Abahlali baseMjondolo ordinary weekly meeting, 16 August 2014
The Con: A Marikana Too Far
Bhavna Ramji and Philiswa Sithole, The Con
June 2013: The sun shining on Marikana in the North West turns the blood of goats being slaughtered into glinting rivulets of mercury. We’re at a government-sponsored mass traditional ritual performed by the 44 families that lost loved ones at Lonmin’s Marikana platinum mine during an unprotected strike in August 2012. The intention of the slaughter is to cleanse the area where people were killed of evil spirits.
Family members collect in pockets in front of the koppie where miners had gathered to demand a monthly increase to R12 500. Male elders slit the throats of the goats. The practised art of skinning and disembowelling the animal before charring the meat is under way.
GroundUp: Cops beat and humiliate evicted shackdwellers in Philippi East
Daneel Knoetze, GroundUp
In yet another crackdown on shackdwellers in Philippi East’s “Marikana” settlement, dozens of shacks were demolished by the City of Cape Town's Anti-Land Invasion Unit on 11 August. Police providing back-up and support, humiliated, assaulted and jeered at residents as they were evicted.
As one woman wept while the building material of her demolished shack was carried away, police gathered around to taunt and mock her.
A boy watches as police move in on the Marikana informal settlement, Philippi East, Cape Town. 11 August 2014
Photo by Daneel Knoetze
Open Democracy: Legalizing economic and social rights can help the poor: reflections from South Africa
Stuart Wilson, Open Democracy
The best account of human rights aims to protect and advance all the incidents of freedom, equality and dignity. These include freedom of thought and political action, which are incompatible with torture, arbitrary detention, or censorship. They also include freedoms to realise one’s self, which are impossible without access to the basic elements of a decent existence, such as adequate housing and healthcare, sufficient food, and quality education.
This is what we mean when we say rights are “indivisible”. They cohere around an account of the human personality that acknowledges the inherent dignity of each person; that each person counts for no more or less than any other in the distribution of the means of self-realisation; and that each person is free to pursue his or her own conception of the good, equipped with the basic necessities of life.
GroundUp: Expropriate the suburbs, say activists
Daneel Knoetze, GroundUp
Tracts of private suburban land will have to be expropriated by the state at below market value if spatial apartheid in South African cities is to be reversed. The property clause in the Constitution can be interpreted in a revolutionary manner to allow for this. Expropriated land, subsidised by existing government property, should be used to provide housing for shackdwellers from the city fringe, so that informal settlements can be less dense and upgraded. These were the concluding opinions in a roundtable discussion on the Urban Land Question in the Cape Town CBD on 7 August.
“The clause should be read and interpreted with reference to the Bill of Rights as a whole, and in light of the Constitution's preamble, which (prioritises) values of social justice,” said Zackie Achmat, founder of Ndifuna Ukwazi, which hosted the discussion.
Abahlali baseMjondolo Women’s League Meeting this weekend @ the YMCA, Durban – 9 August 2014
Abahlali baseMjondolo Women's League Meeting this weekend @ the YMCA, Durban.
GroundUp: SA shackdwellers protest against evictions in Austria
Daneel Knoetze, GroundUp
A delegation from Abahlali baseMjondolo picketed at the Austrian honourary consulate in Durban. They handed over a petition protesting against the violent evictions of a group of squatters, Pizzeria Anarchia, in Vienna.
On 6 August, shackdweller movement Abahlali baseMjondolo (AbM) marched on the the Austrian honourary consul in Durban to protest the eviction of squatting “comrades” under way in Vienna. This, in reciprocation of months of solidarity and support from people and organisations based in Europe and the United States for AbM.
Squatters under the banner of Pizzeria Anarchia have resisted attempts by the Vienna municipality to evict them from a building for two years. Last week, 1700 riot police, a water canon, a tank and a helicopter were deployed to the site of what is claimed to be Vienna's “last remaining squat”. The eviction cost the municipality €500 000 (R7.17million), reports revolution-news.com.
Picket at the Austrian Consulate, Durban, in support of Abahlali basePizzeria Anarchia, 6 August 2014
Picket at the Austrian Consulate, Durban, in support of Abahlali basePizzeria Anarchia, 6 August 2013
Solidarity with Abahlali basePizzeria Anarchia in Vienna, Austria
Tuesday, August 05, 2014
Abahlali baseMjondolo Press statement
Solidarity with Abahlali basePizzeria Anarchia in Vienna, Austria
Injustice in Vienna, Austria is an injustice in Durban, South Africa and is an injustice everywhere in the world.
Abahlali friends and comrades in living in Pizzeria Anarchia in Vienna, Austria have been subjected to a violent police attack by at least 1700 riot police, a helicopter, a tank, and a water cannon. The Vienna municipality has evicted at least 11 Abahlali there and 4 are still remained in building. So far 9 of the Abahlali there have been arrested. According to reports in Vienna the City has paid up to 500,000 Euros to evict people from the building which is industrial to advance their gentrification plan. This eviction has become a joke to people of Vienna that one person is evicted by at least 100 cops. This is shocking brutality that we condemn.