Category Archives: Ravi Pillay

Daily News: MEC fears invasions

Lee Rondganger, Daily News

KwaZulu-Natal’s Human Settlements MEC Ravi Pillay has raised the alarm that all land is at risk of invasion after the ruling in the Durban High Court last Thursday that stopped municipalities from evicting squatters without a court’s approval.

To prevent invasions the provincial government would have to throw more resources at protecting property from squatters.

The MEC voiced his concerns to the Daily News about the ruling made, which forbade the eThekwini Municipality from evicting shack dwellers in Cato Manor. It may also not destroy shacks without notice, which had been allowed by a previous ruling. Continue reading

Breaking news: Abahlali baseMjondolo has won an important victory in in the Durban High Court against the MEC for Human Settlements and the eThekwini Municipality

Thursday, 20 August 2015

Abahlali baseMjondolo Press statement

Breaking news: Abahlali baseMjondolo has won an important victory in in the Durban High Court against the MEC for Human Settlements and the eThekwini Municipality

The MEC sought the confirmation of an interim order which, he said, permitted him to restrain the “invasion” of over 1000 properties within the Durban area, by directing the eThekwini Municipality and the Police to “take all the necessary steps to prevent any persons from invading or occupying the properties” to “remove any materials placed” on the properties and “demolish any structure” placed on the properties.

The order was granted in March 2013. Since then, it has been used to evict many hundreds, if not thousands, of poor people living in shacks on open land in Durban. Two of the affected communities: Sisonke Village (formerly known as Madlala Village and represented by the LRC in Durban) and Cato Crest (represented by SERI) together with Abahlali, acting in the public interest and on behalf of its members intervened in the case in order to have the interim interdict set aside.   Continue reading

Attachments


Judgment in the Marikana & Sisonke Village Case

Abahlali will be Back in the Durban High Court this Thursday, 20 August, to receive the judgment that has been reserved since 21 May 2015

Wednesday, 19 August 2015

Abahlali baseMjondolo Press Statement

 

Abahlali will be Back in the Durban High Court this Thursday, 20 August, to receive the judgment that has been reserved since 21 May 2015

Following repeated brutal and unlawful evictions at a gun point by the eThekwini Municipal Land Invasions Unit in Cato Crest (the Marikana land occupation) and Lamontville (Sisonke Village) Abahlali won several court interdicts. Each and every time we secured an interdict, or an undertaking from the Municipality to cease its illegal behaviour, the interdicts and undertakings were ignored and they continued with their violent and unlawful evictions. It is clear that the eThekwini Municipality considers itself to be above the law and impoverished black people to be beneath the law. Continue reading

Back to the Durban High Court

Wednesday, 20 May 2015

Abahlali baseMjondolo Press Statement

 

Back to the Durban High Court

Following several brutal and unlawful evictions at a gun point by the eThekwini Municipal Land Invasion Unit in Cato Crest (Marikana land occupation) and Lamontville (Sisonke Village) Abahlali baseMjondolo won several court interdicts against the Municipality. Each and every time we secured an interdict, or an undertaking from the Municipality to cease its illegal behaviour, the interdicts and undertakings were ignored and the Municipality continued with their violent and unlawful evictions. It is clear that the eThekwini Municipality considers itself to be above the law and impoverished black people to be beneath the law. Continue reading

Memorandum of Demands Delivered to the Minister of Human settlement in the Province of KwaZulu-Natal, MR Ravi Pillay – 8 November 2014

Memorandum of Demands Delivered to the Minister of Human settlement in the Province of KwaZulu-Natal, MR Ravi Pillay.

Saturday, 08 November 2014 12:00 PM

We, the citizens, men and women of the Republic of South Africa are members of Abahlali baseMjondolo Movement SA in kwaZulu-Natal, Durban, are democrats committed to the flourishing of this country and the world. We speak for ourselves and direct our own struggle. We have been mobilized by our own suffering and our hope for a better future here and abroad. It is time to take seriously the fact that, land is a serious problem in our country and that land was stolen from our ancestors and that, this has impoverished us. That housing in the city is a mess that has not just terrorized our communities but made us homeless here in South Africa. Housing corruption has become a weapon of mass destruction to those of us who are killed for the right to the city and the right to housing. Continue reading