Category Archives: operation khanyisa

Spectacle: World Cup effect on South Africa – 2009 (video)

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http://www.spectacle.co.uk/archive_production.php?id=493

Presentation by Mnikelo Ndabankulu and Zodwa Nsibande from Abahlali baseMjondolo, the South African shackdwellers’ movement, talking about the negative effects of the 2010 World Cup on South Africans.

Click here to watch this video at the Spectacle site.

Credits

Date: 30 August 2009
Location: Climate Camp Blackheath
City: London
Original Format – colour, mini DV, 14 mins
Language versions – english
Useful link: – http://www.abahlali.org/…

The Attack on the LPM Continues – 5 More Arrests in Protea South

Friday, 04 June 2010
Landless People’s Movement Press Statement

The Attack on the Landless People’s Movement Continues
Five More People have Been Arrested in Protea South

Last night the police went from door to door with an informer in the shacks of Protea South, Soweto. They arrested five members of the Landless People’s Movement (LPM). Three of the people that they arrested are children of Maureen Mnisi, chairperson of the LPM in Gauteng. The other two are her neighbours.

Since the current wave of repression began when the LPM was attacked in Protea South by the Homeowners’ Association on 23 May 2010 two people have been killed. One was shot dead by the Homeowners’ Association in Protea South and one was shot dead by the police in eTwatwa. Other people have been beaten, shot, arrested and threatened with having their homes burnt down. Two people have had their homes burnt down in eTwatwa. There are now seven LPM members in jail in Protea South and thee LPM members in jail in eTwatwa.

The police have promised that they will make more arrests soon. They said that the five people arrested last night will be charged with burning the electricity transformer in Protea South. The transformer was burnt down on 23 May. On that night the wealthier residents of Protea South living in private bonded houses armed themselves and went around beating shack dwellers who had connected themselves to electricity and forcibly disconnecting them from electricity. They shot two people and one person died. They also tried to burn down Maureen Mnisi’s house. Her house was saved when LPM members defended it by erecting a burning barricade and throwing stones at the mob from the Homeowners’ Association. Some members of the community burnt down the electricity box to show the wealthier residents of Protea South that if they want to deny electricity to the poor then it will be denied to everyone. This is tactic of disconnecting the rich if they disconnect the poor (or ask the state to do it) has been used in Siyanda, Pemary Ridge and Motala Heights in Durban.

But the people that were arrested last night did not burn down the transformer in Protea South. They were busy defending Maureen Mnisi’s home that night. They did burn tyres there but to keep warm as they protected Maureen’s home. These arrests are clearly a strategy to make Maureen feel very strong pain so that her commitment to the struggle can be undermined. It is the most dirty tactic to punish a militant by arresting her children and her neighbours.

No one has been arrested for the attacks on LPM in Protea South. In eTwatwa the police stood by as the shacks of two LPM leaders were burnt down. Later they arrested one person but then they quickly released that person again. The police officer who shot dead the LPM militant in eTwatwa has not been arrested.

Liza Cossa, the chairperson of the LPM in Protea South, was told by the police that they are targeting Maureen Mnisi. She is now expecting that anything can happen. There is a long history of pressure on Maureen. In early 2009 the Homeowners’ Association signed a petition against her saying that she must be removed from the area because she was defending people from outside the country. Of course it is true that the LPM defends all people from evictions – South Africa belongs to all who live in it and we make no apology for this. The LPM are well aware that the local ANC councillor, Mapule Khumalo, is behind this. She has put Maureen under pressure to stop shack dwellers from appropriating electricity but Maureen has refused. Khumalo was twice seen with the people from the Homeowners’ Association after they tried to burn down Maureen’s home.

It is the same in eTwatwa where the ANC councillor, Cllr Baleka, is behind the attacks there.

With the exception of the Daily Sun the media has ignored these attacks on the LPM. The Daily Sun did cover the electricity war in Protea South but they only interviewed the Homeowners’ Association. They didn’t even speak to the LPM. Maureen phoned them to complain and a journalist called Issac promised to get back to her but he never did. This newspaper did the same thing when they covered the attack on Abahlali baseMjondolo in the Kennedy Road settlement in Durban in September last year. This newspaper is treating shack dwellers as criminals and making propaganda for the rich and for the councillors.

As the LPM we want to send a clear message to the media that they have a duty to tell the truth about what is happening in our country. What is happening to us must not be swept under the carpet just so that the government can look good while the world is watching South Africa for the World Cup. The duty of the media to tell the truth remains while the World Cup is on. The media must come to Protea South and to eTwatwa and hear our story.

We are calling for urgent legal support. We need lawyers for the LPM members who are in jail. We need to take up cases against the Homeowners Association and the police to get justice for the two people who have been killed. We need money to pay bail.

This statement and its call for urgent solidarity with the LPM is supported by the Poor People’s Alliance which is made up of Abahlali baseMjondolo, the Western Cape Anti-Eviction Campaign, the Landless People’s Movement and the Rural Network. It is clear to all the organisations in the alliance that there is no democracy in South Africa. Every time that there is an election the poor are promised land, housing, water, electricity, toilets, education and jobs. After the elections we are denied these things. If we ask for the promises that have been made to us to be kept we are beaten, arrested and jailed. If we occupy land and appropriate water and electricity we are beaten, arrested and jailed. Sometimes we are tortured. Sometimes we are even killed.

We are calling on everyone who is visiting South Africa for the World Cup to visit us and to see how we have to live and to hear how we are oppressed. Visit us in the shacks, on the farms, in the transit camps and in the jails of this country.

For more information and comment please contact:

Maureen Mnisi, Chairperson of the LPM in Gauteng: 082 337 4514
David Mathontsi, Chairperson of the LPM in eTwatwa 073 914 9868.

For information and comment on the wider assault on the organised poor in South Africa please contact:

S’bu Zikode, Abahlali baseMjondolo (Durban): 083 547 0474
Mzonke Poni, Abahlali baseMjondolo (Cape Town): 073 25 62036
Rev. Mavuso, Rural Network (KwaZulu-Natal): 072 279 2634
Ashraf Cassiem, Anti-Eviction Campaign (Cape Town): 076 186 1408

(Mzonke Poni has spent the last few days with the LPM in Protea South and can give also give a first hand account of recent events there.)

Police Attack the Landless People’s Movement in eTwatwa, Ekurhuleni: One Person is Dead and another Seriously Injured

Update: Sunday 30 May 2010 – Two shacks belonging to LPM leaders in eTwatwa were burnt down early this morning as the police looked on. The attack on LPM is now turning into an ethnic attack on Tsonga people. Click here to read more.

Saturday, 29 May 2010
Landless People’s Movement Press Statement

 


Police Attack the Landless People’s Movement in eTwatwa, Ekurhuleni
One Person is Dead and another Seriously Injured

 

On Sunday 23 May residents of the bond houses in Protea South, Soweto, attacked the Landless People’s Movement (LPM) in the shacks in Protea South. They went around disconnecting us from electricity and beating those who had been connected to electricity. They tried to burn down Maureen Mnisi’s shack and two people were shot. One died on the scene.

Today the police attacked the LPM in eTwatwa, Ekurhuleni using live ammunition. One person has died and another is currently being operated on in hospital.

The background to the police attack on the LPM in eTwatwa is that on Tuesday 24 May we organised a march on the Councillor for Ward 65, Cllr Baleka. The different extensions each had their own demands but at the last point of the memorandum we all united on one demand which is that the Councillor must immediately step down. We indicated that we expected a response to our demands within seven days.

On Thursday 26 May the Provincial Government sent us a fax saying that they would meet us next Wednesday.

The situation in Extension 18 of eTwetwa is very bad. There is no electricity, no sewerage, no roads, not even water – there is nothing. The Councillor did start a project to build toilets but she said that only 717 of the 1 149 people would benefit as the rest of the people would be evicted to make way for a new road to be built by the provincial government. They want to move these people to transit areas. Obviously we cannot accept this. We have stayed in Extension 18 for many years.

We were expecting to attend the meeting with the Provincial Government on Wednesday next week. But yesterday, on Friday, Cllr Buleka, using the car of the Erkuleni Municipality drove around calling us to a meeting to be held today. But we had already suspended her. We no longer recognise her.

So today a meeting was held in the community and it was decided to go the councillor’s office. The councillor’s supporters provoked the protestors and in the end stones were thrown at her office. At 10:00 a.m. the police came and they used their guns. They used live ammunition. We have one of their bullets. They shot one woman dead. Another woman is in hospital right now having an operation.

After the shooting the people became even more angry. Some community members burnt a shack of one of the councillor’s supporters in retaliation to the murder of their comrade. The police attacked the people again and used teargas. Even more community members arrived and between ten and fifteen people were arrested by the police. The police are now hunting all the LPM leaders from extension 18 and extension 10 in eTwatwa. We have all gone into hiding.

The ward councillor must step down. There are no services in eTwatwa and the councillor is oppressing the people, trying to stop us from organising and even supporting the plans to have us evicted to a transit area.

We are calling for Msholozi to come down. He must come down to the people, hear our anger and then act against the councillor and the police. If he refuses to do this then he is clearly the President of the politicians and not the president of the people.

The situation in Protea South is still tense. The police are around. On Thursday we had a meeting with Eskom. Eskom said that they can’t install electricity to the shacks as we are not proclaimed. It is true that the government has never proclaimed the area in which we have built our shacks. But the people have proclaimed it. Anyway, the RDP houses, the Masakhane houses and the bond houses are all on land that has been proclaimed. It is just the shack dwellers that are denied the right to stay in Protea South and denied the right to services. Eskom did say that they will launch a pilot project with one electricity pole for every 82 families. But the total number of shacks is around 6 400. One electricity pole for every 82 families is not a good enough response to our demand for electricity. If the government continues to deny us legal access to electricity we will continue to appropriate electricity for ourselves.

Protea South remains in darkness after the shack dwellers burned the transformer in response to the attempt by the residents of the bond houses, who are calling themselves the Homeowners Association, to violently disconnect us from electricity. Everyone has now been disconnected. If the poor are not allowed to have electricity why should we allow the owners of private houses to enjoy it?

The Homeowners Association continue to say that they don’t want shack dwellers here and that they want us to be removed.

Every time the government says that Operation Khanyisa – community organised electricity connections – are ‘criminal’ they turn poverty into a crime. It is the government’s criminalisation of poverty that has incited the homeowners to attack us.

Bheki Cele is the one that has called on the police to shoot to kill. When as the poor we are turned into criminals we are placed in the line of fire. When we organise to fight against oppressive councillors and for access to services the police are shooting us. But when the poor go to vote then the police are there making sure that we are safe. When we are killed by the police we hold Cele responsible.

Organised shack dwellers have to defend ourselves when we are attacked by the police, the rich or, as it happened in Kennedy Road in Durban, the ANC.

Self defence is no offence.

We are very worried about the World Cup. Billions are wasted on the World Cup, billions that should have gone to meet the most urgent need of the poor. The government tells us that we must ‘feel it’ but in Protea South we don’t even have electricity. Some of us are in hiding from the police. People have been shot and two people have died in recent days.

The government expects us to be silent to everything that has been done to us. We will not be silent.

For more information and comment please contact:

Dan Mofokeng (eTwatwa) 078 679 9435
Edward Leople (eTwatwa) 083 885 5009
Maureen Mnisi (Protea South) 082 337 4514

The Global Urbanist: The poor clashing with the poor over electricity in Soweto

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http://globalurbanist.com/2010/05/25/the-poor-clashing-with-the-poor-over-electricity-in-soweto.aspx

The poor clashing with the poor over electricity in Soweto

While residents in the Soweto suburb of Protea South clash with shack dwellers over electricity, members of the Landless Peoples Movement are urging both sides to rise above infighting and unite against a government which has failed to provide sufficient services throughout the past sixteen years.

Kerwin Datu
Tuesday, 25 May 2010

The Poor Peoples Alliance is an alternative shack dweller federation comprising movements in the Western Cape, Gauteng and KwaZulu-Natal provinces of South Africa. Its members are increasingly at loggerheads with the South African government and with some more established slum dweller federations operating in the country, as we reported here and here on its sister organisation, Abahlali baseMjondolo. It arose out of frustration that the usual channels of government and the NGO community in South Africa had failed to deliver much real change to large numbers of the urban poor.

The Landless Peoples Movement (LPM), the Gauteng arm of the alliance, reported that on the evening of Sunday, 23 May, a group of men attempted to burn down the shack of its chairperson, Maureen Mnisi, in the informal settlement of Protea South.

It coincided with attacks made by give men armed with guns and a machete on the shack of another LPM member and supporter of the Zabalaza Anarchist Communist Front, and reports of men roaming the informal settlement, disconnecting electricity lines feeding the shacks and clashing with shack dwellers until midnight. Two people were shot; one died and the other was hospitalised.

The LPM believes the violence is the work of people residing in bond houses in the area. Bond house residents have been clamouring for the shack dwellers to be evicted in order to push up the value of their houses, using electricity disconnections to exert pressure on the shack dwellers. LPM has been resisting these moves, organising reconnections as the need arises, and believes its engagement is the reason for the attack.

Nevertheless one LPM member, Bongani Xezwi, wants shack dwellers and bond house residents to avoid recriminations and identify the common enemy. He argues that both sides should work together to fight the government which he blames for failing to provide sufficient electricity services to the whole community throughout “16 years of democracy”. In an open letter, he wrote that “the people with the electricity … are sitting in their government offices and they are not even seeing the need of giving services.”

“Let us make the government to leave their offices and come to address the issue of electricity in Protea South and other poor communities,” his letter continued.

As Eyewitness News reported, LPM’s ally, Abahlali baseMjondolo, plans to build a shack settlement outside the main stadium in Cape Town during the World Cup to draw international attention to the problems of the urban poor.

Electricity crisis in Protea South

Electricity crisis in Protea South: LET US FIGHT THE GOVERNMENT, NOT EACH OTHER

Protea South is one of the informal settlements that has not yet benefited in the last 16 years of democracy. As it stands, people in Protea South are still living without services (water, electricity and toilets). Yesterday the community that lives in the bond houses decided to disconnect the electricity that the people from the informal settlement connected into their tin shacks. They went around disconnecting and beating people who connected the electricity within their shacks. As a result, two people were shot and one died on the spot while the other one was rushed to hospital. Maureen Mnisi who is the leader of the LPM (Landless People Movement) was also attacked at her home, the members of the bond houses tried to burn down her shack. The community from the informal settlement got angry and they decided to fight back. They burned down the electricity box and threw stones at the people from the bond houses.

The problem with the Protea South community as whole are services, people need electricity to survive. Whether you live in the shack or in the bond house, we all need electricity. And that is why there is an urgent need to work together to fight the enemy. Fighting each other won’t bring electricity in Protea South. The people with the electricity that we need as the community of Protea South are sitting in their government offices and they are not even seeing the need of giving services. Fighting each other won’t help. We can see that clearly – now that one member of our community has been shot to death by another member, we will be mourning at his funeral. LET US IDENTIFY THE ENEMY THAT CREATES DIVISIONS BETWEEN THE POOR COMMUNITIES. Jacob Zuma nearly cried in Orange Farm last week, so he said. Let us make the government who pretends not to know our issues, come to every poor community where people are suffering without basic services, CRY FOR US ALL. Let us make the government to leave their offices and come to address the issue of electricity in Protea South and other poor communities.

“Organise or die in poverty: The world cup benefits the rich and not the poor”

Bongani Xezwi, activist and researcher

Contact: 071 043 2221