Category Archives: Kennedy Road

Violent and Illegal Eviction Underway at the Barcelona 2 Transit Camp, Lamontville

Friday, 15 June 2018

Abahlali baseMjondolo Press Statement

 

Violent and Illegal Eviction Underway at the Barcelona 2 Transit Camp, Lamontville

Mayor Zandile Gumede has started her ‘dealing’ with Abahlali

This morning at around 10:00 a.m. the Anti-Land Invasion Unit, accompanied by heavily armed security guards, attacked the Barcelona 2 ‘Transit Camp’ in Lamontville. It is a short walk from where Sibonelo Mpeku, our chairperson in the Sisonke Village land occupation, was kidnapped and murdered on 19 November last year. Continue reading

Our lives count for nothing as we are left to die in the shacks

27 July 2016

Abahlali baseMjondolo Press Statement

Our lives count for nothing as we are left to die in the shacks

Rain is usually considered as a blessing. It is often considered as a gift from the Almighty and amaDlozi. During the drought we were all waiting for the rain to come. But the storms in Durban hit impoverished people, and especially shack dwellers, very hard. Peoples’ possessions and homes were damaged and destroyed. Lives were lost.

Our lives do not count as human lives to this society. It is sad and shameful that we are living the life that we are living. Continue reading

Evictions at gun point continue at the Kennedy Road settlement

14 July 2016
Abahlali baseMjondolo press statement

Evictions at gun point continue at the Kennedy Road settlement

We have faced many evictions in the city of Durban since our movement was formed in 2005. Almost all these evictions have been violent, unlawful and criminal.

We have stopped almost all these evictions through organised resistance, mass protest and action in the courts. When the state has attempted to change the law to make it easier for them to evict us we have defeated them in court. In 2009 we won against the “Slums Act” at the Constitutional Court. Last year we also won against the “blanket order” sought by the KwaZulu-Natal MEC for Human Settlements. The “blanket order” was intended to authorise mass evictions and to prevent the occupation of at least 1 568 properties in KwaZulu-Natal. Continue reading

The Political and Economic Challenges Facing the Provision of Municipal Infrastructure in Durban

12 July 2016
Wits and University of Michigan Workshop on the Politics of Municipal Infrastructure held at the Durban University of Technology

The Political and Economic Challenges Facing the Provision of Municipal Infrastructure in Durban

S’bu Zikode

I wish to take this opportunity to thank the organisers of this workshop for recognising the struggle of Abahlali baseMjondolo. Today I wish to extend my gratitude to Wits and to Michigan for inviting me to share Abahlali‘s experience in our dignified struggle which includes struggle for land, housing, water, sewerage, electricity and transport. Continue reading

Al Jazeera: Has Zuma lost his grip on South Africa?

Niren Tolsi, Al Jazeera

In the Pretoria High Court 2D, Advocate Kemp J Kemp hunched his shoulders and pushed his head out like a heron about to snaffle its prey.

The 2009 decision to drop more than 700 fraud, corruption, racketeering and money-laundering charges against his client, President Jacob Zuma, was a “message”, Kemp argued, that the National Prosecuting Authority’s “enormous powers” would never again be used to “decide who will be the president of the country” or “to engineer political results”.   Continue reading