Shack Dwellers Movement Remains Defiant in Face of Police Assault

19 May 2018

Several community members from the Goodhope informal settlement stand close to a burning pile of debris in Knights Road during a service delivery protest. Photo Credit: Germiston City News

The occupation of unused land by members of the Abahlali baseMjondolo (shack dwellers movement) to provide housing for residents of the dilapidated Good Hope Settlement in Germiston, South Africa, met with police violence on multiple occasions this week. The police not only pulled down the shacks the movement had constructed but also used tear gas and rubber bullets to attack the residents in an attempt to ensure they did not return to occupy the land. Continue reading →

Branch meeting, eKukhayeni, 19 May 2018

Metro police fire rubber bullets at residents in Ekurhuleni’s Good Hope settlement

Nation Nyoka & Dennis Webster, The Daily Maverick

Residents of the Good Hope settlement in Germiston have occupied vacant land on the border of Germiston and Boksburg, partly in response to lack of space at the existing settlement. On Thursday morning, Ekurhuleni Metro Police dispersed them with rubber bullets.

New Frame witnessed a brutal attack by Ekurhuleni Metro Police Department (EMPD) officers on residents of the Good Hope shack settlement in Germiston, Ekurhuleni, in the early hours of Thursday morning.

At least one resident, Siyambusa Mpolase, was arrested.

The police action was in response to the occupation of a piece of nearby land which began on Friday 11 May. Continue reading →

Residents of Goodhope informal settlement tired of empty promises and false hope

Leigh Hodgson and Stephan Lehman, Germiston City News

“Every day is a struggle here in the Goodhope informal settlement we have no proper toilets and no electricity in our homes.”

May 17, 2018

Several community members from the Goodhope informal settlement stand close to a burning pile of debris in Knights Road during a service delivery protest.

Residents of Goodhope informal settlement, tired of years of empty promises from the metro, took to the streets on Wednesday night, continuing into Thursday morning, to demand that things change and the metro delivers on its promises. Continue reading →

We Build Your Homes, But Have No Homes Ourselves: Diary of a South African Land Occupation.

Vijay Prashad, NewsClick

Talitha and Johanna work as maids. They earn R150 per day, which is the price of a gallon of milk, a pound of cheese, a loaf of bread and four oranges (1 Rand is about 5 Rupees). They could just about eat for a day, but that’s about it. They smile at me when I ask them how they manage to get by. Johanna says, ‘barely’.

They live in Good Hope Settlement, a congested piece of land in Germiston – just outside Johannesburg (South Africa). Their homes are temporary, called ‘shacks’ in this part of the world. These shelters abut each other. They have no protection from the rain and offer no privacy. The lack of sanitation facilities means that sewage runs through their narrow lanes. It also means that illness is a constant worry. Continue reading →

Unprovoked police attack on the Good Hope Settlement in Germiston

1:32 a.m., Thursday, 17 May 2018

Abahlali baseMjondolo Emergency Press Statement

Unprovoked police attack on the Good Hope Settlement in Germiston

Yesterday afternoon all the shacks on the Zikode Extension Land Occupation were demolished again. Tonight a large number of police officers, from various units, including a SWAT team, launched an unprovoked, violent and brutal attack on the nearby Good Hope Settlement in an attempt to prevent people from moving back to the occupied land. Rubber bullets were fired and tear gas was used. Individuals were targeted and threatened. There has been at least one confirmed arrest. Continue reading →

Overcrowding leads to Ekurhuleni land occupation

Nation Nyoka, GroundUp

16 May 2018

A few days before a cold front swept over Gauteng, a group of shack dwellers braved a cold night in a bid to secure a piece of vacant land.

In the early hours of Saturday morning, 12 May, residents from Good Hope’s Extension 5 erected makeshift structures on a piece of land adjacent to a shack settlement called Ramaphosa in Germiston, Ekurhuleni. The community had been organising the land occupation for six months, claiming that the land had been vacant for 40 years. Continue reading →

Abahlali to present our views on the 2018 budget Dialogue to the Standing Committee on Appropriation

Wednesday, 16 May 2018
Abahlali baseMjondolo Press Statement

Abahlali to present our views on the 2018 budget Dialogue to the Standing Committee on Appropriation

Abahlali will in this morning present our views on the budget as it relates to the landless and the homeless in this country. This is after an invitation by the Parliament of the Republic of South Africa’s Standing Committee on Appropriation. This will be the first time that Abahlali are ascending to the highest forum in electoral politics to express our views on the budget. None of the cities in which we have members have ever invited us to contribute to their deliberations. Continue reading →

Land occupation defies a broken system

Xolisa Phillip, Business Day

When homes are built in the dark and demolished in daylight

Dennis Webster, The Daily Maverick

Recently burnt veld crunches under foot. Beneath the ash, green shoots are beginning to reappear. But the grass is not the only new growth.

It is early afternoon on Friday 11 May 2018. Around 30 members of Abahlali baseMjondolo’s Good Hope branch in Germiston move swiftly across a large and vacant piece of land owned by the Witwatersrand Gold Mining Trust. The land sits between Germiston and Boksburg. They are mapping out the grid of a new shack settlement. Some carry hammers, axes and tape measures. Continue reading →