Illegal Eviction in the Gabon Settlement, Daveyton, East Rand, Ekurhuleni

Monday, 18 September 2017
Abahlali baseGabon Statement

Illegal Eviction in the Gabon Settlement, Daveyton, East Rand, Ekurhuleni

On 4 October last year a large number of people were evicted by the Red Ants from a section of the Gabon settlement, in Daveyton. For three months they stayed with friends and families in the area, or moved to rural areas. In January they started occupying vacant land adjacent to the settlement. There were 211 people that participated in this new occupation.   Continue reading →

GroundUp: Hundreds of shacks demolished in Khayelitsha

Land occupiers say they will rebuild until City finds solution

Photo of a shack on open land
The City of Cape Town Anti-land Invasion Unit demolished hundreds of shacks in Khayelitsha. Photo: Ashraf Hendricks
By and

 

Land occupiers in Monwabisi Park, Khayelitsha, were left homeless after the Anti-land Invasion Unit (ALIU) demolished shacks on the weekend. Some of the occupiers said they had been living on the land for about three months prior to the demolition.   Continue reading →

Repression and State Criminality in uMlazi and Cato Manor

Tuesday 05 September 2017

Abahlali baseMjondolo Movement SA Press Statement

Repression and State Criminality in uMlazi and Cato Manor

Yesterday two members of Abahlali were attacked by unknown people in our Silver City branch in uMlazi. The two men, who are serving in the local Abahlali structure were abducted by a group of men and forced into a car with no registration number. They were then taken to the house of the local ward councillor.  They were beaten and tortured for two hours at the home of the ward councillor by the same men that had abducted them. After this they were taken to the police station by these men.  Continue reading →

Paulo Freire in South Africa

This article, by Richard Pithouse, was first published in the Mail & Guardian.

In 1968, revolt, much of it driven by students and young people, rushed from city to city against the global backdrop of the war in Vietnam, the occupation of Czechoslovakia by the Soviet military and the assassination in the United States of Martin Luther King Jr.

In Berlin, Warsaw, Detroit, Mexico City, Chicago, Prague, Kingston, Rio and many other cities, new actors asked new questions of the established order. In May that year, strikes, factory and university occupations and mass street protests in Paris rapidly escalated into an insurrection that left a mark that is still intensely felt in philosophy. Continue reading →

Tomorrow We Return to the Durban High Court as State Criminality Continues to Escalate

Thursday, 31 August 2017
Abahlali baseMjondolo Press Statement

Tomorrow We Return to the Durban High Court as State Criminality Continues to Escalate

On 27 July 2017 the eThekwini Municipality was interdicted against demolishing, burning, removing or otherwise destroying and disposing of housing structures or threatening to do so in seven land occupations where residents are affiliated to Abahlali baseMjondolo. Those whose homes had been destroyed were given the right to rebuild them.   Continue reading →

GroundUp: “We should be able to stay in cities where we work”

“We should be able to stay in cities where we work”

Activists from across the country meet to take housing struggle forward

Photo of meeting
Housing activists gathered at Khayelitsha’s Isivivana Centre on Tuesday night. Photo: Thembela Ntongana
By ,  GroundUp

 

“There are people who are being killed in Durban. There are people who are being ill-treated and their only crime is being poor, and that they want to stay in places that are closer to town,” said Thapelo Mohape from Abahlali baseMjondolo based in KwaZulu Natal.  Continue reading →

GroundUp: City of Cape Town ordered to buy land for Marikana residents

Court ruling ensures that 60,000 people will not be evicted from their homes

Photo of woman with a bucket
The Western Cape High Court ruling ensures that some 60,000 residents of the Marikana informal settlement in Cape Town will not be evicted. Photo: Masixole Feni
By

 

The City of Cape Town has been ordered to negotiate with the owners to purchase the land on which the Marikana informal settlement is located. Judge Chantal Fortuin handed down this landmark judgment in the Western Cape High Court on Wednesday, ensuring that about 60,000 people will not be evicted from their homes in Philippi East.   Continue reading →

Judgment on the Legality of a 2013 Shooting by the Anti-Land Invasions Unit to be Handed Down Tomorrow

29 August 2017
Abahlali baseMjondolo Press Statement

Judgment on the Legality of a 2013 Shooting by the Anti-Land Invasions Unit to be Handed Down Tomorrow

On Sunday 22 September 2013 Nkosinathi Mngomezulu was shot, multiple times, with live ammunition during an illegal and violent eviction carried out against the Marikana Land Occupation in Cato Crest by the Anti-Land Invasions Unit, acting for the eThekwini Municipality. The eviction was carried out despite court interdicts prohibiting evictions. After he was shot Mngomezulu spent months in the ICU division at King Edward hospital. He was chained to the bed and always accompanied by a police officer during visiting hours.  Continue reading →

Evictions at gun point continue in Cato Manor: Province fails in court

25 August 2017
Abahlali baseMjondolo Press Statement

Evictions at gun point continue in Cato Manor: Province fails in court

Residents in a new land occupation in Cato Manor have come under sustained and violent attack from the state and members of the ANC. On Tuesday Smiso Maphumulo was shot in the eye. Yesterday Noluthando Masikiza was shot in the eye.

Their ‘crime’ is that they have been impoverished by a system of oppression and have occupied land in order to have a place to live. The government of this country has no regard for the poor. It treats our legitimate and urgent aspirations for justice as criminal and rules us with violence.   Continue reading →

Cato Manor: Violent Evictions in Total Disregard for the Law

Saturday 19 August 2017
Abahlali baseMjondolo Press Statement

Cato Manor: Violent Evictions in Total Disregard for the Law

On 27 July 2017 the eThekwini Municipality was interdicted against demolishing, burning, removing or otherwise destroying and disposing of housing structures or threatening to do so in seven communities affiliated to Abahlali baseMjondolo, including Cato Manor. Those whose homes had been destroyed were given the right to rebuild them.

However the eThekwini municipality has continued with its violent and unlawful eviction in Cato Manor. Yesterday at about 10:30 am municipal security guards arrived at the Cato Manor settlement and forcefully grabbed Mlungisi Mokwena, an 18 year old activist. Mokwena was resting in his shack when the guards forcefully pulled him out of his shack and simple shot him on his leg without any provocation or argument. Near him was Sthembele Qwabe who was also severely assaulted by these security guards. They went on to destroy the homes of around 75 families.   Continue reading →