Armed Attack at the eKhanana Land Occupation in Cato Crest

Sunday, 14 April 2019
Abahlali baseMjondolo Press Statement

Armed Attack at the eKhanana Land Occupation in Cato Crest

The comrades on the eKhanana Land Occupation in Cato Crest have fought a hard and brave struggle for land. Today there was a successful launch of the branch, and a celebration of the victory that has resulted in land being won after a long struggle.

However last night, while comrades were putting up the tent, Cde Siyabonga Mngadi was shot by an unknown person who just arrived and started shooting wildly at our members. He is in hospital at the moment. Continue reading →

Umuntu ungumuntu ngabantu

1 April 2019

Abahlali baseMjondolo press statement

Umuntu ungumuntu ngabantu

Abahlali have noted the attacks on people born in other counties during these past few days with great sadness. The attacks started in the Springfield Park area in Durban last week and have resulted in numerous people being displaced from their homes and communities. Two people have died.

We believe that umuntu ungumuntu ngabantu. We believe that unyawo alunampumulo.  Continue reading →

The trial for our damages claim from the 2009 attack in Kennedy Road begins at the Durban High Court today

Monday, 11 March 2019

Abahlali baseMjondolo press statement

The trial for our damages claim from the 2009 attack in Kennedy Road begins at the Durban High Court today

From the moment when our movement was formed in 2005 the ANC claimed that we were ‘the third force’ and treated us as illegitimate. We faced constant repression. Our protests were illegally banned, and attacked when they went ahead in defiance of bans. Numerous people were assaulted and arrested by the police. The police even used force, including serious violence, to prevent us from participating in radio and television talk shows.  Continue reading →

Dishonest statements by MEC Ravi Pillay

Friday, 1 March 2019

Abahlali baseMjondolo press statement

Dishonest statements by MEC Ravi Pillay

On 13 February the Durban High Court granted our movement an interdict against the eThekwini municipality’s repeated violent and illegal evictions against the eKhenana land occupation in Cato Crest. The interdict protects 109 named families against illegal eviction.

The roots of this occupation are in the corruption of the local ANC. When housing was provided in the area the process was corrupt and some people were left homeless.

After the interdict was granted to our movement the local the local ANC councillor Mzi Ngiba encouraged, and in some cases forced, his followers to occupy land to try and undermine the court process. This caused division in the ANC in the city with Ngiba supporting the new occupation organised to disrupt the court process and the Mayor and other senior people in the party opposing it.  Continue reading →

eThekwini Municipality forced to recognise Abahlali baseKhenana 109

Wednesday, 27 February 2019

Abahlali baseMjondolo press statement

eThekwini Municipality forced to recognise Abahlali baseKhenana 109

 On 13 February the Durban High Court granted us an interdict against the eThekwini Municipality’s repeated violent and illegal attacks on residents of eKhenana land occupation in Cato Crest. The Court directed the municipality’s Land Invasion Unit and Abahlali leadership to hold a site inspection. The inspection was disturbed by the local ANC councillor Mzi Ngiba last week. Continue reading →

ANC undermine High Court interdict

Friday 22 February 2019
Abahlali baseMjondolo Press Statement

ANC undermine High Court interdict

When the eKhenana land occupation was organised last year the ANC ward councillor in ward 101, Mzimuni Ngiba, was very adamant that it will not be a success.

Ngiba even organised members of the local ANC Branch Executive Committee to unlawfully demolish people’s homes. They were heavily armed and fired shots in the air to scare the people away. Continue reading →

Hamba kahle Comrade Percy Ngonyama

New Frame

by Derek Buchler

Percy Ngonyama died on the afternoon of 19 February at the King Edward Hospital in Durban. Ngonyama, known to his close friends as Boysie, was born in Clermont on 31 January 1977. He matriculated from Westville Boys’ High School in 1994.

After school, he studied for a bachelor of arts degree at the then University of Natal, Durban, majoring in history and politics. His initial activist commitments were concerned with the prison system and, as an undergraduate student, he worked with the South African Prisoners’ Organisation for Human Rights. Continue reading →

The Durban High Court Grants Abahlali baseKhenana an Interdict against eThekwini’s Notorious Land Invasion Unit

Thursday, 14 February 2019
Abahlali baseMjondolo Press Statement

The Durban High Court Grants Abahlali baseKhenana an Interdict against eThekwini’s Notorious Land Invasion Unit

Yesterday afternoon the Durban High Court granted us an interdict against the eThekwini Municipality’s repeated, vicious and illegal attack on residents of eKhenana land occupation in Cato Crest.

The Abahlali baseMjondolo Khenana branch has suffered violent and illegal evictions from eThekwini Municipality since October last year. The Municipality has repeatedly demolished people’s homes, confiscating and burning their building materials and other belongings. Women and children have suffered the most in the hands of the city that claims to be a caring city. Continue reading →

Admission of corruption by city official not a surprise.

Monday, 11 February 2019
Abahlali baseMjondolo Press Statement

Admission of corruption by city official not a surprise.

It has been reported in the media that Sibusiso Vilane, deputy head for sanitation operations in the eThekwini Municipality, has admitted to approving payments totalling R36 million to four companies for providing sanitation to shack settlements even though they did not in fact provide the services for which they were paid.

When one lives in a shack settlement life is hard. There are often no basic services and when they are provided there is never enough for the entire community.  Continue reading →

The casspir haunts our present

New Frame

In the 1980s, the yellow casspir became an iconic – and global – symbol of oppression as the apartheid state mobilised increasingly militarised forms of force to try and crush the rebellion raging in townships and land occupations across the country.

The first casspirs were built in a factory in Germiston in 1980 and painted olive green. They were used, most infamously, by the notorious Koevoet “counterinsurgency” unit of the South West African Police in northern Namibia. Then minister of law and order Louis le Grange described Koevoet, which was modelled after the Rhodesian Selous Scouts special forces regiment, as “the crowbar, which prises terrorists out of the bushveld like nails from rotten wood”. It boasted of a “kill rate” of 25:1. Continue reading →