”
http://www.thepost.co.za/bridge-sinks-cuts-main-road-1.1537379#.Ucv6jvkwfUU
Bridge sinks, cuts Main Road
By Daneel Knoetze
Cape Town – The main access route to the South Peninsula was cut off on Tuesday morning when torrential overnight rain caused a low water bridge over a river that feeds Sandvlei to partially collapse, causing authorities to close the road.
A night of stormy weather saw many other city roads flooded, electric wires felled and shack roofs blown off .
On Tuesday morning SA Weather Services said the 24-hour rainfall at Kirstenbosch had been 90.6mm, at the airport 96mm, and at Kenilworth, 57.2mm.
Metro traffic spokeswoman Maxine Jordaan said that Main Road between Steenberg Road and Old Boyes Drive was closed. The section of the bridge that had not collapsed was unstable, and vehicles were being diverted around Westlake Golf Course, via Steenberg Road, Westlake Avenue and Boyes Drive.
City of Cape Town Disaster Management officials have warned Capetonians to brace themselves for more heavy rains.
On Tuesday morning Disaster Management spokesman Wilfred Solomons-Johannes issued a list of 13 roads which had been flooded overnight. The worst affected areas extended from Plumstead, Retreat and Steenberg to the Muizenberg coast.
A section of Main Road in Kalk Bay, which has been undergoing upgrading since 2008, was reportedly flooded with knee deep water.
“There is no way to walk from the one side to the other. The cars are going very slowly. It’s the worst I have ever seen it,” an employee at the nearby Brass Bell restaurant told the Cape Argus on Tuesday morning.
Also in the Southern Suburbs, overhead electric wires had come down in Wetton, Claremont, Wynberg and Meadowridge.
Two shacks had their roofs blown off and another was destroyed by the wind in Uitkyk informal settlement near Sir Lowry’s Pass.
Sir Lowry’s pass ward councillor Johannes Middleton said that it was the worst winds experienced in the area for a number of years.
A couple and a young child living in the shack managed to escape without injury and were taken in during the night by a family friend. The other two damaged structures are repairable.
Siyambolekwa James, the provincial chair for shack dwellers organisation Abahlali baseMjondolo, said flooding of informal settlements can be expected as the water table rises in the coming days. In anticipation of the rain, residents in James’s home informal settlement of Sweethome Farm had dug trenches.
“We have diverted the water to a nearby farm and the drainage is working quite well. On Monday night a number of shacks were flooded from the ground up, but hopefully this water can flow away quicker due to the new trenches,” he said.
City train services were unaffected by the weather, Metrorail’s Riana Scott confirmed on Tuesday.
Roads flooded on Tuesday morning were:
* DIEP RIVER: De Waal Road into Main Road.
* FAIRWAYS: Hyde Road.
* LAVENDER HILL: Prince George Drive before 2 Military Hospital.
* GORDON’S BAY: R44/Clarence drive reported rockfalls.
* LAKESIDE: Chenel Road.
* EPPING INDUSTRIAL: Vanguard Drive.
* OTTERY: Bambloesvlei Road.
* DIEP RIVER: Shaay Road.
* KIRSTENHOF: Windhover Street.
* RETREAT: 9th Avenue.
* STEENBERG: Prince George Dr.
* PLUMSTEAD: Kendal Road.
* ELSIES RIVER: 35th Avenue and Balvenie Avenue.