Click here for more photos from the illegally banned march and here to see a short film about this march: Nayager Falls, Abahlali Rises
Update: Click here to see Abahlali and the Police – a list of incidences of police abuse up to 28 January 2008.
Tuesday, April 10, 2007
Abahlali baseMjondolo Press Release
Monday, 21 August 2006
Press Release 4 from the Motala Heights Development Committee (affiliated to Abahlali baseMjondolo)
CORRUPTION AND ARMED INTIMIDATION AS MOTALA HEIGHTS EVICTIONS CRISIS DEEPENS
On Saturday 17 June 2006 Ward Councillor Derek Dimba arrived at the Motala Heights settlement in Pinetown with municipal officials and 5 car loads of municipal security guards to mark out shacks that would then be destroyed by the militarised police Land Invasions Unit. They had probably chosen the Youth Day weekend thinking that many people would be away at their rural homes. They were wrong. The community was able to mobilise quickly and see off this first threat.
Wednesday, November 22, 2006
MORE FAMILIES LEFT HOMELESS BY ETHEKWINI MUNICIPALITY
More than 35 families from the Juba Place settlement in Reservoir Hills are preparing to go to court after the eThekwini Municipality smashed up their homes, in the rain, over the weekend. Shack owners were coerced at short notice into accepting relocation to what people call ‘formal jondolos’ in Nazareth. These houses have no electricity and have toilets which don’t work. Most people did not want to be moved away from work and schools and feel unwelcome and nervous in Nazareth where local people had expected the houses. The Municipality moved people out of Juba Place at gun point and now has to protect them from local people in Nazareth at gun point. Meanwhile shack renters in Juba Place were simply left homeless. So much for the constitution….
Tuesday, December 13, 2005
(2 page fax)
LAUNCH OF THE CAMPAIGN FOR THE HUMAN DIGNITY OF SHACK DWELLERS
Press Conference, Kennedy Road Shack Settlement, Wednesday, 6:00 p.m., 14 December 2005
Abahlali baseMjondolo, the Durban shack dwellers’ movement, will host a press conference to annouce a Campaign for the Human Dignity of Shack Dwellers. The announcement will include details of a campaign of non-violent direct action to begin immediately as well as details of the movements’ position on the local government elections.
14 settlements are formally affiliated to Abahlalibase Mjondolo and the movement has organised a number of mass marches during this year which have made regular national and international news. The first marches were on local councillors Yacoob Baig and Jayraj Bachu. A march was then organised on Mayor Obed Mlaba. The Municipality illegally banned this march. The Freedom of Expression Institute issued a statement condemning the ban as “a flagrant violation of the Constitution and the Regulation of Gatherings Act”. The statement went on to explain that the reasons given by the Municipality for banning the march were “absurd” and without any legal basis.
Tuesday, 3 October 2006
eMAUS CRACKS
Press Release from the eMaus Development Committee
(Newly Affiliated to Abahlali baseMjondolo)
eMaus is in Ward 15 in Pinetown between the N2 and the factories behind the Marianhill Monastery. We were moved here, to New eMaus from Old eMaus 16 years ago. Before that we had been living in self built houses on Monastery land for generations. Although we had to fetch water from the river we were happy there. The houses that we had built didn’t leak. The first attempt to move us was in 1979 when a white man came in a landrover and said that we must go to KwaNdengezi. Some went but most of us said no. Then they tried to move us to KwaNdebeka. We fought against that too. We fought to get a place here. Then we were moved to New eMaus, close to Old eMaus, in 1991. The land where we had been living was sold to industrialists and used for factories. The new land was not prepared for a housing development. The church built 97 houses. We had to pay for these houses. We had to pay R1800 for the two room fibreglass houses and R3800 for the 4 room brick houses. The houses were just dumped on the side of the hill. There was no drainage put in and from the beginning the water has just poured into the houses. Because of this, everything rots in the houses, even when we put the furniture up on planks on bricks. Most of us have very bad chest problems. The houses were very badly built. It was a quick job, a cheap job and a shit job. They wanted to get us out of the area where we had been living peacefully as quickly as possible so that they could make their money. On 17 February 1998 we were given the title deeds for the houses. In the same year the church handed the area over to the Municipality.