Category Archives: eTwatwa

The LPM Welcomes the Independent Research Report into Political Violence Against our Movement

This statement has also been translated into Spanish, French, Portuguese, Russian and Italian.

Landless People’s Movement Press Statement
8 July 2010

The LPM Welcomes the Independent Research Report into Political Violence Against our Movement

As the Landless People’s Movement in Gauteng we welcome the independent research report by Jared Sacks into political violence against our movement in Gauteng.

We have been suffering from serious repression in Protea South, in Harry Gwala and in eTwatwa. The story of our struggle and the repression of our struggle has not been told. The world may have been watching South Africa for the World Cup but the repression of our movement has passed unnoticed. Therefore we welcome this report and the light that it shines into the darkness of our country.

The repression of our movement has been ignored by the media. We are asking the media to take this report seriously. We challenge the media to read this report and to follow it up with their own investigations. We need to expose what happens to the poor in this country and what happens to the poor when they challenge the councillors.

As a society we are not dealing with the issues that affect the poor. The councillors do nothing for the poor.

Billions of rands have been spent on stadiums and other costs for this World Cup yet we remain in shacks and without electricity. They said ‘Feel it, it is here’ but we have not felt anything other than the pain of poverty worsened with the pain of repression. The money that should have been spent on upgrading our communities has been wasted. The tournament will be over on Sunday and we will still be poor.

It is clear that in this country development is something that is imposed on the poor from above. Very often what is called development is actually forced removal. If you don’t agree to be forcibly removed you are treated as an enemy to the government of the country.

When the social movements take up the issues of the poor repression comes from the government with the police. They are trying to intimidate all the comrades of the social movements. They want to show the social movements that they must not challenge the councillors. It is the same in eTwatwa as it is in Harry Gwala and in Protea South. It is the same in Kennedy Road and in Pemary Ridge in Durban. They want to stop us from raising our voices.

We have no choice but to keep struggling. We will not be intimidated by the councillors and their police. We will, together with all our comrades in the Poor People’s Alliance, continue our struggle for land and for freedom.

To download the report in pdf click here.

For comment and further information please contact:

Dan Mofokeng (eTwatwa) 078 679 9435

Clement (eTwatwa) 078 571 4927

Edward Leople (eTwatwa) 083 885 5009

Solly (eTwatwa) 078 498 3280

David Mathontsi (eTwatwa) 073 914 9868

Tsepo (eTwatwa Youth) 078 839 4874

Maureen Mnisi (Protea South) 082 337 4514

Bongani Xezwi (Protea South) 071 043 2221

Maas Van Wyk (Protea South) 079 267 3203

Thomas Maemganyi (Protea South) 072 613 2738

Bazino Lihlebi (Harry Gwala) 084 704 4144

Johnson Nokutwana (Harry Gwala) 078 240 5538

Moray Hathorn (lawyer for LPM) 083 266 1081

Two deaths, dozens of injuries and counting…An investigation into politically motivated violence against the LPM in Gauteng

The Protea South Five & the eTwatwa Twelve Have Been Released

Landless People’s Movement Press Statement
8 June 2010

The Protea South Five & the eTwatwa Twelve Have Been Released

All of the Protea South Five, arrested after the electricity war in Protea South, Soweto, have been released on the grounds that ‘there is no evidence against them’. None of the five were harmed while in detention. A sixth person from Protea South (who is not an LPM member) has now been arrested and charged with burning the transformer. There are currently conflicting reports at to whether or not there has been an arrest for the murder of the LPM activist shot by the Homeowners’ Association in Protea South.

In eTwatwa, Ekurhuleni, seven of the twelve people that were finally arrested have been released with all charges dropped. The other five have been released on bail but still have charges pending. No one has been arrested for the burning of the homes of two LPM militants. No one has been arrested for the murder of the the activist shot by the police in eTwatwa. Is there a licence to shoot activists with the intention to kill? Why are we arrested when there is no evidence against us but others can kill us freely?

The LPM condemns the way in which the police arrest activists against whom they have no evidence in the strongest terms. Across the country all of our movements are increasingly facing the systematic misuse of power of arrest granted to the police as a form of intimidation against militants. We are arrested all the time without any evidence being brought against us. The arrest itself has become the punishment. People are often assaulted while they are being arrested. Very often it is the ward councillors that are directing the police to arrest people.

The struggle against oppression by ward councillors will continue.

For further information and comment please contact the chairperson of the Landless People’s Movement in Gauteng, Maureen Mnisi, on 082 337 4514 or David Mathontsi, Chairperson of the eTwatwa Landless People’s Movement, on 076 486 0569.

The Attack on the LPM Continues – 5 More Arrests in Protea South

Friday, 04 June 2010
Landless People’s Movement Press Statement

The Attack on the Landless People’s Movement Continues
Five More People have Been Arrested in Protea South

Last night the police went from door to door with an informer in the shacks of Protea South, Soweto. They arrested five members of the Landless People’s Movement (LPM). Three of the people that they arrested are children of Maureen Mnisi, chairperson of the LPM in Gauteng. The other two are her neighbours.

Since the current wave of repression began when the LPM was attacked in Protea South by the Homeowners’ Association on 23 May 2010 two people have been killed. One was shot dead by the Homeowners’ Association in Protea South and one was shot dead by the police in eTwatwa. Other people have been beaten, shot, arrested and threatened with having their homes burnt down. Two people have had their homes burnt down in eTwatwa. There are now seven LPM members in jail in Protea South and thee LPM members in jail in eTwatwa.

The police have promised that they will make more arrests soon. They said that the five people arrested last night will be charged with burning the electricity transformer in Protea South. The transformer was burnt down on 23 May. On that night the wealthier residents of Protea South living in private bonded houses armed themselves and went around beating shack dwellers who had connected themselves to electricity and forcibly disconnecting them from electricity. They shot two people and one person died. They also tried to burn down Maureen Mnisi’s house. Her house was saved when LPM members defended it by erecting a burning barricade and throwing stones at the mob from the Homeowners’ Association. Some members of the community burnt down the electricity box to show the wealthier residents of Protea South that if they want to deny electricity to the poor then it will be denied to everyone. This is tactic of disconnecting the rich if they disconnect the poor (or ask the state to do it) has been used in Siyanda, Pemary Ridge and Motala Heights in Durban.

But the people that were arrested last night did not burn down the transformer in Protea South. They were busy defending Maureen Mnisi’s home that night. They did burn tyres there but to keep warm as they protected Maureen’s home. These arrests are clearly a strategy to make Maureen feel very strong pain so that her commitment to the struggle can be undermined. It is the most dirty tactic to punish a militant by arresting her children and her neighbours.

No one has been arrested for the attacks on LPM in Protea South. In eTwatwa the police stood by as the shacks of two LPM leaders were burnt down. Later they arrested one person but then they quickly released that person again. The police officer who shot dead the LPM militant in eTwatwa has not been arrested.

Liza Cossa, the chairperson of the LPM in Protea South, was told by the police that they are targeting Maureen Mnisi. She is now expecting that anything can happen. There is a long history of pressure on Maureen. In early 2009 the Homeowners’ Association signed a petition against her saying that she must be removed from the area because she was defending people from outside the country. Of course it is true that the LPM defends all people from evictions – South Africa belongs to all who live in it and we make no apology for this. The LPM are well aware that the local ANC councillor, Mapule Khumalo, is behind this. She has put Maureen under pressure to stop shack dwellers from appropriating electricity but Maureen has refused. Khumalo was twice seen with the people from the Homeowners’ Association after they tried to burn down Maureen’s home.

It is the same in eTwatwa where the ANC councillor, Cllr Baleka, is behind the attacks there.

With the exception of the Daily Sun the media has ignored these attacks on the LPM. The Daily Sun did cover the electricity war in Protea South but they only interviewed the Homeowners’ Association. They didn’t even speak to the LPM. Maureen phoned them to complain and a journalist called Issac promised to get back to her but he never did. This newspaper did the same thing when they covered the attack on Abahlali baseMjondolo in the Kennedy Road settlement in Durban in September last year. This newspaper is treating shack dwellers as criminals and making propaganda for the rich and for the councillors.

As the LPM we want to send a clear message to the media that they have a duty to tell the truth about what is happening in our country. What is happening to us must not be swept under the carpet just so that the government can look good while the world is watching South Africa for the World Cup. The duty of the media to tell the truth remains while the World Cup is on. The media must come to Protea South and to eTwatwa and hear our story.

We are calling for urgent legal support. We need lawyers for the LPM members who are in jail. We need to take up cases against the Homeowners Association and the police to get justice for the two people who have been killed. We need money to pay bail.

This statement and its call for urgent solidarity with the LPM is supported by the Poor People’s Alliance which is made up of Abahlali baseMjondolo, the Western Cape Anti-Eviction Campaign, the Landless People’s Movement and the Rural Network. It is clear to all the organisations in the alliance that there is no democracy in South Africa. Every time that there is an election the poor are promised land, housing, water, electricity, toilets, education and jobs. After the elections we are denied these things. If we ask for the promises that have been made to us to be kept we are beaten, arrested and jailed. If we occupy land and appropriate water and electricity we are beaten, arrested and jailed. Sometimes we are tortured. Sometimes we are even killed.

We are calling on everyone who is visiting South Africa for the World Cup to visit us and to see how we have to live and to hear how we are oppressed. Visit us in the shacks, on the farms, in the transit camps and in the jails of this country.

For more information and comment please contact:

Maureen Mnisi, Chairperson of the LPM in Gauteng: 082 337 4514
David Mathontsi, Chairperson of the LPM in eTwatwa 073 914 9868.

For information and comment on the wider assault on the organised poor in South Africa please contact:

S’bu Zikode, Abahlali baseMjondolo (Durban): 083 547 0474
Mzonke Poni, Abahlali baseMjondolo (Cape Town): 073 25 62036
Rev. Mavuso, Rural Network (KwaZulu-Natal): 072 279 2634
Ashraf Cassiem, Anti-Eviction Campaign (Cape Town): 076 186 1408

(Mzonke Poni has spent the last few days with the LPM in Protea South and can give also give a first hand account of recent events there.)

LPM: The Police are in eTwatwa Looking for LPM Activists – They Have Made One Arrest Already