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Solidarity Poster: Defend Democracy
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Monthly Archives: October 2009
Sowetan: Slums may not be cleared away for 2010 World Cup
http://www.sowetan.co.za/News/Article.aspx?id=1078738
Slums may not be cleared away for 2010 World Cup
15 October 2009
A Constitutional Court ruling against a section of the Slums Act will prevent mass evictions in a “clean-up” before the 2010 Soccer World, the Black Sash rights group says.
“I hope this judgment sends a very clear message to all the other provinces that might try to copy this law particularly in their haste to ’clean up’ before the World Cup,” said Evashnee Naidu, regional director for the Black Sash in KwaZulu-Natal.
The Constitutional Court has declared the KwaZulu-Natal Elimination and Prevention of Re-emergence of Slums Act (Slums Act) unconstitutional. The piece of legislation would have allowed mass evictions in KwaZulu-Natal.
The court challenge was brought by Abahlali baseMjondolo and its president Sibusiso Zikode in the Durban High Court in February 2008. They lost the case and took the matter to the highest court in the land, which ruled in their favour.
The Inkatha Freedom Party also welcomed the ruling.
“The IFP is on record having opposed this law from its inception for it sought to resurrect the old apartheid-tactics where the regime would use its powers to bulldoze the disenfranchised and the impotent out of the ’civilised white areas’.
“We did not expect a democratic government which claims commitment to human rights to promulgate such a law,” said eThekwini IFP spokesman Joshua Mazibuko.
He said the government needed to find sustainable strategies to grow the economy instead of “resorting to strong-arm tactics”.
Sapa
Black Sash on the Slums Act Ruling
BLACK SASH MEDIA STATEMENT – KWAZULU-NATAL SLUMS ACT RULED UNCONSTITUTIONAL
For Immediate Release: Thursday, 15th October 2009
The Black Sash applauds yesterday’s Constitutional Court ruling that Section 16 of the Slums Act – that would have allowed mass evictions in KwaZulu-Natal – was “inconsistent with the Constitution and invalid.”
The Black Sash has always argued that unless the State complies with its Constitutional obligation (section 26 (2) of the Constitution) to progressively realise the right to access housing, eviction orders shouldn’t be granted against people who would be rendered homeless as a result.
Regional Director for the Black Sash in KwaZulu-Natal, Evashnee Naidu, insists Section 16 of the Slums Act was an unreasonable and retrogressive measure that exceeded the powers of provincial government. “It was fundamentally irreconcilable with national legislation and threatened to infringe on the basic rights of the poorest and most vulnerable people in our province. I hope this judgement sends a very clear message to all the other provinces that might try to copy this law particularly in their haste to ‘clean up’ before the World Cup.”
The Black Sash believes this judgement is particularly important as it reminds us all of the Constitutional obligations that need to be upheld while we deal with the challenges posed by rapid urbanisation in South Africa. The Black Sash has noted with concern the recent UN report (Habitat’s 2008/9 State of the World’s Cities Report – see below for link) which concluded that South African cities are amongst the most unequal in the world – more unequal than those in Brazil, Colombia, Argentina, Chile, Ecuador, Guatemala and Mexico. This should ring alarm bells for all of us, as this lack of social cohesion in our most densely populated areas, has contributed to violence in the past and is likely to do so again if we don’t do something urgently to address the gross imbalance which persists between people and the communities in which they live.
ENDS.
Here is the link to Habitat’s 2008/9 State of the World’s Cities Report – http://www.unhabitat.org/content.asp?cid=5979&catid=5&typeid=6&subMenuId=0
For interviews, please contact:
Evashnee Naidu
Black Sash Regional Director: KwaZulu-Natal
Cell: 084-430 6133
Email: evashnee@blacksash.org.za
OR
Elroy Paulus
Black Sash Advocacy Programme Manager
Cell: 072-382 8175
Email: elroy@blacksash.org.za
For more information, please contact:
Sarah Nicklin
Black Sash Media Officer
Cell: 075-150 9525
Email: sarah@blacksash.org.za
Statement by the Conference of the Democratic Left
Press release
The Conference of the Democratic Left is shocked to hear of the attack on the offices of Abahlali baseMjondolo in Kennedy Road settlement in Durban, which resulted in at least three and probably more people being killed. We condemn this outrage in the strongest possible terms. The reports say that this was an attack instigated by the ANC, involving tribalists and criminals and that it was connived in by the police. This is additionally shocking and we condemn all these anti-democratic manifestations in the strongest possible terms. Abahlali baseMjondolo is a democratic and non-violent organisation. We call on all democrats, particularly in the SACP and COSATU to condemn these attacks as an assault on our non-racial democracy. The ANC government in KwaZulu-Natal and nationally needs immediately to set in motion an investigation of these events, particularly the conduct of the police who the following morning went to Kennedy Road to arrest not those responsible but residents of the informal settlement, some of them not even present when the attack took place. Those responsible in the police and the ANC need to be brought to book. If this is not done the ANC government will have blood on its hands. If the ANC will not launch an investigation then COSATU must do so. We note that this attack goes along with other manifestations of the criminalisation of peaceful protest under the Zuma government, and the attempt by the Zuma government to destroy trade unions in the armed forces. These are all signs of an increasingly repressive attitude towards peaceful mass protest coming from a government that claims itself as progressive and ‘pro-working-class”.
Mercury: Concourt triumph for shack dwellers
http://www.themercury.co.za/index.php?fArticleId=5203399
Eviction law rendered ineffective
Concourt triumph for shack dwellers
October 15, 2009 Edition 1
Wendy Jasson da Costa
SHACK dwellers around the country have reason to celebrate after the Constitutional Court yesterday ruled that section 16 of the KwaZulu-Natal Elimination and Prevention of Re-emergence of Slums Act was invalid.
According to the Constitutional Court, section 16 gave the government the power to determine when the owner or person in charge of land or a building, which was illegally occupied, must evict the squatters.
If the owner failed to comply, the relevant municipality would have to launch proceedings to evict the occupiers.
Yesterday’s ruling means that the government can no longer compel anyone to evict squatters, rendering the act toothless.
The challenge to the act was brought by Abahlali baseMjondolo (shack dwellers’ movement) and was seen as a victory for all those living in shacks, as the KZN act was widely regarded as a blueprint for similar legislation in other provinces.
Deputy Chief Justice Dikgang Moseneke noted that section 16 of the act “will make residents of informal settlements, who are invariably unlawful occupiers, more vulnerable to evictions should an MEC decide to issue a notice under section 16”.
He also found that the power given to the government to issue a notice was “over-broad and irrational”, because it applied to any unlawful occupier on any land or in any building, even if it was not a slum, and was not properly related to the purpose of the act, which was to eliminate or prevent the re-emergence of slums.
The Constitutional Court, however, dismissed Abahlali’s request for the entire act to be declared invalid.
Yesterday, Abahlali members, who number about 10 000 in KZN, said they would celebrate by slaughtering two cows.
Kate Tissington, a researcher at the Centre for Applied Legal Studies, said: “The Slums Act equates the elimination of slums with the eviction of people living in them and was intended to make that a much more frequent and easily facilitated occurrence.”
She said the core focus of the act was on facilitating the eradication of slums, not on providing adequate housing.
“While it ostensibly allows the government to fast-track housing delivery, the act has the pernicious effect of actively encouraging the eviction of unlawful occupiers living in informal settlements and buildings, without taking into account their circumstances or the provision of alternative accommodation,” said Tissington.
She said informal settlements and slum conditions were generally a symptom of a bigger problem in the country relating to access to work.