Category Archives: The Times

The Times: Dear Mandela wins big in the US

http://www.timeslive.co.za/thetimes/2012/06/13/mandela-film-wins-big-in-us

Dear Mandela wins big in the US

Andile Ndlovu

Dara Kell and Christopher Nizza’s documentary film Dear Mandela walked away with two of the biggest prizes at the Brooklyn Film Festival this past weekend.

It began with a protest by shack dwellers of the Kennedy Road settlement in Durban against the sale of a piece of land they had been promised by the municipality, but was sold to an industrialist.

There were forced evictions and court orders at the time.

Kell said she and Nizza met community leaders who “embodied Nelson Mandela’s pragmatic idealism”.

Speaking from New York yesterday, Kell said: “It’s been amazing. Certain things in South Africa get really big laughs.

“People get the jokes, and there is quite a lot of humour in the film because our characters are warm and funny. I was really impressed with the international response.”

The film won Best South African Documentary last year at the Durban International Film Festival and the Golden Butterfly Award at The Hague’s Movies That Matter film festival.

The Times: ‘Pride is all we have left’

http://www.timeslive.co.za/news/2012/05/21/pride-is-all-we-have-left

‘Pride is all we have left’

by Graeme Hosken

The 4000 Randfontein landfill residents, most of whom survive by scavenging for food, have resigned themselves to their fate.

“Our currency is plastic and booze. That’s how we live,” says Ursula Johnson.

For Johnson, the only reason to keep going is her three young children.

“They are my life. I survive for them,” she says. “I do what I can to keep them alive, to buy them food and clothes. What I earn from selling plastic bottles from the dump is not much, but it is something.”

To these people, you are wealthy if you earn R200 a week scavenging. But, with the dump’s security guards rationing scavenging times, forcing these men and women to alternate days, the prospect of earning more than R100 a week is slim.

“It is hard. None of us wants this. We all want out. We want out for our children,” says Johnson. “I want the best for my children. I want a better life for them, but I cannot give it. “It is too dangerous to send our children to the closest school. It is too dangerous to walk at night. It is so dark that you do not see someone walking past you. This is when criminals strike.”

With an icy wind blowing the putrid stench of rubbish and smoke from the dump over the settlement, Johnson pulls her children closer to her, closing the door of her tarpaulin-roofed shack.

A pile of plastic containers stacked outside her home is a sign of wealth.

“The more you have, the richer you are. Even though some have little, no one will steal. To steal here is a death sentence. Not for the thief, but for the collectors.”

The community is close and people look out for each other. Unemployed grandmothers act as child minders, those not scavenging sweep the “streets”, removing dangerous medical waste and used condoms, and fetching water for all from a single communal tap. The sick are fed and looked after by neighbours.

“We might be poor, ignored by the government and forgotten by others, but we are still proud. Our pride is all that we have left,” says Johnson.

Asked about government assistance, she laughs: “Like the people who throw out their rubbish and forget about it, the government has forgotten about us. They promise this and that, but nothing comes.”

For Elizabeth Ditsi, a grandmother of three, life is beyond unbearable.

“We have been forgotten. Not even the dump’s guards care any more. For 10 years no one has cared,” she says.

“For all of us, there are only five long drops. Things just get worse. The flies, disease, dirt, smell and cold.

“We are all dying slowly, even the children. They get sicker and sicker. There are no doctors near us. The nearest clinic is a 30-minute walk away, but we cannot go there because it is too dangerous to walk and no one has a car .

“Everything we have we get from the dump. Our food, clothes and houses. I just want freedom, proper freedom. I want someone to come and help my grandchildren. They do not have to help the adults, but they must help the children.”

Human Settlements spokesman Xolani Xundu said children were a priority when trying to address the immense housing challenges.

“Children’s rights and the provision of houses for young people is where some of our biggest priorities lie .

“Our biggest challenge is getting children out of squatter camps to areas of safety. While we have multiple strategies to ensure that informal settlements are upgraded to appropriate human standards, the housing backlog remains huge and is increasing.”

SOBERING STATISTICS:

HEALTH

* 1 in 5 children malnourished
* 1 in 3 experience hunger
* 1 in 8 children infected with HIV globally live in SA
* 51 8000 children under the age of 15 have HIV
* 39% of girls aged 15 to 19 pregnant

SECURITY

* 10000 to 12000 children arrested monthly
* 1200 to 1400 children detained at correctional services facilities monthly
* 520000 in foster care
* 14012 in child and youth care centres
* 54225 children victims of serious crimes such as murder, rape and assault
* 29% of sexual offences victims aged 10 and younger
* 4000 child neglect cases reported to police annually

EDUCATION

* 660 000 children out of primary and high school
* 40% of pupils finish high school
* 32% of reported rapes committed by teachers
* 27% of pupils feel unsafe at school
* 19% belong to gangs, 15% carry weapons, 9% carry weapons at school
* 16% high school pupils threatened/attacked with weapons at school

HOUSING

* 1.7 million children live in informal settlements
* 100 000 child-headed households

The Times: Info bill protesters gather outside parliament

http://www.timeslive.co.za/politics/2011/11/22/info-bill-protesters-gather-outside-parliament

Info bill protesters gather outside parliament

About 600 people are protesting outside parliament against the ANC’s new secrecy law, which is likely to be passed by the National Assembly at 2pm today unless dozens of ANC MPs break ranks and vote against the Protection of State Information Bill.

Carrying placards proclaiming “Jou ma se secret” and “The truth will set us all free”, the protesters, which included grassroots community movements and journalists, said they were opposed to the bill.

A priest even offered to pray for a speedy recovery for State Security Minister Siyabonga Cwele, whom he said was suffering from paranoia after he last week labelled groups opposed to the bill as “proxies” of foreign spies.

Earlier today, the Eastern Cape-based Unemployed Peoples’ Movement described the new law as an “onslaught against democracy and people’s dignity”.

“When the people protest because of the corrupt politicians who treat the poor with contempt and a lack of caring the ANC does not listen. Instead we are beaten, jailed, tortured and even killed. Who can forget Andries Tatane? Who can forget when the residents of Hangberg in Cape Town were jailed and shot at for refusing evictions? This is not democracy. There is no freedom if the people do not know what the government is doing in their name,” said the movement’s chairperson, Ayanda Kota.

“The arms deal and its cover-up was the point at which we first lost the freedom to know and it has got worse with the secrecy bill. Politicians want to be kings and queens and not the servants of the people. Just look at their blue-light cavalcades” Kota added.

Meanwhile, the University of Cape Town said it had blanked out its home page in protest against the bill.

“UCT opposes the lack of a ‘public interest defence’ in the current version of the bill. Without such a defence mechanism, for instance, members of the media would not be able to fulfil their role as a watchdog,” the university said in a statement.

The Times: Sexwale comment blasted

http://www.timeslive.co.za/politics/2011/10/03/sexwale-comment-blasted.

Sexwale comment blasted

A housing-rights organisation has asked Human Settlements Minister Tokyo Sexwale to withdraw comments about the possibility of a “cut-off date” for free housing.

The Abahlali baseMjondolo (Those Who Live in Shacks) organisation, which fights for the rights of shack dwellers, said Sexwale’s statement last week was a recipe for “uncontrolled protests”.

Sexwale told an international conference in Cape Town that the government was discussing an end to free housing.

“There has got to be a cut-off date. We are discussing that. You can’t cut off the poor right now, particularly in the current national economic environment. But we can’t sustain what we are doing for a long time,” Sexwale said.

Abahlali baseMjondolo’s Western Cape chairman, Mzonke Poni, who yesterday completed a three-day fast in protest against South Africa’s housing shortage, said the government should have held public hearings before discussing an end to free housing.

“If they open this for public comment the government will see it has no support at all,” said Poni.

“The state is already failing to build houses for the poor and now they want to have a cut-off date.

“When people occupy unused pieces of land, they unleash the police against us.

“We cannot accept an announcement that will see people move from bad to worse,” he said.

COPE MP Phumelele Ntshiqela, who claimed to represent 17000 members of an organisation called National Informal Settlements of SA, said he had been flooded with complaints since Sexwale made his comments.

“Sexwale must withdraw his statement. People are fuming over this. If the government cannot build houses or deliver services, then what do we have the government for? Housing people is sustainable because it creates jobs and restores dignity.

“We are going to fight this decision and [a cut-off date] is not going to happen.”

Richard Pithouse, a political science lecturer at Rhodes University, Grahamstown, backed the organisations and said the government had to continue providing housing until everyone was housed.

“If Sexwale thinks providing decent housing is negotiable he is completely out of touch with the political realities,” said Pithouse.

“There is no realistic vision for poor people to attain a dignified life in his world view, and we have no choice but to consider his attitudes a clear and present danger to the integrity of our society.”

Popular Opposition to Xenophobia in Ramaphosa

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-13634605

South Africans in rare anti-xenophobia march

South Africa was hit by a wave of deadly xenophobic violence in 2008

A crowd marched through an informal settlement in Johannesburg chanting: “We want the Somalis to stay.”

The march was intended to counter a protest by local businessmen demanding the closure of foreign-owned shops.

“I’ll never allow foreigners to take bread from my mouth,” a South African businessman told the BBC.

‘Greedy and jealous’

He said that South Africans fought for democracy, and it would be a “criminal offence” to allow foreigners to dominate trade.

“I’m a businessman who wants to make a profit,” he told the BBC’s Focus on Africa programme.

But the anti-xenophobia campaigners, who were all mostly women, rallied to the defence of the Somali and Pakistani shop owners in the Ramaphosa informal settlement, which witnessed some of the worst violence during anti-foreigner riots in 2008.

“They are the only shops from where we can buy things cheaply,” one of the marchers said, adding that local businessmen were “greedy and jealous”.

The BBC’s Nomsa Maseko in Johannesburg says that as the rival groups demonstrated, the Somalis and Pakistanis locked their shops and stayed indoors while armed police patrolled the area.

“The police are giving us protection,” a Somali businessman said.

“They told me to close my shop for own protection,” he said.

At least 62 people died in attacks on foreigners that swept the country three years ago.

http://www.timeslive.co.za/local/article1097448.ece/Xenophobia-meets-its-match

Xenophobia meets its match
Women stand up for hounded foreign shop owners

Jun 2, 2011 12:21 AM | By AMUKELANI CHAUKE

What started out as a drive to evict Somali and Pakistani businessmen from a township notorious for xenophobia has backfired spectacularly.

Women residents from the Ramaphosa informal settlement east of Johannesburg have stood up to spaza shop owners who tried to order their foreign competitors out of the area.

In the early hours of yesterday, the shopkeepers, members of the Greater Gauteng Business Forum, had driven around the settlement inviting residents to join them in taking action against “Somali and Kulas [Pakistani]” businessmen.

Forum members complain that the foreign nationals are in South Africa illegally, do not pay taxes and sell expired goods at low prices.

Forum members marched down the main streets of Ramaphosa, ordering the foreigners to shut shop and leave. This despite a High Court order handed down last week prohibiting the intimidation of foreign nationals, and an instruction from the Reiger Park Police Station commander to stop their “illegal march”.

They chased away one Somali man and forced another to close his store. But at one of the main Somali-owned shops, they met with resistance: a large group of women, some carrying babies, demanded that their bosses be left alone.

Cynthia Mtikiki, who works in one of the shops, said their livelihoods would be in danger should the foreigners be chased away.

She shouted: “They give us jobs, but you are denying us this opportunity. If you want them to leave, then you must give us jobs. What will our children eat? Where will I get money to send them to school?”

Vinoliah Maluma, who works for a Somali businessmen, said the forum’s actions were prompted by nothing but “greed and jealousy”.

“The same guys who want our bosses to leave treat us badly, and they pay us R800 a month.

“But the Somalis pay us R2000 and they don’t bring their own people, they employ locals.”

Lucia Khumalo, a pensioner, said the Somali and Pakistani businessmen treated customers better.

“Even when [I am] short of R1, they give me the bread and tell me I can pay next time,” she said.

“When it is the middle of the month, they give me groceries and tell me I can pay them when I get my pension. They don’t even take my number or address, that is how much they trust us,” she said.

The Somali business owners said that despite the court order and the heavy police presence in the neighbourhood, they lived in fear.

Mohamed Antar said: “If the government is allowing us to do business and the residents are supporting us then these people [the forum] are just jealous.”

Since March, the forum has chased foreign businessmen from Ramaphosa and other areas, including Katlehong, Thokoza and Soweto.

More than 80 of its members have been arrested on charges of intimidation and holding an illegal public gathering.

Forum spokesman Johannes Ramaropene earlier told the crowd they wanted the businessmen to leave the area without violence, failing which “blood will be spilt”.