Monthly Archives: October 2009

Still No Bail for the Kennedy Road 13 as the Attack on our Movement Continues

Update: The Kennedy Road 13 have now appeared in court on 6 occasions since they were first arrested to request bail. On each occasion there has been a highly intimidatory and armed presence from the ANC, often making open threats of various sorts including death threats. On each occasion the prosecution have not been able to bring any evidence before the court indicating that the accused are guilty of the crimes with which they have been charged. On each occasion a ruling has been postponed while the police have been given more time to produce this evidence. On each occasion they have failed to do so. The next bail hearing will be on 18 November.

Abahlali baseMjondolo Press Statement
28 October 2009

Still No Bail for the Kennedy Road 13 as the Attack on our Movement Continues

The Kennedy Road 13 returned to the Durban Magistrate’s Court on Monday 26 October to hear the verdict on their application for bail. The Kennedy 13 were not given bail and remain in Westville Prison. The magistrate will take a final decision on their application for bail on Monday next week.

Once again the ANC mob had been bussed in and there was a further escalation of threats against us. New people were targeted and threatened with death. Even at the Durban Magistrate’s Court, in full public view, we are not safe and our basic democratic rights to speak and associate freely are being denied.

The threats of death and harm from the mouths and at the hands of self-proclaimed ANC members and officials, which started at the Kennedy Road settlement, has followed us into the Court. The violence and intimidation, which started at Kennedy Road, is not over. It is far from over. It continues. Our movement is still under attack, and our members – in Kennedy Road, and now also in other settlements, continue to be scattered by threats of violence. Even as we declare to ourselves and the world that we will not be silenced by the ANC we continue to live in fear that free speech, free movement and free association could get us killed.

The Secretary of our Youth League has now been forced into hiding after receiving public death threats. Armed young thugs followed her from the Court, to the street, to the taxis, to her home (which is not in the Kennedy Road settlement). This is in spite of the fact that the world is watching the ongoing attack on our movement. In spite of the world watching – in spite of protests at South African embassies, on university campuses, in spite of statements by respected church leaders, the former United Nations Special Rapporteur on Housing, and various human rights organisations, many of us cannot return to our homes, many of us remain in hiding and we must still must hold our meetings in secret. In spite of the the world watching, we cannot go to the court without facing young men threatening us with words or weapons. They bring knobkerries and bushknives to court, and openly boast that they are armed and will kill.

In spite of all this, we hear the ANC at top levels talking about militarizing the police, the same police who have already so often used their weapons against us. In spite of all of this, we hear the ANC at top levels talking about silencing “enemies of the ANC.” We know exactly what they mean as their self-proclaimed members have already tried to silence us. In spite of all this, the ANC at top levels have not condemned the violence and intimidation against our movement. There has not been one statement from the ANC about the fact that we were attacked that night, not one statement about the fact that our leaders have had their homes destroyed and been chased from their community, not one statement about the fact that freely elected community structures have been declared illegitimate because they are not ANC structures, not one statement about the fact that our movement has been banned from Kennedy Road, not one statement about the fact that our leaders, including those outside of Kennedy Road, continue to be targeted. We have not seen one statement from the ANC condemning Willies Mchunu for claiming to have ‘liberated’ Kennedy Road.

We are again calling on the honest and democratic members of the ANC not to be silenced, but to oppose those who corrupt their movement with lies, intimidation and oppression. Honest and democratic members of the ANC are the defenders of their movement, not its enemies. If the honest and democratic members of the ANC do not prevail at this time the organisation will become an enemy of our democracy. We are asking the honest and democratic members of the ANC to support our right to organise independently. We are asking them to defend democracy. We are asking them to defend us.

Yesterday at Court, the ANC again sent two hired buses with people to intimidate us. Most of the self-proclaimed ANC members on the buses were not from Kennedy Road.

Inside the Court yesterday, there was pushing, shouting and shoving – once again, Abahlali members were physically prevented from entering the courtroom.

Inside the Court yesterday, when the judge came in, those from the ANC buses held up signs on big flowchart paper with different colour slogans such as “Asikufuni Zikode Nababulali” (We don’t want [Abahlali President S’bu] Zikode and the killers).

Outside the Court, those from the ANC buses were toyi-toying outside a gate. When our members stood together quietly, far from the gate, to be briefed about the result of the bail hearing, a group from the ANC buses, mostly young men, moved toward us, shouting and threatening us. They came very close. We just stood quietly.

A Reverend from the Diakonia Council of Churches tried to calmly step between us and the young men. He asked them to please be calm and stand back. Some of the young men began shouting at him in English and isiZulu: “You are just an umlungu!”, “You are supporting the killers!” and “We can kill you!”

A woman, who identified herself to the Reverend as a local councilor, was leading the young men. She was dressed in ANC garb head-to-toe. She shouted at the Reverend, and told him it was not a matter of the ANC, but a matter of the community. But she is not Yacoob Baig, the local ANC councilor of Ward 25, where the community of Kennedy Road is located.

If this is ‘just a matter for the community’ what is an ANC councilor from another ward doing with bussed-in ANC members from outside of Kennedy Road and issuing death threats to respected church leaders at Court? What are Jackson Gumede, Yacoob Baig and other ANC officials doing at Court, watching, as men – visibly armed and wearing ANC t-shirts – openly threaten us, calling for the death of the Secretary of our Youth Leauge, our Women’s League Chairperson, and our other leaders? Why are AbM leaders from outside of Kennedy Road being threatened? Why is S’bu Zikode being targeted when he was not even in Durban on the night of the attack on our movement? It is completely obvious that the ANC is waging a political attack on our movement.

Mr. Mchunu we need an urgent and genuinely independent and credible investigation into this attack. Our demand is for openness and fairness. How can you deny this demand? If you continue to deny this demand how can you expect people to not conclude that you have something to hide? It is obvious that the ANC cannot investigate themselves. There has to be a genuinely independent and credible investigation into this attack. Mr. Mchunu, if you want to be the Minister for the Safety and Security of all people and not the Minister in charge of attacking the people who have embarrassed the ANC then we need you to start calling for an independent and credible investigation into this attack as soon as possible.

For further information please contact:

Reverend Mavuso: 072 279 2634
Shamita Naidoo: 074 315 7962
Mama Nxumalo: 076 333 9386

Cape Times: Delft squatters shifted to Blikkiesdorp

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http://www.capetimes.co.za/index.php?fArticleId=5218581

‘on symphony way we were a strong, respectful community… i’m moving with a heavy heart’
Delft squatters shifted to Blikkiesdorp

October 27, 2009 Edition 1

Quinton Mtyala

HAVING been defiant for months, 23 of 127 families have relented and yesterday moved from pavement shelters in Symphony Way, Delft, to a notorious temporary resettlement area dubbed Blikkiesdorp.

Most expressed their fear at what awaited them at the row upon row of single-roomed corrugated iron shacks without water or electricity.

The move follows a Western Cape High Court ruling, which confirmed an earlier decision two weeks ago that sealed the fate of 127 families who had been squatting on a section of Symphony Way in Delft for almost two years after being evicted from N2 Gateway homes which they had occupied illegally.

Those still living on the road have been given until Thursday to vacate the area after mediation failed between the city and representatives of the shack dwellers.

Trucks hired by the City of Cape Town spent most of yesterday transporting families and their belonging the short distance to Blikkiesdorp.

Waiting for the contents of her shack to be packed on to one of the trucks, Matilda Groepe reflected on the community spirit that the shack dwellers had forged during their time living on the pavements. “Here on Symphony Way we were a strong and respectful community, there were hardly ever incidents of crime or violence here because people were organised and we had a singular purpose.

“I’ll be moving away here and into Blikkiesdorp with a heavy heart,” said Groepe.

Father of two Joseph Witbooi said he no longer had the will to fight after the community lost two court cases.

“I would’ve loved to move my family to another area but there weren’t any other alternatives but Blikkiesdorp and that’s not an ideal place.”

Mother of one Chantal Gertse, seated in her new home with bubble-wrap insulation, said the ideal situation for her would have been if the squatters had been moved into houses.

“Now I’m living here with my daughter and her father and to say that I’m fearful for her safety would be an understatement. I’m scared because children are raped here and also due to the substance abuse in Blikkiesdorp,” said Gertse.

City of Cape Town spokeswoman Kylie Hatton said the first day of moving had gone well due to a decision to stagger the process over four days.

“Over the course of the week the rest of the families will move.

“They’re moving in groups which minimises any possible disruptions.”

In a compromise with the community’s leaders during last week’s talks over their relocation, it had been agreed that the community would not be split up.

“We’re also maintaining the community structure. A new section for the people from Symphony Way has been set aside and people can also choose who they want to live next to since these relationships have been built up,” Hatton said.

quinton.mtyala@inl.co.za

RU Seminar: Democracy at the Brink of Catastrophe

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The Faculty of Humanities together with the Women’s Academic Solidarity Association at Rhodes University in Grahamstown invite you to attend the following lunch time seminar:

Topic: Democracy at the Brink of Catastrophe

Speakers: Shamita Naidoo & S’bu Zikode

Abahlali baseMjondolo (AbM) is a shack-dwellers’ movement that grew out of a road blockade in the Kennedy Road settlement in Durban in early 2005. It now has more than 10 000 paid up members in 54 settlements across KwaZulu-Natal and, also, in Cape Town. The movement campaigns for land and housing in the cities and to democratise society from below. It has actively organised against xenophobia and has recently succeeded in having the KwaZulu-Natal Slums Act declared unconstitutional in the Constitutional Court.

In the last month more than 30 of the movement’s elected leaders have had their homes destroyed, 21 of its members have been arrested and many of its leaders are living in hiding. Public death threats continue to be issued against the movement’s leaders. The movement insists that the attacks are backed by senior people in the ANC in KwaZulu-Natal. The ANC has denied this.

Shamita Naidoo and S’bu Zikode will speak on recent events and their significance for democracy in South Africa.

For more information
www.abahlali.org

Venue: Faculty of Humanities
Date: Friday 30th October 2009
Time: 1 – 2pm

ALL WELCOME!

VOA: South African Poor Protest Conditions

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http://www.voanews.com/english/2009-10-27-voa63.cfm

South African Poor Protest Conditions
By Delia Robertson
Johannesburg
27 October 2009

For at least three years, as the country’s winter months begin to bite, poor South Africans have taken to the streets in increasingly violent protest, frustrated at what they see as government failures to address their needs. This year, those protests have continued well into warm weather.

They are usually called service-delivery protests and the unstated implication that people are protesting because the South African government has failed to deliver services such as electricity, water, sanitation, health services, homes and even land.

However, the issues underlying specific protests are often much more complex and may include corruption – perceived or real – in a local municipality, competition for land or resources, skills development, and even disputes between different groups in a particular community.

Regardless of the over-arching reason offered for a particular protest, a common thread in all protests also seems to be poor communication. Steven Friedman director of the Center for the Study of Democracy, is one of several experts who argue that many protests are less about delivery of services than about the failure of government at all levels to know exactly what it is that people want. “But if you for example look at the history of attempts in south Africa since 1994 to address poverty and deprivation, the biggest problem in the last fifteen years has been the fact that government just doesn’t know what people want and what people need,” he said.

Friedman, whose center is an initiative of Rhodes University and the University of Johannesburg, says the failure in communications goes even further, he says government departments are not informing communities about plans for those communities.

“In many cases, let me say, in the current protests people are not even complaining about not having a say, although I am sure they would like one, they are complaining about not being given basic information. It is pretty common for people to say, well they never tell us what they are doing. Well it is not above government’s capacity to tell people what they are doing,” he said.

Sbu Zikode is the president of Abahlali base Mjondolo, an organization of shack dwellers based primarily in KwaZulu-Natal. He also tells VOA that many of the protests result from a failure to communicate by government departments – whether to inform or to hear what communities say. He says this comes down to a failure to recognize the humanity of the poor. “So what we have seen, is that the humanity of the shack dwellers in particular has been seen, communities have only been seen as the passive receivers of services; people who do not count, people who do not matter in our society,” he said.

Both Friedman and Zikode note that the current national government led by President Jacob Zuma has appeared to shift its approach and is far more open to dialogue than in the past. A minister spent a night in an informal settlement, minister and senior politicians from the ruling African National Congress, ANC, have been dispatched to hot spots.

Even the president made an unannounced visit to Siyathemba township in Balfour in Mpumulanga province. He told protestors his government will be changing the way it responds to problems in poor communities.

“And I thought it was important for me to come physically on my own, to hear, to see, to check, to hear what the people are saying, so that we can see how we address those issues. And [it] is an ongoing thing, there is no place that is going to be hidden that I am not going to go to, to check so that places like Balfour, which seem to be very remote, that is the places I am going to be going to unannounced, all the time, to get to know what are the problems, why can’t we deliver certain things,” he said.

Mr Zuma’s promise has had at least one consequence he may not have anticipated. In a particularly violent protest earlier this month in Sakhile, a township near Standerton in Gauteng province, protesters were even more angered when their demand to speak directly to the president was turned down, and they warned there would be no order in the township until that happened.

The protests and the depth of the problems faced by poor South Africans often leads to a perception that little or no progress has been made since 1994 to improve their lives. Friedman and Zikode hasten to point out this is not the case.

The government has built over 2.6 million houses and provided subsidies for another three million. Millions more now have clean water on tap in their homes, access to a nearby health clinic, and schools for their children.

Protests usually begin as the cold winter months draw in, causing greater hardship in poor households with no heat and hot water. But this year the protests have continued well into the warm weather. Some observers say this is a consequence of the recession caused by the global financial crises. Others say over-ambitious promises made by Mr. Zuma’s ANC in the run-up to a general election in April, resulted in unrealistic expectations among the poor.

In his mid-year budget presented Tuesday to parliament, new finance minister Pravin Gordhan reported that South Africa has lost 500,000 jobs in the past 18 months, and that revenue collection for the year is expected to be down by $9.3 billion.

Gordhan said the situation would be worse if the country had not entered the period of global recession on a strong foundation with a budget surplus, but warned that South Africans will have to rise to extra-ordinary heights to meet the needs of their fellow citizens, especially the poor.

“We must prepare to do extraordinary things – the ordinary will not deliver the jobs that are sought by young school-leavers, shelter for those who are homeless, training for those who need skills, new opportunities for businesses in difficulty, or an environmentally responsible development path,” he said.

And if Zikode and Friedman have their way, that effort will also have to include an extraordinary improvement in communications between government officials and the people of South Africa.

CSD Seminar: Democracy under Threat? What Attacks on Grassroots Activists Mean for our Politics

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Centre for the Study of Democracy (CSD) at the University of Johannesburg invites you to a seminar entitled:

Democracy under Threat?: What Attacks on Grassroots Activists Mean for our Politics

DEMOCRACY requires that the right to express ourselves in association with others be enjoyed by all, not only those who are well connected and visible. Constant allegations over the past few years that grassroots social movements who are critical of the government have been subject to police action denying them those rights are, therefore, a severe threat to the credibility of South African democracy.

Until now, the evidence has suggested that attacks on the rights of grassroots citizens to free political activity have been the work of local politicians seeking to protect their turf, not of regional or national politicians. Recent violent attacks on leaders and members of the shack-dwellers’ movement Abahlali baseMjondolo in Durban’s Kennedy Road settlement have, however, been publicly endorsed by ministers in the KwaZulu-Natal provincial government, raising the possibility that senior politicians are now endorsing attempts to suppress grassroots government critics. If these fears are accurate, democracy is under grave threat: if some are denied the right to express themselves, no-one can be sure that their rights and freedoms will be preserved.

The events at Kennedy Road and the repeated allegations that grassroots political activity is being suppressed therefore require careful scrutiny and analysis. We need to understand their implications for democracy and the steps which are needed to ensure that all are entitled to speak and to associate. The Centre for the Study of Democracy at Rhodes University and the University of Johannesburg will, therefore, host a seminar at which grassroots activists, scholars and human rights campaigners will discuss threats to free political activity and their implications.

Venue: Training Centre, 6th Floor, South African Human Rights Commission (SAHRC)

Time: 9am to 3pm

Date: Wednesday, 4 November 2009

RSVP: Johnny Selemani – jaselemani@gmail.com / 073 553 0726

Kate Tissington – kate.tissington@wits.ac.za / 072 220 9125 (by Friday 30 October 2009)

Speakers:

Steven Friedman, Centre for the Study of Democracy (CSD)

Pregs Govender, South African Human Rights Commission (SAHRC)

S’bu Zikode, President, Abahlali basMjondolo

Mnikelo Ndabankulu, Spokesperson, AbM

Zodwa Nsibande, General Secretary of the Youth League, AbM

Michael Neocosmos, Monash University

Richard Pithouse, Politics Department, Rhodes University

Andile Mngxitama, Foundation for Human Rights (FHR)

Marcelle Dawson, Centre for Sociological Research, University of Johannesburg (to be confirmed)

Noor Nieftagodien, History Department, University of the Witwatersrand