Category Archives: siyanda

Statement from this morning’s road blockade in Siyanda

Update 20:34: Police bail was refused. A pro bono lawyer was secured but the prosector on standby had her phone switched off and so a bail hearing was made impossible. The three comrades will have to spend the weekend in the holding cells.

Update 10:10: The three comrades arrested today are are Themba Msomi, Thembeka Sondaba & Fikiswa Mgoduka.

Yesterday there was a blockade in Clare Estate. This morning there are blockades in iSiyanda and uMlazi. Three comrades, including the chairperson are under arrest in uMlazi. She still has her phone with her and she is strong. A police car turned over in uMlazi. This was because the driver failed to control it. We did not attack it. However we were attacked with tear gas and rubber bullets – the same bullets that killed Andries Tatane – in both iSiyanda and uMlazi.

uTata Nelson Mandela said that if the ANC does to us what apartheid did to us then we must do to the ANC what we did to apartheid. We are living in apartheid under black management. Therefore we are back to the streets. In these actions we are honouring Madiba.

The demands that are being issued on these blockades are clear. The first one is the same demand as the one issued in Cato Crest on Monday, in Clare Estate yesterday and in Clare Estate, iSiphingo and Cato Crest last week. That demand is that we want a full and proper response to the memoranda that we handed over to the Municipality on our march on 16 September. We have a new demand too now: Free Bandile Mdlalose!

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Once again Abahlali baseSiyanda March to Demand Land and Housing in Durban

 

 




 


Click here to see more photographs of this protest.

 

11 July 2013
Abahlali baseMjondolo Press Statement

Once again Abahlali baseSiyanda March to Demand Land and Housing in Durban

Tomorrow Abahlali baseMjondolo Siyanda Branch will be protesting about all the beating about bushes on their long promised housing in Siyanda.

The Khulula Housing Project was meant for them but due to corruption they were excluded from the project.. It became very difficult when Linda Masinga and Associates were tasked to forcefully remove some residents to transit camps in Richmond Farm in 2009. Everybody knows that there was a blatant corruption in this housing project. The provincial government had acknowledged this and sent its delegation to investigate this in 2009. A Task Team comprised of Abahlali delegates, eThekwini Municipal Officials and KZN provincial officials was set up. A clear promise was made that those marginalized would be housed with the current financial here. But today we are told that eThekwini Road Authority is the only unity in the city that is opposed to our housing project. They say that the land is reserved for unknown future road expansion in case they need it. This is very disappointing because the Department of Human Settlements is willing to go ahead with the housing project as it was negotiated.

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SACSIS: Cities Need to Plan with the Poor, Not for the Poor

http://www.sacsis.org.za/site/article/1564

Cities Need to Plan with the Poor, Not for the Poor

by Felicity Kitchin

“People who live in the shacks have other people planning for their lives; whatever they get is not planned with them; there are people planning for them.” – Resident of Siyanda, eThekwini

Recent riots in Zamdela in the Free State have brought the issue of community participation in development decision-making into sharp focus. Zamdela revealed a complete lack of regard for an affected community’s input into a key decision that would have far reaching implications for their lives. It is an example of how tragically wrong things can go when communities are not consulted by the state. Four people lost their lives in the ensuing protests and clashes with the police. Continue reading →

Daily News: Judgment a victory for 38 families

The pictures that were included with this article are here.

http://www.iol.co.za/dailynews/news/judgment-a-victory-for-38-families-1.1387449#.UHLAupjMhlE

Judgment a victory for 38 families

September 20 2012 at 02:06pm
By Daily News Reporter

The Durban High Court had sent a clear message to the eThekwini Municipality that it could no longer “dump people in transit camps” but should instead provide them with proper houses, the shack dwellers movement, Abahlali baseMjondolo, said.

The movement’s chairman, Sbu Zikode, was reacting after the court on Wednesday upheld a 2009 court order that obliged the city to provide proper houses to the 38 families of the Siyanda informal settlement in KwaMashu who were forcibly removed from their shacks and placed in transit camps to make way for the construction of a road three years ago. Continue reading →