Category Archives: Jayraj Bachu

Electioneering strengthens the divide (January 2006 – for the archive)

(For the archive)

http://stephinsouthafrica.blogspot.com/2006/01/long-hot-saturday-rally-at-kennedy.html

Electioneering strengthens the divide

The heart of the coming local government election is a contest over the politics of space, writes Raj Patel

January 17, 2006

By Raj Patel

This weekend, KwaZulu-Natal Premier S’bu Ndebele went on the campaign trail assisted by incumbent ANC councillors panning for our votes this election season. It was a shambles, with some rallies backfiring and others postponed in a number of constituencies.

This didn’t happen because the ANC is unpopular. Far from it. The ideals of justice, equality, democracy and dignity, for which the majority fought against apartheid, are held more strongly than ever. It’s not the majority of people who are rejecting the ideals of the ANC – it’s the leadership. Take for example the events at the Kennedy Road settlement this weekend, where the premier was scheduled to hold a rally. Residents were informed on the Friday, via a stern call from Crime Intelligence, that Ndebele would be arriving on Saturday.

The next day, with the sun already roasting the ground, the rally was inaugurated with the arrival of nine police vans, a Caspir and an armoured bus. Thus was the ground made safe for democracy. Well, one kind of democracy anyway. Abahlali baseMjondolo, the Shackdwellers’ Movement, likes to distinguish between people’s politics and party politics. Two different conceptions of democracy were up against each other. One works to engender democratic discussion where people live and work. The other argues that control won by election is the legitimate excuse for top-down domination.

By this time, only a handful of ANC supporters – none from the settlement – had arrived, sporting new, black ANC T-shirts. As the sun rose higher and the police retreated to the shade, several buses and “Benzes” brought in other ANC supporters to the shacks.

Derision

The police stood guard over the proceedings, protecting the ANC elite from the people in whose name they served. When ANC Councillor Yakoob Baig tried to drive his car into the settlement, he was met by hoots of derision. He retreated into a thicket of armed police. When a sufficiently large body of ANC supporters had arrived, the rally pushed through to the central area outside the community centre – a small dusty area just wide enough for taxis to pick up people and then turn around. With eight cars there, it was full. It also happened to be the site of one of six water taps that services a settlement of 6 000.

The ANC’s sound equipment was parked right in front of it. When the residents of the settlement started chanting above the noise of the rally, Supt Glen Nayager gave them an order to disperse, so the ANC could continue. Where were the shack- dwellers to go? They were already home. Having only been told the day before that their homes would be descended upon like this, few residents of the informal settlements were present. Those who were there dressed in red “No Land, No Vote” T-shirts and chanted and sang against a mounting ANC chorus.

It appeared that many of the ANC supporters knew that there was a rally more than two weeks before, but didn’t know where it would be until they got off the bus. It was sort of an electoral magical mystery tour, with a free T-shirt and food thrown in. When they arrived, and after some initial hostility, many ANC supporters had long and spirited discussions with the shack-dwellers. Upon seeing the conditions in the shacks, one ANC traveller, a man in his 50s, turned on Baig: “Why can’t you give them the land?” Pointing to the houses on the opposite side of the road, he continued: “They have houses. The people in the jondolos don’t even have that.”Baig,
for once, was lost for words.

Those who try to explain the city’s housing policy usually end up incriminating themselves. Demagogues like the Minority Front’s Amichand Rajbansi have drawn deserved criticism for their racist scaremongering in Chatsworth, conjuring up spectres of racism with statements like: “Our Indians are ignored while residents of informal settlements have been moved in.”

Exclusion

But Rajbansi isn’t the only one to pit working class Indians against working class Africans. Jayraj Bachu, the councillor for Ward 23, has also promised to rid his ward of informal settlements so that property prices can rise. When Rajbansi advocates the exclusion of shackdwellers, he’s a racist. When Bachu advocates the same policies, he’s a steward of democracy and a friend to the home-owner. The resegregation of urban areas and the re-expulsion of poor people from wealthy areas is the ANC housing policy that dare not speak its name.

The heart of the local government elections, then, is a contest over the politics of space. On the one hand are shack-dwellers who believed, and still believe, in the ideals of desegregation, of the possibility of rich and poor and black and white living side by side. On the other hand lie local councillors seeking to fence the rich from the poor – councillors who, faced by questions of redistribution from within their own party, can only remain mute. This explains why S’bu Zikode, Chairman of the Kennedy Road Development Committee, said: “They can campaign. That is their right. But we know this is a war on the poor.”

And as for the ANC? Mnikelo Ndabankulu, of the Abahlali baseMjondolo, put it well: “The thing I want to clarify is that we are the ANC.

“We reject the current ANC nominee for our ward and we, therefore, have a policy of no-vote for this election. We will vote in 2009 when we are happy with the nominee.”

ANC to bus voters in to ward, says former Durban councillor

Leave a reply

http://www.businessday.co.za/articles/Content.aspx?id=141609

ANC to bus voters in to ward, says former Durban councillor
EDWARD WEST
Published: 2011/05/04

JAYRAJ Bachu, an African National Congress (ANC) councillor for 15 years in Durban before his defection to the Inkatha Freedom Party (IFP), yesterday said that the ANC planned to bus voters into a crucial ward in an attempt to rig the elction result.

The “evidence” for his claim about eThekwini’s Ward 23 includes the names and identity numbers of 450 people who will allegedly be used to swell the ANC count .

The IFP recently has accused the ANC of election fraud through rigging the voter registration process , but this is the first claim of proof released by the party .

Ward 23, one of the biggest areas in the eThekwini municipality, and which includes Clare Estate and Reservoir Hills, is traditionally ANC, although Mr Bachu believes the party will get “a good run for their money” during the local government elections later this month .

He alleges that in 2008, residents from the Palmiet Road informal settlement were relocated to Welbedacht. There were two opportunities for them to reregister as voters, in February and March, but the ANC allegedly told them not to do so.

On May 18, he said, they would be bused to Clare Estate to cast their vote at the Bolton Road Park voting station. Mr Bachu provided a list of people relocated to Welbedacht, but who were still on the Bolton Road registration list.

A letter from the Independent Electoral Commission to Mr Bachu said it viewed the allegations with “serious concern” and investigations were under way.

The ANC regional chairman for eThekwini, Raymond Pilani, said he could not comment on the claims because of “protocol”, but he had not seen busing of people during the registration process.

He said the ANC in eThekwini had voted Mr Bachu out of his position in the council because “he tried to do dirty tricks within us. He couldn’t succeed with the forces of the masses behind us.” Mr Pilani said he believed Mr Bachu had joined the IFP because he was angry with the ANC.

Mr Bachu said he left the ANC as he believed its members did not share the nonracialist values of the party and because the IFP’s leadership had not been tainted by corruption.

The Democratic Alliance also alleged that voters had been bused into two of its strongest wards and, “while we have our suspicions, we can’t say who” might have done it , said DA provincial director Michael Beaumont.

He said 300-400 people were bused into Ward 35 of eThekwini during the voter registration period. The area is strongly associated with the DA and includes Umhlanga and La Lucia. As the DA tried to adhere to electoral commission procedures in following up the matter formally, it could not complain before the registration period closed and the matter was not taken further.

Isolezwe: Bakhale ngotshwala kusha imijondolo

Leave a reply

http://www.isolezwe.co.za/index.php?fArticleId=5672285

Bakhale ngotshwala kusha imijondolo

October 04, 2010 Edition 1

Boniswa Mohale

BAKHALA ngophuzo oludakayo abahlali basemijondolo ekuQuarry Road eThekwini kulandela ukuthi owesilisa okusolwa ukuthi ubedakiwe eshiye ikhandlela livutha lacekela phansi imijondolo engaphezu kuka-200 kwafa abantu ababili.

Ngokusho kukaMnuz Robert Mzobe (62), osekomidini elibhekele ezokuphepha kule mijondolo ngabe lo mlilo awuzange ube khona ukube owesilisa ohlala lapha akashiyanga ikhandlela livutha ngesikhathi eya esipotini.

“Umlilo uqale emjondolo womuntu okade ngibikelwa ngaye ukuthi uphuza ngokweqile. Izolo uye washiya ikhandlela livutha ngesikhathi eya esipotini. Ukube ubengaphuzanga ngabe ukucabangile ukuthi kumele acime ikhandlela uma ephuma endlini. Kufe abantu ababili abangakwazanga ukuvuka ngoba bebephuze kakhulu,” kusho uMzobe.

UDivision Commander Alfred Newman okunguyena ofike nezicishamlilo kule mijondolo uthe lo mlilo uqale entathakusa yayizolo kanti ngesikhathi befika imijondolo ibivele isivutha.

“Sifike ngezimoto ezimbili zokucima umlilo nezintathu ezithwala amanzi, sikwaze ukudambisa amalangabi emuva kwehora elilodwa kanti ukucima yonke into kusithathe amahora amane. Babili abantu abashe bangqonga kulo mlilo abanye bathathwa ngamaphoyisa,” kusho uNewman.

Bangu-1 000 abantu abasele dengwane kanti uphiko lwezezindlu nekhansela bebekhona izolo sebeqale nokunikezela ngokudla.

Ikhansela le ndawo uMnuz Jayraj Bachu lithe abantu abashelwe yizindlu bazolala etendeni elizolethwa wuphiko lwezezindlu kuMasipala weTheku kanti kuzokwazeka namhlanje ukuthi abantu bazosizakala kanjani.

Ngokusho kwekhansela kufanele ukuthi abantu bakule mijondolo kade bazithola izindlu njengoba babe yingxenye yohlelo lukahulumeni lokuqeda imijondolo.

Lithe abanye bahamba bayohlala ePargade naseWilberdatch kanti abanye basala ngoba bethi lezi zindawo zikude nomsebenzi.

Umndeni olahlekelwe yindodana kulo mlilo uthe awunayo imali yokuyingcwaba njengoba kungasebenzi muntu khona kanti ugogo wakhona uthe akazi ukuthi izingane ezifundayo zona zizoze ziye nini esikoleni njengoba kushe yonke into.

The Rising Sun: Feud over illegal disconnections

Leave a reply

Feud over illegal disconnections

The Rising Sun, Overport
29 September 2010

A bitter feud is mounting between residents of Pemary Ridge and the shack dwellers of the Amajondolo Informal Settlement following illegal disconnections of electricity in the area. It’s believed that residents [of the formal houses] were left without electricity for over a day, last week. According to a resident who spoke on condition of anonymity in fear of being victimised, electricians from the eThekwini Municipality’s Department of Electricity, came to the settlement and removed illegal cabling last Thursday. “A while later, a group of youngsters, who wore black shirts over their hears to hide their faces, banged the electricity box with sticks which caused sparks and a power outage. We are hard working individuals, diligent ratepayers and we deserve help from the government. This has been going on for years and needs to stop,” the woman said.

However, chairman of the youth committee [of the shack settlement] Scelo Zungu said, “If we cannot have electricity then we all must not have electricity.” He believes that if government provides electricity to them they would not resort to stealing. “We are even willing to pay for electricity. It is our basic human right to have electricity so why must we suffer without it. We don’t mean harm on any of our fellow neighbours but if they (government) don’t listen to us, maybe they will listen to them,” said Zungu.

But the residents’ problems do not end here. In a petition drafted out last year, residents said they are experiencing problems which include dirt being piled up on the periphery everyday, noise disturbances and an increase in house break-ins and carjackings. “We contacted councillor Jayraj Bachu to assist us with these problems but he never responded,” said the resident. Shack dwellers also claim when they need assistance from him, it’s difficult to contact him. “The only time we see him is during elections,” said Zungu.

Chairman of the Reservoir Hills Resident’s and Ratepayer’s Association, Ish Prahladh, who was contacted by the residents, said he will be addressing the situation between the two parties.

At the time of going to press several attempts were made to reach Cllr Bachu for comment but he was unavailable.

Another Coffin for Another Durban Councillor: Quarry Road Marches on Jayraj Bachu

Leave a reply

Another Coffin for Another Durban Councillor: Quarry Road Marches on Jayraj Bachu

On Tuesday 4 October well over a 1 000 people, mostly from the Quarry Road settlement, marched to demand land, housing, the return of their toilets and the resignation of Ward 23 Councillor Jayraj Bachu. Quarry Road is a relatively small settlement perched on the muddy banks of the Umgeni River in the elite suburb of Reservoir Hills. The march was put to together in a few days and the organisers, the Quarry Road Development Committee, had only expected a few hundred people. But the message that the poor have a right to live in the city and should fight forced removals proved so resonant that participation exceeded all expectations.

In December last year the eThekweni Metro tried to force Quarry Road residents to accept ‘slum clearance’ followed by ‘relocation’ to the ‘rural periphery of the Metro’. Some people did agree to move but many others refused to move. There was a bitter clash with police and a number of injuries and arrests. A 17 year old boy is still in prison awaiting trial. Once people had shown that they were prepared to resist forced removals, and to resist them vigorously, there was something of a stalemate. The Metro couldn’t afford the spectacle of violent clashes between shack dwellers and police on a main road in an elite suburb. They still justify their development policy in the name of the poor and so prefer to avoid highly visible conflict . They decided on a war of attrition and removed the toilets that they had installed some years before. This is no small thing. People get sick when there are no toilets – sometimes so sick that they die. It is estimated that 3 million suffer serious diarrhoea and that 300 000 children die from diarrhoea every year in South Africa. The Metro’s attempt to force the poor out by removing their toilets is a potentially (and probably inevitably) fatal act of aggression.

The return of the removed toilets was the central demand of the march. Other key demands were for the right to live in the City and for land and housing to be made available in the city. Marchers also warned that they would “fight all attempts at forced removals” and would not allow the City to “dump them in rural areas”. The final demand was for the resignation of the Councillor and for the keys to his office to be handed over the people. The tone of the march was uncompromisingly militant. Speakers demanded that Bachu hand over the keys to his office immediately, forced him to take questions from the marchers and made it clear that they would not vote, for Bachu or anyone else, until their toilets had been returned and they had been given land and housing in the city.

This was the third large legal march by shack dwellers in Durban this year. Just over two weeks ago more than 5 000 people, mostly from the Kennedy Road settlement, marched to demand land, housing, toilets and the resignation of Ward 25 Councillor Yacoob Baig.

The Quarry Road and Kennedy Road marches carried mock coffins with their councillors’ names on the side and ended with mock funerals. The City has not taken this well. The very first public intervention of the new eThekwini Municipality speaker James Nxumalo has been to slam the mock funerals as unacceptable. Nxumalo said that in a context where two councillors have already been assassinated this month and that a number of others have received death threats the mock funerals are “a serious matter”.

In response to the Kennedy Road march City Manager Mike Sutcliffe revived the racist agitator thesis and argued that the protesters are being ‘used’. Sutcliffe blamed the protests on a prominent white academic. Ironically that academic has never set foot in any of the settlements or even met any of the people who organised the marches. Bachu tried to dismiss the Quarry Road march as the work of ‘outsiders’. But ANC hacks are going to struggle to explain away the Quarry Road march. It had the full and enthusiastic support of all political (and generally apolitical) groups in Quarry Road. The ANC civic umbrella body SANCO has a presence in Quarry Road and even SANCO supported the march fully and worked hard to make it a success. The SANCO rep, Angelina Mosiea, standing in front of a row of journalists and wearing a SANCO t-shirt and cap, called on people not to vote and demanded that Bachu hand over the keys to his office. Even paid up card carrying ANC cadres are in open revolt. The party is in as much disarray at the bottom as it is at the top.

Reservoir Hills has consistently been the safest ward in the whole country for the ANC. But if the Metro continues to try and force the poor out of the city the ANC will no longer get the votes of the shack dwellers and the rich will no longer be able to pretend to themselves that a vote for the ANC is a vote for the poor. The battle lines of the future are becoming clear.

Sifuna izindlu esamhlala la Clare Estate!
Asivoti ngoba asiboni ntuthuko!
Phansi ngobachu ngoba akasisebenseli!
Siyahlukunyezwa ngabomthetho amaphoyisa!