10 APRIL 2020
SRWP STATEMENT:
SOLIDARITY WITH ABAHLALI BASEMJONDOLO: SRWP CONDEMNS THE ARREST OF 29 WOMEN AND DEMANDS THE IMMEDIATE SUSPENSION OF ALL EVICTIONS BY THE ETHEKWINI MUNICIPALITY
On 9 April 2020, President Cyril Ramaphosa addressed the nation announcing an extension of the National Lockdown by an extra two weeks. The lockdown requires all South Africans to stay at home. A few hours before this announcement was made twenty-nine women were arrested in the Azania occupation in Cato Manor for defending their right to have a home for themselves, and their families.
The twenty-nine women were told that they had been arrested for ‘contravening the lockdown’. Their ‘crime’ was sleeping on open ground after their homes were destroyed by a notoriously violent state hired private company, Calvin and Family Security. This land was first occupied in February 2019, and the occupiers have been subject to more than thirty armed evictions since then. On each occasion they have rebuilt their homes. However, after the most recent eviction they were prevented, at gunpoint, from rebuilding by Calvin and Family Security. As a result, they decided to continue their resistance by remaining on the land and sleeping out in the open. Continue reading