Category Archives: courts

WIVL: Kliptown 5 found guilty of public violence, demanding houses in historic Kliptown

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Kliptown 5 found guilty of public violence, demanding houses in historic Kliptown

The housing struggles in Kliptown, Soweto, reflect the true meaning of the Freedom Charter, namely that a section of the black capitalist will benefit out of the democratisation of the country. In the words of Nelson Mandela when commenting on the so-called nationalisation clause from this Charter, from the June 1955 edition of the Liberator magazine:

‘The breaking up and democratisation of these monopolies will open up fresh fields for the development of a prosperous Non-European bourgeois class. For the first time in the history of the country the Non-European bourgeoisie will have the opportunity to own in their own name and right mills and factories, and trade and private enterprise will boom and flourish as never before.’

What is important further, is that this development of a black capitalist class, is at the expense of the demands and rights of the working class. What follows from this is that the new black managers, the ANC in government, then adopt all the repressive measures of a capitalist regime, which indeed they are. The monopolies remain largely untouched and the black capitalist class are thus junior partners of imperialism. The ANC are incapable of even fighting for the demands of all the black middle class, let alone that of the working class. Yet, the Cosatu and SACP leaders all call for a resounding electoral victory for this capitalist ANC.

The national organiser of the WIVL, Thabo Modisane and 4 other activists having been found guilty on the 10th March 2008 on a charge of public violence . The charges relate to a protest by the community in Kliptown, under the banner of the Anti-Privatization Forum, on 3 Sept 2007 when they took to the streets to demand houses. On the 14th August 2007 the community had handed over a memorandum calling for their local councillor to be recalled and for adequate housing for all. In the town where the Freedom Charter was adopted ion 26 June 1955, Kliptown, thousands still live in shacks despite the document promising houses for all. To date, one and half years later, the memorandum has not been responded to.

On the 18th April last year (2008), there were confirmed cases of cholera in Kliptown. One of the first people to contract it was Kelebogile Malefane, who died on the 12th June 2008 of this preventable disease.

The response of the ANC government to years of protest by the Kliptown community for houses? They built a R200 million white elephant, called Freedom Charter Square. Part of the square is a 4 star Holiday Inn, which cost R23 million to build. This hotel remains mostly more than half-empty while 30m from its doors lies a sprawling squatter camp where raw sewage flows in the streets.

The magistrate in this case repeatedly postponed the case more than 20 times to give the police more time to find ‘evidence’ against the 5 accused.

On Friday 13th march 2008, the 5 face the prospect of being jailed for the crime of being leaders of the resistance to capitalist non-delivery to the working class. The case is being held at the Protea North magistrate’s court in Soweto. Public violence carries a possible sentence of 5 years in prison.

It should be the capitalist parliamentary parties who should be on trial for the crime of keeping the working class without homes and of being the agents of profits for monopoly capital.

We call for a national and international campaign against the victimization of these working class activists. We are calling for mass protests at the court on Friday 13 March 2008 as part of a further general mobilization of the working class. The finding of the court exposes the true nature of the coming April elections, namely that it is a contest between the bourgeois parties as to who will be the new manager to serve the capitalist masters. Not a single one of them can commit to building decent houses for all the working class; thus it follows that every single one of them would support the arrest and jailing of activists who find themselves at the leadership of the working class. A vote for any of the parliamentary parties is a vote for more cholera, more homelessness, more starvation, more arrests of activists.

The capitalist monopolies made over R700 Billion in profits last year. Yet the ANC-SACP-Cosatu Popular Front bails out these same capitalists with hundeds of billions of Rands (Eskom electricity scam of new power stations. the 2010 stadia, etc). The capitalists continue to retrench hundreds of thousands of workers; no-one is bailing out the over 20 million starving; who will bail out the Kliptown 5? It is only united working class action, nationally and internationally can stop the imperialist attacks. The deeper their crisis, the more they will adopt harsher measures against working class fighters.

Forward to decent houses for all! Organise or starve!

Further information on the details of the court proceedings can be obtained from the APF ( Silumko Radebe

ph 072 1737 268 or 011 333 8338)

The above statement is that of the WIVL.

APF: Justice delayed is justice denied – Kliptown 5 found guilty of Public violence

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Justice delayed is justice denied: Kliptown 5 found guilty of Public violence

On the 3rd September 2007 more than twenty comrades were arrested in community protests organized by the Anti Privatisation Forum against the slow or non-delivery of services in Soweto (Kliptown and Protea South). Fourteen comrades were arrested in Protea South though only four of those charged were taken to the Protea Magistrate’s court on the 4th of September 2007 and the others were released after being held captive for more than 24 hours without any charges being laid. In Kliptown, twelve comrades were arrested for public violence including five juveniles (underage, school-going children) and have been appearing in court since September 2007. After more than twenty appearances and almost two years, five were found guilty of public violence yet the community was arrested for demanding housing.

Criminalisation of protest

Since the African National Congress government took over power in 1994, there have been more than 6000 protests in the country because of slow and none service delivery. Many of the frustrated community members have protested out of anger and frustration from none delivery of basic services in their communities. In South Africa, public violence is regarded as a criminal charge which allows the state to demand higher bail amounts from the very poor people. Communities have called on their elected local ward councillors to account for the none delivery of basic services and they have also sent countless un-answered memorandums and petitions. Provincial and local governments have failed to communicate their progress report in terms of development with the community. People have resorted to use the same tactics that were used to over throw the apartheid government and take into the streets for bargaining powers.

In a case like Khutsong & Matatiele, bargaining through protest has worked but for others like Kliptown this is not the case. The Kliptown defendants were all released on R500 bail each. The reason given by the magistrate for this heavy fine was that communities have to be discouraged from taking to the street to demand service delivery while there are other options to ensure their voices are heard. On the 14th of August 2007 – less than a month before their arrest – the Kliptown community handed over a petition together with a memorandum to the Eldorado Municipal Offices, demanding the recall of the useless ward councillor and further demanding that the Department of Housing address their housing needs. No response to the memorandum was received from either the municipality or the Housing Department. It is clear now that the State wants to make an example out of the five Kliptown residents by giving them a harsh sentence for demanding their rights to housing. The state does not have enough evidence to prosecute the accused but it wants to do so in order to cover up the failures of the ANC government. On many occasions, the people of South Africa are made to believe that our judiciary is independent of the state yet this is difficult to prove.

Problems with Legal Assistance

Criminalising protestors makes it more difficult to find free legal representation and the APF secured the services of pro-bono lawyer. It was unfortunate that the lawyer didn’t represent the accused for the entire trial and had to leave the matter over to the state lawyer. In the past, there has been distrust from the community to the use of Legal Aid Board lawyers given experiences where defendants have been effectively forced to submit guilty pleas so that they could get suspended sentences. However through engagements between poor communities organised by the APF and the Legal Aid Board, the relationship with the Legal Aid Board has taken a more positive turn. Nonetheless, securing committed and affordable legal assistance/aid for community members arrested for legitimate social and political protest remains a huge challenge for organisations of the poor. Again the APF renews its call for progressive lawyers to step up and be counted in the struggle of the poor for their basic rights so that we could appeal against this case before the comrades are sentenced on Friday (13th March 2009).

The difficulty in our country is class segregation where the rich are given a choice to pick their legal defence lawyer but the poor are not given that right. So if you fight for your constitutional right to access basic services as a member of a poor community and you are more likely to get a bullet in you back than a roof over your head. If you have something to say, put it in a memorandum to your local ward councillor and pray if that helps you but forget about hearing a response. Ward-councillors don’t call consultative community meetings and they can’t be recalled for non-delivery of services until their term is up in five years. The poor will continue to live in abject poverty while the government uses arms to answer the poor.

For more information please call Silumko Radebe @ 072 1737 268 or 011 333 8338

Business Day: Jo’burg to challenge Phiri water ruling

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http://www.businessday.co.za/articles/topstories.aspx?ID=BD4A945064

Posted to the web on: 23 February 2009
Jo’burg to challenge Phiri water ruling
Franny Rabkin

THE Supreme Court of Appeal will today begin a hearing on the constitutionality of the installation and use of prepaid water meters in Phiri, Soweto. At issue is the constitutional right of access to sufficient water.

At stake for the City of Johannesburg is “the foundation of its water policy”, which has cost the city billions to implement, and is aimed at ensuring everyone has access to some form of water supply.

At stake for the residents of Phiri is suffering from having water for only a limited time in a month.

The case is the first to deal with state obligations to provide access to sufficient water. When it was heard first in the Johannesburg High Court, Judge Moroa Tsoka asserted the “minimum core” concept (that in dealing with socioeconomic rights, government should be measured against a minimum standard of delivery), rejected previously by the Constitutional Court.

Some Phiri residents have been fighting the installation of prepaid meters since the City’s Gcin’amanzi programme was first implemented in 2001.

Prepaid meters stop dispensing water when the limit on free water is reached, and lets taps run again only if the user buys water credits and loads them into their meter.

Five Phiri residents say installation and continued use of prepaid meters is unconstitutional, and breaches rights of access to sufficient water, just administrative action and equality.

Before prepaid water meters were installed, Soweto residents had unlimited access to water at a flat rate. People in affluent suburbs had metered water with monthly bills.

The city said the flat rate was not sustainable as it made it impossible to account for “about 75% of all water pumped into Soweto”. So it introduced Operation Gcin’amanzi, giving all households 6kl of free water a month. The rest had to be paid for.

Last year, the Phiri residents won their case in the Johannesburg High Court. The city is now appealing to the Supreme Court of Appeal.

Tsoka ordered that Phiri residents be supplied with 50l of free basic water a person a day, up from the current 25l, and that they be given a choice of an ordinary credit water meter. The judge said it was inexplicable that some residents were entitled to water on credit, including the free monthly 6kl a household, while Phiri residents were denied water on credit.

But the City will argue before the Supreme Court of Appeal that Tsoka’s order “will have extremely far-reaching and grave consequences” for its water policy.

Gilbert Marcus and Anthony Stein, counsel for the city, set out in detail how the city developed its water policy, which the city says focused on achieving access for all, including those in informal settlements with no access to water.

The city says that the residents of Phiri are better off now than they were when paying the flat rate.

This is because they pay less now than under the previous flat rate; the cost of their water is cross-subsidised by wealthier users; and they now have access to free water, which they never had before.

The City also says that, since the introduction of the programme, it has increased the allocation of free water for “registered indigents” and people with HIV/AIDS and provides a certain amount for emergencies.

In this way, says the city, it has discharged its obligation to progressively realise the right of access to sufficient water.

But Wim Trengove and Nadine Fourie, counsel for the residents, say the residents are worse off now, making the introduction of the prepaid meters retrogressive. This is because they simply cannot afford to pay once they have used their free water. So the prepaid meters breach the obligation of the state not to move them down the water ladder, the residents say.

They also argue that because water is allocated per stand instead of per person, poor people end up with less free water than rich people. This is because their stands generally accommodate more people, and unemployment means people get all their water use from home.

But the City says that it would be impossible to provide water for individuals as the number of people in each stand is in constant flux.

The residents also say prepaid meters were forced on them, and they were not given the option of the credit meters that wealthier white suburbs have. This is discriminating against the Phiri residents, who are in the main poor and black.

Richard Moultrie and Sesi Baloyi, counsel for the friend of the court, the Centre on Housing Rights and Evictions, argue that the constitution should be interpreted in accordance with international law on the right to water.

They say that while SA has not accepted the minimum core concept into its jurisprudence, what constitutes a minimum core internationally is an important factor when considering whether or not government’s measures are reasonable.