Category Archives: The New Age

The New Age: Cops in shack clash

http://www.thenewage.co.za/94171-1011-53-Cops_in_shack_clash

Cops in shack clash

MANDLA MNYAKAMA

Angry residents clashed with police sent to dismantle their shacks in Philippi East on Sunday in a commotion that stopped short of turning into a bloodbath.

“Qina mhlali, (stand strong my people). They should kill us. We won’t move because they do not have a court order and away with the apartheid law enforcement away.”

These were shouts made by angry residents as the large contingent of Cape Town police and council personnel dismantled illegally built shacks.

Danger was averted when Abahlali baseMjondolo Social Movement members calmed down the stone-throwing residents.

This was after police had fired stun grenades and rubber bullets to maintain order in the tense confrontation.

Kamelo Msaka, 35, a backyard dweller, was teargassed and arrested when he prevented police from destroying his newly-built shack.

Cops also pinned down and locked up a social movement activist when he confronted them about the operation.

With some standing on their shack rooftops, residents of the newly established settlement in the outskirts of Klipfontein Mission Station and along Symphony Way Road, also used their cellphones to record the unfolding action.

Zoe Zulu, 35, became one of the new shack owners who resisted the move.

“What must we do, where should we go? They ordered me to vacate my shack but I do not know where I should go because I was born here in Cape Town,” a frightened Zulu said as she crammed in a tiny shack space with her four weeping small children that included a one-month-old baby.

An unnamed Rastafarian fought back when police allegedly assaulted him when he demanded to be allowed to remove his belongings before his shack was dismantled.

He later ran for his freedom and disappeared into the nearby bush after armed police attempted to arrest him.

“I refused to cooperate because they showed me no court order when I demanded it.”

Cindy Tetani, the Abahali base Mjondolo chairperson at the Langa branch, complained that police had undermined people’s rights because they conducted the operation with no court order.

“When we demanded a court order they claimed that they did not require it because the shacks were erected illegally.

“It’s very wrong and we won’t allow this to happen again,” Tetani said.

The New Age: Workers’ Power Thrives On Unity

http://thinkingafricarhodesuniversity.blogspot.com/2013/01/workers-power-thrives-on-unity.html

Workers’ Power Thrives On Unity

by Steven Friedman

The Durban strikes of 1973 empowered workers and helped destroy apartheid.

This month 40 years ago, South Africa learned an important truth which shaped our future – that people without power can challenge those who have it, but only if they act together.

The lesson was taught by the Durban strikes of 1973; they began a process which shifted power to working people and played an important role in defeating apartheid.

First, the strikes triggered the formation of unions which fought long battles with a few employers to win the right to negotiate. These unions became the core of the Federation of SA Trade Unions which combined with other unions to form Cosatu in the mid-1980s. So they were, in a sense, the beginning of today’s union movement. Continue reading

The New Age: Community in fist fight over RDP houses

http://www.thenewage.co.za/65907-1011-53-Community_in_fist_fight_over_RDP_houses

Community in fist fight over RDP houses

Mpho Mashego

The N2 Gateway housing project has again led to conflict among the hundreds of people waiting to be allocated houses, this time even degenerating into fist fights during a community meeting.

The Joe Slovo informal settlement held a meeting at the weekend after the names of the beneficiaries for the Gateway Project were released. In the end police were called in after the community accused community leaders of colluding with the Housing Development Agency (HDA) to sell RDP houses to other people.

“Last night the Joe Slovo community held a mass meeting with community leaders such as Sfiso Mapasa. The community is angry because of corruption within the N2 Gateway housing project where it is alleged that certain HDA officials and community leaders are colluding to sell new RDP homes in the project,” said Boitumelo Ramahlele from Temporary Relocation Area(TRA).

“HDA finally released the list of intended beneficiaries to community residents – something residents have been demanding for a long time.

“But now the Joe Slovo leadership is refusing to release that list to residents to conduct their own investigation into corruption.

“The leadership says only itself can conduct investigations of the alleged corruption. But the community does not trust these leaders. We therefore have every right to conduct an independent door-to-door investigation,” he said.

Abahlali Basemjondolo, an organisation that monitors the plight of people living in informal settlements, confirmed that on Saturday night there was a fight between the community and its leadership.

Abahlali baseMjondolo and the community held a follow up meeting yesterday afternoon.

The Gateway Project has been at the centre of controversy for many years with various informal settlement communities fighting over to whom the houses be allocated

The New Age: Houses ordered for 38 families

http://www.thenewage.co.za/62905-1010-53-Houses_ordered_for_38_families

Houses ordered for 38 families

Chris Makhaye

The Durban High Court has ordered the Ethekwini municipality to relocate into proper houses 38 families from Siyanda, north of Durban, who are living in the transit camp also known as Tin Town. The city had 90 days to comply.

The court ruled in favour of residents who were removed in 2009 to make way for Dumisani Makhaye highway and put into the Richmond Farm transit camp with promises that they would be relocated within months. Continue reading

West Cape News: Mayor called to intervene in housing corruption

This article was also published in The New Age.

http://westcapenews.com/?p=4652

Mayor called to intervene in housing corruption

by Francis Hweshe

Cape Town Mayor Patricia De Lille has been requested to intervene in the alleged ongoing corruption at the Temporary Relocation Area (TRA) in Langa.

Housing activists there have alleged that community leaders in Langa are illegally selling houses set aside for people from Joe Slovo informal settlement who are being moved to make way for new housing developments in the area.

The TRA dwellings are allegedly being sold for prices in the region of R2 500.

The allegations were raised after Thandeka Ngcelwa, an epilepsy sufferer who was officially allocated a TRA house, returned home on Friday 13 July to find the lock on her door replaced and all her belongings on the street.

Housing and anti-eviction organisation Abahlali baseMjondolo alleged that community leader Zukisani Sibunzi had moved someone else into Ngcelwa’s house, an allegation Sibunzi has denied.

Today Ngcelwa had still not got her house back and is staying at her brother’s house.

Abahlali baseMjondolo on Monday sent a letter to De Lille, requesting that she visit the Langa TRA where there was a “crisis of corruption and misallocation of government built shacks”.

“Rightful residents are being evicted (such as in the case of Thandeka Ngcelwane) and political party connected individuals are being allocated multiple shacks and RDP houses in the N2 Gateway project,” the organisation claimed.

The organisation has threatened to take “alternative action” if De Lille does not respond to the letter within seven days.

Abahlali baseMjondolo activist Cindy Ketani said the operations manager of the Housing Development Agency (HDA) implementing the housing project, Bosco Khoza, on Monday sent letters to people illegally occupying TRA houses notifying them they would be evicted in seven days.

But she says she suspects the HDA of protecting corrupt community leaders who continue to misallocate houses.

She said a woman had approached her recently to confess she had bought a house for R2 500 from community leaders but had not received it and had now been given her money back.

She was also concerned that people who were rightfully occupying TRA houses received letters notifying them of impending eviction.

Khoza could not be reached for comment.

De Lille’s spokesperson Solly Malatsi said the Mayor had received Abahlali baseMjondolo’s letter and would “apply her mind” before responding.

Asked if she would go out and meet with the people, he said that he would not want to pre-empt her response. – Francis Hweshe