Category Archives: iRhini

UPM: Minister of Police Pays Damages to Ayanda Kota for 2012 Assault in the Grahamstown Police Station

Monday, 17 October 2016

Unemployed People’s Movement Press Statement

Minister of Police Pays Damages to Ayanda Kota for 2012 Assault in the Grahamstown Police Station

On 12 January 2012 Ayanda Kota was subject to a serious assault, in the presence of his son (then six years old), in the Grahamstown police station. His trousers were pulled down to his ankles and he was beaten by a number of police officers.  As the beating was taking place one of the police officers called others to ‘see the news-maker of the year now’. Continue reading

Makana Municipality Blames Xenophobia on the ‘Third Force’

Saturday, 21 November 2015

Unemployed People’s Movement Press Statement

 

Makana Municipality Blames Xenophobia on the ‘Third Force’

On Wednesday a number of the people displaced in the xenophobic attacks and their families decided to hold an all night vigil outside the City Hall. This decision was taken after they were told that the men had to leave the safe accommodation by noon on Friday as the municipality was unwilling to pay the bill. It was not safe for them to return to the community and they had nowhere else to go. They were in a desperate situation. This was why they decided that it was necessary to protest. Continue reading

Xenophobia in Grahamstown: A historical view

Xenophobia in South Africa has a history. It does not spring spontaneously from poverty but targets it and captures it. In Grahamstown, this history is as old as the town itself. By PADDY O’ HALLORAN. The Daily Maverick

Almost three weeks have passed since the start of xenophobic looting in Grahamstown that left 500 “foreign” shop owners and family members—most of them South African citizens—with nothing, and more than half of them displaced from their homes. Although looting sputtered out a week ago, and shops in and near the centre of town have opened again, most of the affected people remain displaced, and most shops remain shut. There is no viable plan for the people”s reintegration into the community.

Grahamstown is in deep political crisis. The community members who have worked against xenophobia, as well as the affected people, are sure of one thing: Makana Municipality and the local police have failed them, and, in some cases, actively contributed to the crisis. However, neither the events of the last two weeks nor the authorities” role in them are unfamiliar in the town”s history.  Continue reading

Urgent Request for Intervention in the Crisis in Grahamstown

26 October 2015

Press Statement from Voices of the Foreigners’ Wives

Urgent Request for Intervention in the Crisis in Grahamstown

We are all wives of men who came to South Africa from other countries. There are more than a hundred of us. Our husbands come from Bangladesh, China, Egypt, Ethiopia, Ghana, Malawi, Nigeria, Pakistan, Palestine, Senegal, Somalia, Sudan and Zimbabwe. Most of us are Muslims. We pray at the Mosque on the university campus. People call us ‘the kwarra wives’.

Our husbands came to South Africa from other countries looking for a better life. They are now South Africans. They have IDs and passports. They have the right to vote. Our husbands came here for a better life and they work here and have families here. But they are treated like dogs. Their lives count less than a packet of chips. Continue reading

Unemployed People’s Movement: Statement on the Education Crisis

18 August 2015

 

Unemployed People’s Movement: Statement on the Education Crisis

 

Recently parents in Port Elizabeth have taken to the streets to protest against the atrocious education being experienced by their children. They are not alone. The whole South African education system is terminally sick. This is demonstrated by the lack of teachers in our schools, the lack of science equipment, learners who are learning under the trees, the dropping of the pass rate from 40% to 33% and the fact that both the culture of learning and teaching has gone to the dogs. Continue reading