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19 October 2006

Triumph in the High Court and in the Streets of Durban

By late February 2005 the movement was strong enough to organise a march of 20 000 on the Provincial Minister of Housing. The repression leading up to the 2 March 2006 election had been intense. The ban on marching had remained in place since November 2005 and they had even been physically prevented by the police from taking up an invitation to appear on a TV talk show. But they had the critical intellectual and material mass to be able to withstand this repression. A march was scheduled for 20 February and banned. It was rescheduled for 27 February and then rebanned. But in the interim Abahlali had secured pro bono legal support and went to the high court where the ban was overturned and they marched into the city in triumph. Below are some press releases and pamphlets about these events. The triumphant march into the City was followed by a successful boycott of the local government elections two days later.

Abahlali banned from TV Talk Show:
http://www.nu.ac.za/ccs/default.asp?2,27,3,882

27 February March Pamphlet:
abahlali_pamphlet_27_feb.doc  81 KB

Triumphant March into the City
Report & pictures by Richard Ballard:
http://www.ukzn.ac.za/ccs/default.asp?3,43,10,2375

Reports & pictures by Shannon Walsh:
http://shannoninsouthafrica.blogspot.com/2006_02_01_shannoninsouthafrica_archive.html 
http://shannoninsouthafrica.blogspot.com/2006/03/abahlali-vs-state-taking-to-streets.html

Freedom of Expression Institute Statement
http://www.fxi.org.za/pages/Home%20Page/Breaking%20News/Shack%20dwellers%20rights.html

Abahlali Press Statement (with background documents)
http://southafrica.indymedia.org/print.php?id=9889