Category Archives: Independent Online

IOL: Mayor, city are ‘in contempt’

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http://www.iol.co.za/dailynews/news/mayor-city-are-in-contempt-1.1246499

Mayor, city are ‘in contempt’

By Anelisa Kubheka

Three years after being evicted and promised permanent homes, former residents of Siyanda Informal Settlement near KwaMashu are suing the eThekwini Municipality and its officials for not complying with a high court order.

It has been lodged by 37 residents who have been temporarily housed in transit camps on Richmond Farm, as well as Abahlali Basemjondolo – the South African shack dwellers movement. They want the mayor, city manager and head of housing to be held responsible, in their official and personal capacities, to be held in contempt of court for not complying with an order granted three years ago.

The Durban High Court order, granted in March 2009, compelled the municipality to correct the misallocation of houses designated to these residents at the Khulula Housing Project, by providing them houses of the project or to provide other houses commensurate to those in the project.

The municipality was also ordered to investigate the corrupt allocation, by its employees, of RDP houses in the housing project.

As it has been three years with no word from the municipality, the Socio Economic Rights Institute of South Africa’s (Seri) attorney for the families has filed court papers calling for them to comply with the eviction order and provide an outcome of the municipality’s investigation.

The municipality must also show what steps it has taken and will take in future, to comply with its obligation to provide permanent houses.

Should the municipality not comply, the residents would make an application for them to be held in contempt of court.

Abahlali Basemjondolo chairman, Sbu Zikode, said: “The corrupt allocation of housing in Durban has been a concern for Abahlali’s members for a long time. People are dumped in transit camps, told that it is just temporary and then left to rot while other people are allowed to jump the queue.”

He said the municipality was indirectly feeding this corruption by not following the more than two-year-old order.

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IOL: Torture, murder, kidnap rife in cop ranks

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http://www.iol.co.za/news/crime-courts/torture-murder-kidnap-rife-in-cop-ranks-1.1147848?showComments=true

Torture, murder, kidnap rife in cop ranks

Torture, assault, kidnapping and unexplainable murders. These are the alleged tactics of rogue police officers – especially prevalent at Gauteng and KwaZulu-Natal stations – as they enforce law and order.

The revelation, backed by human rights activists and policing researchers, comes as the Independent Complaints Directorate (ICD) released its annual statistics on police criminality on Thursday.

Of the 2 493 criminal complaints laid against police, 70 percent related to police brutality – attempted murder, assault, torture and rape.

With reports of torture up from five to 41 cases, and rape reports almost doubling from 24 to 46 cases in the past two financial years, human rights activists fear the situation is getting worse and more widespread

– a fear Deputy Police Minister Maggie Sotyu is aware of.

Among KwaZulu-Natal’s statistics of shame are 30 deaths during escapes from custody, 87 during apparent arrests and 27 during investigations.

Gauteng accounted for 48 deaths during the course of an arrest and 23 during investigations.

Hillbrow police station and Weirdabrug in Centurion are the country’s worst, according to ICD head Francois Beukman.

He also ranked the Joburg and Tshwane metro police departments as the worst metro policing departments in terms of criminality.

An ICD investigator said KwaZulu-Natal and Gauteng were problem provinces, especially when it came to rogue members within units such as the Hawks. “The problem is on the increase. There are rogue elements who operate with the consent of their commanders.”

KwaZulu-Natal human rights activist, Mary de Haas, said they received reports of deadly crimes being committed by rogue police gangs on a monthly basis. “The (Hawks), organised crime units and public order policing units feature prominently.

“We believe these actions are sanctioned by commanders turning a blind eye as their members act as judge, jury and executioner in the killing of so-called suspects who in some cases are not guilty.”

The biggest challenge to fighting these rogue officers was getting people to speak out. “People are petrified. They see what happens and just keep quiet,”she said.

“The ICD’s figures are the tip of an iceberg.

People are sick and tired of crime and, like police commissioner Bheki Cele’s tough talk, they think it is alright to shoot suspects, but these people are suspects not yet proven guilty.”

IOL: Police, power protesters clash in Soweto

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http://www.iol.co.za/news/south-africa/gauteng/police-power-protesters-clash-in-soweto-1.875964

Angry Orlando residents in Soweto took to the streets to vent their anger against the Eskom’s move to install prepaid electricity meters. According to reports, residents wanted Eskom to write off their arrears, most of which run into tens of thousands of rands, before changing their supply to prepaid meters. Eskom wants them to acknowledge their debt, pay R1 000 towards the arrears, have their prepaid units activated and start buying electricity vouchers. Running battles ensued between police and protesters, with protesters stoning police, who responded with more rubber bullets. Photo: Boxer Ngwenya, The Star

There is a photo essay online here.

IOL: 61 arrested in Mpumalanga protest

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http://www.iol.co.za/index.php?set_id=1&click_id=13&art_id=nw20100323144910819C590311

61 arrested in Mpumalanga protest
March 23 2010 at 06:07PM

Sixty-one people have been arrested for public violence during service delivery protests in Mpumalanga over the long weekend, police said on Tuesday.

Captain Leonard Hlathi said 29 people were arrested in Leslie near Secunda after a municipal building and other property were burnt down.

Another 32 were arrested in Ogies.

“Several cars were pelted with stones and 20 complaints have already been registered for malicious damage to property cases.”

He said four Toyota Quantum minibus taxis, a Condo, two bakkies and police caspir were burnt in Ogies on Saturday.

He said ten police officers were nearly killed when the caspir they were travelling in was ambushed.

“They [protesters] put a snare of spikes [on the road] and covered them with some objects, so that the police could not recognised the spikes. Three wheels got punctured and the mob outrageously attacked the police with petrol bombs,” he said.

Police were forced to fire shots at the unruly crowd to protect themselves, he said.

“One person was injured in the incident.”

Hlathi said the protest in the area started on Thursday, when a march was held to hand over a memorandum to representatives of the provincial government.

“It is alleged the authorities did not turn up as requested. The people went on the rampage, barricading the roads with burning tyres and burnt down property.” – Sapa

IOL: Sexwale: housing ruling could cause chaos

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Sexwale: housing ruling could cause chaos

Human Settlements Minister Tokyo Sexwale said on Thursday that the government could approach Chief Justice Sandile Ngcobo to voice concern that a landmark court ruling on evictions would throw housing policy into chaos.

Sexwale told the National Assembly during question time that while he respected “the separation of powers” there was a danger that case law could impact on policy with dramatic consequences”.

“It may end up pushing us into chaos,” he told MPs.

Sexwale said last month’s ruling by Judge Brian Spilg in the High Court in Johannesburg on the fate of 80 squatters in Berea amounted to “the legalisation of illegality”.

Spilg ordered that they vacate the building by the end of the month but that they would then become the responsibility of the City of Johannesburg. The city would have to provide them either with temporary accommodation, or pay each occupier or household head R850 to rent elsewhere.

Sexwale said that if the judgment were upheld on appeal, it would mean that “everywhere they have occupied you have to pay rent for these people” and dire consequences would ensue for municipalities and ultimately Treasury.

Waving an arm around the assembly, he said even if Parliament were illegally occupied the same would apply.

He said the matter had been taken up with the cabinet and Justice Minister Jeff Radebe, and could be raised with Ngcobo.

Sexwale said that like the historic Constitutional Court ruling in the Grootboom case in 2000, the judgment was based on the Protection of Illegal Eviction and Unlawful Occupation Act, which was meant to stop a perpetuation of apartheid-era wrongs, but had ended up having unintended consequences.

“We attempted to address history, but unfortunately history has turned on us.”

But he added that he did not want to pre-empt the outcome of the appeal.

“We can only pray,” he said.

Spilg’s judgment has brought relief for property owners who have struggled to get squatters evicted because the country’s courts have been reluctant to evict illegal occupants who have nowhere else to go.

But it has raised fears with authorities that they will be obliged to provide or pay for alternative housing.

It is only binding in Johannesburg, but local authorities elsewhere have expressed concern that it could prove persuasive in other divisions. – Sapa

Quickwire

Published on the Web by IOL on 2010-03-10 18:42:55