Category Archives: Nomzamo settlement

M&G: Avert forced removals by giving the rich’s land to the poor

http://mg.co.za/article/2014-06-05-avert-forced-removals-by-giving-the-richs-land-to-the-poor

Avert forced removals by giving the rich's land to the poor

Jared Sacks

The outcry over this past week’s brutal eviction of shack dwellers in Lwandle, outside Cape Town, has prompted new Minister of Human Settlements Lindiwe Sisulu, to step in and temporarily allow residents back on the land from which they were evicted. She promised to investigate the matter and pursue what she called “unanswered questions”.

There are indeed many unanswered questions about this eviction.

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Daily Maverick: Evictions: 0 out of 10, SANRAL – try again

http://www.dailymaverick.co.za/opinionista/2014-06-05-evictions-0-out-of-10-sanral-try-again/

Pierre de Vos

“The law is the law,” said Vusi Mona, spokesperson for SANRAL, on Tuesday when he attempted to justify the eviction of hundreds of people from their homes built on SANRAL land. Mona was invoking an interim interdict aimed at unspecified persons intending to occupy SANRAL land to justify the eviction.

The interdict purports to prohibit unspecified persons from unlawfully occupying the land, building structures on the land and inhabiting those structures. It also authorises SANRAL, duly assisted by the SAPS, to remove people from the land, demolish their homes and remove their belongings from the land.

However, the interdict clearly excludes from its ambit those who had already occupied land and were already living in structures on the land at the time that the interdict was granted.

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Daily Maverick: Evictions: When tragedy comes full circle

http://www.dailymaverick.co.za/opinionista/2014-06-04-evictions-when-tragedy-comes-full-circle

Terry-Jo Thorne

The word eviction evokes violent imagery – more so in the wake of the considerably shocking removals occurring in Lwandle this past week.

The term "Apartheid-style" has been thrown around, too, as we speak of the use of the police force, with their Casspirs and their weapons, casting families out into the devastating winter climate.

I feel particularly strongly about it here in Cape Town because I am finally starting to sit up and take notice of the many, many voices that cry out in the night when the police come to arrest them and demolish their homes.

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