Abahlali baseMjondolo Press Statement on Heritage Day

Tuesday, September 23, 2014

Abahlali baseMjondolo Press Statement

 

Abahlali baseMjondolo Press Statement on Heritage Day

Our movement will gather together on this day of 24 September 2014 to celebrate our cultural diversity and histories of struggle. As always we embrace each other’s well-being as creatures who are to enjoy life. We continue to insist that Durban must be a home, safe and free, for everyone that lives in this city whether we are rich or impoverished, women or men and without regard for where we were born and what language we speak.

We will also be using this opportunity to give a report back to our general membership on the progress of our struggle for land, housing and dignity. We will be reporting on all the challenges we have faced this year. Will be reporting on all the meetings we have had with various government officials and other institutions and organizations, the status of the struggle in our branches and of the movement as a whole. And yes, this will be an opportunity to hold the University of Abahlali in Action on political work. Continue reading →

Abahlali baseMjondolo Consultative Meeting with the Ingonyama Trust

Friday, 19 September 2014

Abahlali baseMjondolo Press Statement

 

Abahlali baseMjondolo Consultative Meeting with the Ingonyama Trust

In KwaNdengezi and in eTafuleni people living in traditional homes with land for livestock and gardens are being forced out of their homes and are losing their land as RDP houses are built on their lands. For these people development means being forced out of a big house that they have built themselves into a tiny government house and it means that they are losing their land and the money and the food that they get from their land. New people are being brought into the RDP houses by the councillors and their ward committees. As usual the houses are given to their family members and to members of the ruling party. As usual there is no consultation with the community. The municipality only consults with the councillors and their ward committees. This land has always fallen under the amaKhosi but the Municipality is now claiming that it falls under them. Continue reading →

The eThekwini Municipality Chooses Intimidation Over Negotiation

Wednesday, September 17, 2014

Abahlali baseMjondolo Press Statement

 

The eThekwini Municipality Chooses Intimidation Over Negotiation

Yesterday Abahlali attended the meeting scheduled with the eThekwini Municipality’s ‘political principles’ as per the invitation of the MEC for Human Settlements in the province of KwaZulu-Natal, Mr Ravi Pillay. However there was no possibility for negotiation. Intimidation was the order of the meeting.

Ravi Pillay chaired the meeting. He welcomed all present and made an apology on behalf of the Mayor and his deputy Cllr Nomvuz Shabalala. He also apologised for Nigel Gumede who chairs the Department of Human Settlements and Infrastructure Committee in the Municipality and who also did not make it to the meeting. Continue reading →

Meeting with the eThekwini Municipality Today

16 September 2014

Abahlali baseMjondolo press statement

 

Abahlali leadership is set to meet with the KwaZulu-Natal Department of Human Settlement and Public Works led by MEC Ravi Pillay and the eThekwini municipality political principals at 4:00 p.m. today

Our movement engages in many kinds of political action. These range from organising a land occupation or building a crèche to road blockades, mass marches, court action and negotiations with the government.

We first entered negotiations with the eThekwini Municipality in 2007. Those negotiations were long but eventually bore fruit in terms of a Memorandum of Understanding. However after that MOU was signed we were attacked in Kennedy Road and it has not been implemented. The plans to upgrade the Kennedy Road settlement via a participatory process rather than to destroy it are still in place though. Also some of basic services that were agreed to be provided to settlements are now being provided in some areas. Continue reading →

Evictions at the Chris Hani & Marikana Land Occupations

12 September 2014

Abahlali baseMjondolo Press Statement

Evictions at the Chris Hani (eNsimbini) and Marikana (Cato Crest) Land Occupations

At ten o’clock this morning five shacks were demolished by the Land Invasions Unit in the Chris Hani Land Occupation in eNsimbini. This land was occupied in February last year. The shacks that were demolished are new shacks that were built about two weeks ago by people that were renting nearby and decided to join the occupation to avoid having to pay rent. As usual there was no court order authorising these evictions and they were, therefore, an illegal and criminal act on the part of the eThekwini Municipality. The residents of these new shacks were at work when the eviction happened and so there was no confrontation.

On Wednesday eleven shacks were demolished in the Nqobile section of the Marikana Land Occupation in Cato Crest. These shacks were built in May. This eviction happened as a result of a complaint by a private businessman located near to the occupation. Continue reading →

Mercury: Cato Crest shacks demolished

http://www.iol.co.za/news/south-africa/kwazulu-natal/cato-crest-shacks-demolished-1.1749475#.VBReFqcaLuh

Mpume Madlala

Durban – Several families were left homeless on Wednesday when their shacks in Cato Crest were demolished by the eThekwini Municipality’s land invasion unit. Eleven shacks, which had been up for about a week, were razed.

Martha Chofe, 33, said she was moved out of her empty shack at gunpoint while she was preparing to settle in. Chofe said the shack was new and she had paid R550 for it to be built, excluding the material. “I have two children of 7 and 7 months. I just wanted to give them a better home because we were squashed where we were renting,” she said.

Chofe said she had begged the unit not to destroy her shack, but they would not listen. “They told me they were going to demolish and that I can rebuild it tomorrow,” she said, with tears rolling down her face.

Chofe said she had also been informed by the unit that they were demolishing shacks that had no furniture.

“They did not care that I was there and, because I was scared of their guns, I could not resist but had to let them destroy my home,” she said.

Ndabo Mzimela, the secretary for Abahlali Basemjondolo, a shack dwellers’ movement, said that because of previous evictions, many of their members had been displaced and were not given alternative homes.

“If the municipality does not give people places to live, where must they go?” he said.

Although they were not promoting land invasions, Mzimela said that unless the municipality gave people houses, invasions would not stop. “People are desperate. Maybe to municipal officials, these are just shacks, but to us they are homes. Shelter is the right of every citizen,” he said.

DA councillor Halalisani Ndlovu said what was happening at the informal settlement was “inhuman” and that residents were being victimised. “Where are these families supposed to go if they are evicted in such a manner? We are going to request the eviction order to see if it is legal,” he said.

Municipal spokesman Thabo Mofokeng said that the municipality had a zero-tolerance attitude when it came to land invaders because they delayed development. “These operations are going to continue throughout the city. People need to be patient because the municipality is working on housing and it cannot happen overnight,” he said.