Category Archives: Cato Manor

The Marikana land occupation in Cato Manor, Durban, in 2013 and 2014: A site where neither the state, the party nor popular resistance is fully in charge

by Richard Pithouse

This chapter provides an account of some of the contestation around a landoccupation in Cato Manor, Durban. It shows that none of the actors aspiring toexercise control – party structures, the local state, the courts, NGOs and popularorganisations – were, in the period under study, able to exercise full control over thepeople or territory in question. It also shows that actually existing forms of contestationfrequently operated outside the limits established by liberal democratic arrangements

Attachments


The Marikana Land Occupation in Cato Manor

GroundUp: Cato Manor’s struggle against state repression

Ndabo Mzimela, GroundUp

Cato Manor has a long history of struggle and repression. Women have often been in the forefront of these struggles. This history is well known in Durban. Many families from KwaMashu have roots in Cato Manor. KwaMashu was created to house some of the people forcibly removed from Cato Manor under the Group Areas Act. They were taken from land in the city where they had some autonomy and moved out of the city to a segregated township under strict control of the apartheid state. Continue reading →

Die River View Wohnungen in Cato Manor, die SOHCO gehören, wurden soeben besetzt

Presseaussendung Abahlali baseMjondolo, 1.1.2014

Die River View Wohnungen in Cato Manor, die SOHCO gehören, wurden soeben besetzt

Soeben wurden die River View Flats in Cato Manor besetzt. Die 350 Wohnungen in diesem Block gehören SOHCO, einer sozialen Wohnungsgesellschaft, und nachdem im November alle Bewohner_innen geräumt worden waren, standen sie leer. Die securities schossen mit Gummigeschossen auf die Besetzer_innen. Die Polizei wurde hinzugezogen.

Jahrelang hat unsere Bewegung eine Menge Landbesetzungen organisiert. Dies ist das erste Mal, dass wir einen Wohnblock besetzen. Wir haben die Wohnungsbesetzung in River View in Amandlethu-Dorf umbenannt.

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New Year’s Eve in Cato Manor: An Occupation, Police Violence, Arrests and Fire

1 January 2014

Abahlali baseMjondolo Press Statement

New Year’s Eve in Cato Manor: An Occupation, Police Violence, Arrests and Fire

Just after three this morning the River View Flats in Cato Manor were occupied. Some of the occupiers had previously been evicted from this block of flats and others were from the Marikana Land Occupation, also in Cato Manor.

The security guards stationed at the block of flats tried to prevent the occupation by firing rubber bullets at the occupiers but they were outnumbered and they were not able to stop the occupation. Around fifty people were able to gain occupation of the block flats which was then renamed Amandlethu Village.

The occupation was an act of non-violent civil disobedience against a municipality that is corrupt, criminal and violent, a municipality that, in partnership with the ruling party, brazenly ignores the law and routinely uses violence to try and force its poorest residents to accept their oppression. In this municipality government housing is being used to control the poor, to expel us from the city centre, to force us to accept the control of ruling party and, most of all, to make politicians and their friends rich.

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The SOHCO Owned River View Flats in Cato Manor Have Just Been Occupied

1 January 2014 3:30 a.m.

Abahlali baseMjondolo Press Statement

The SOHCO Owned River View Flats in Cato Manor Have Just Been Occupied

The River View Flats in Cato Manor have just been occupied. The 350 flats in this block are owned by SOHCO, a social housing company, and were standing empty after the residents were all evicted in November. The security guards shot at the occupiers with rubber bullets. The police have arrived. Ten comrades have been arrested and taken to KwaKito (the Cato Manor police station).

Our movement has organised a number of land occupations over the years. This is the first time that we have occupied a block of flats. We have renamed the River View flat occupation as Amandlethu Village.

Among the comrades who have organised the occupation of these flats tonight are those who were evicted from these flats in November 2013 and those who were first evicted from their shacks in Cato Manor in March 2013 and who then opened and occupied a new section of Cato Manor called Marikana. Since then they have been illegally and violently evicted from the new occupation nine times including, most recently, on 23 December 2013. Three comrades have been murdered during this struggle, two others have been shot and many have been arrested and assaulted.

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