Category Archives: foreman

Isolezwe: Ugandaganda ususe umsindo

http://www.isolezwe.co.za/index.php?fArticleId=4612881

Ugandaganda ususe umsindo

September 16, 2008 Edition 1

BAWINILE BGCOBO

KUTHE abalidle balifele ikhansela abantu abahlala emijondolo yaku-Foreman, eThekwini, izolo befuna ukwazi ukuthi uzofika nini ugandaganda ozokhuculula ukuze bakwazi ukwakha kabusha izindlu zabo ezishe ngempelasonto.

Bekulindeleke ukuthi kufike uNgqongqoshe wezokuThuthukiswa koMphakathi, uDkt Meshack Radebe, ezokhuluma nabantu balapha kodwa wangaphumelela.

Abantu bebekhala ngokuthi bathenjiswe ukuthi kuzokhucululwa lapho kushe khona imijondolo bese beyakha kodwa kuze kwashaya uMsombuluko emini ungakafiki ugandaganda.

Uma ufika kule ndawo abanye abantu bese beqalile beshayela amapulangwe bevuselela imijondolo yabo, yize kuthiwe kabalinde.

UNksz Zonke Busuku uthe kabalwisani nabaphathi babo kodwa lokhu kuyabacasula ngoba izimpilo zabo zimile njengoba bengakwazi ukwakha futhi ungafiki nogandaganda ozolungisa.

Ingaphezu kwenkulungwane imijondolo ebhujiswe ngumlilo entathakusa ngoMgqibelo kule ndawo, kwashona umuntu oyedwa.

Ikhansela, uMnuz Yacoob Baig, uthe abantu bazonikezwa amapulangwe ukuze bavuselele imijondolo yabo kuthi labo abangenabo abantu abazobasiza ngokwakha, batholelwe abakhi.

Kusize usihlalo wabahlali bakule ndawo, uNksz Patricia Mjoli, ukuze behlise umoya. UNksz Mjoli osehlale iminyaka engu-17 kule ndawo unxuse amalungu omphakathi ukuthi ababambisane nabaphathi ukuze kusheshe kulunge izinto. Uthe kukhona abantu abangogombela kwesabo njengoba bethatha ukudla ngakubili, abanye abantu bagcine bengatholanga lutho.

UMnuz Asavela Tshayimpunzi, oshonelwe ngumfowabo uThembelani Khweshube (30) kulo mlilo uthe sebebhekene nenkinga yokuthi bahambise isidumbu eMpumalanga Kapa lapho bedabuka khona. “Sasifike lapha sizofuna umsebenzi. lo mfana oshonile akasenabo abazali kanti nomalume bakhe basebenza into engacacile, asazi ukuthi sizokwenzenjani,” usho kanje.

URadebe uthe bazosiza umndeni olahlekelwe yilungu lawo ngezindleko zomngcwabo. “Nginxusa abantu ukuthi baqikelele ukuthi bayawacisha amakhandlela, nalabo ababhemayo bangalahli izinqamu zivutha ngoba zizodala umlilo,” usho kanje.

Ikhansela laku-Ward 41, uMnuz Linda Xaba, uthe uxakekile esezwa kuthiwa kukhona abantu abangene kulezi zindlu ngoba wazi ukuthi bekuzongena laba bantu abangu-60 abazosuswa ezindaweni zabo ngenxa yokwakhiwa komgwaqo.

Illegal Demolitions Threatened to Resume at Foreman Road at 7:00 on Tuesday Morning

Foreman Road residents have been informed that the bulldozers will return and resume their attempts to illegally bulldoze the shacks rebuilt after the fire at 7:00 tomorrow.

Abahlali baseMjondolo have asked our lawyers to seek an urgent interdict prohibiting the Municipality from carrying out unlawful demolitions. The community is also preparing to directly resist any attacks on their homes should this become neccessary.

It is important that everyone understands the following facts clearly:

1. In South Africa any eviction or demolition carried out without an order of the court is an illegal and criminal act.

2. The eThekwini Municipality routinely carries out unlawful (and criminal) evictions and demolitions.

3. It is clear that for the eThekwini Municipality the law is does not apply to the poor. The poor are considered to be beneath the law and the Municipality is considered to be above the law.

3. In strict legal terms the eThekwini Municipality is a criminal organisation.

4. Every single time that Abahlali baseMjondolo has approached the courts seeking an order to prevent an unlawful eviction the courts have ruled in favour of the movement and against the Municipality.

5. ‘Slums Clearance’, ‘Shack Eradication’ and ‘Transit Camps’ are all apartheid policies that shoud never have been bought back into a democratic society. Around the world progressive governments support and develop shack settlements. It is only the most reactionary and cruel governments that aim to destory shack settlements.

6. The eThekwini Municipality never consults with shack dwellers. It just imposes its policies, sometimes at gun point. In this country every one has the right to be consulted.

It is important that people are also aware that the resources that were bought to the Foreman Road settlement after the fire by Councillor Yakoob Baig and others in a cavalcade of Mercedes Benzs have openly been denied to Abahlali baseMjondolo members. A loudhailer was used to openly say that the blankets, food etc bought by the government are only for ANC members and not for the ‘red shirts’ (AbM members).

The whole country is discussing Judge Nicholson’s judgment about political interference in the state but no one talks about the fact that housing and other resources, like disaster relief, are openly and routinely used to support one political party and are openly denied to people who make their own politics.

Is it not time to seek the arrest of Municipal officials that instruct their employees or contractors to carry out unlawful evictions? Is it not time to bring officials and politicians that you state resources for party politics before the judges?

To hell with evictions, demolitions and forced removals to rural human dumping grounds.

To stay in touch with the situation in Foreman Road please contact:

George Bonono, Foreman Road Abahlali baseMjondolo Branch Chairperson: 0782245441
Mnikelo Ndabankulu, Abahlali baseMjondolo Spokesperson: 0797450653

Bulldozer Stopped in Foreman Road

15:31
Bulldozer Stopped in Foreman Road

The bulldozer has been stopped. The Legal Resources Centre is on the way. If any further attempt is made to knock down any of the fully or partially rebuilt shacks before this is resolved legally the entrance roads into the settlement will be barricaded. People will defend their right to their homes, to this land and to the city.

Foreman Road residents note with concern that the article in this afternoon’s Daily News, which is below, (1) fails to consult any residents of Foreman Road while only consulting the police, the Housing Department and the Councillor and that (2) according to this article Yakoob Baig, a councillor who shack dwellers have rejected since 2005, and the Housing Department will decide whether people will be allowed to stay at Foreman Road or moved to one of the notorious temporary relocation areas.

It is up to the residents of Foreman Road to decide the future of the community not Yakoob Baig the liar or Cogi Pather the evictor.

Foreman Road is our home. We are urbanites. We live and work and school here. We will not be moved. If the City will not give us building materials we will rebuild the settlement ourselves. This land is ours.

We repeat: Nothing for us without us. We repeat: Talk to us, not for us.

People in Foreman Road are very angry at the moment.

We ask for electricity and taps and fire hydrants to stop the fires and they do nothing. When we push them they say that it is not policy to give shack dwellers electricity and fire hydrants. But when our shacks burn they are there super quickly with bulldozers. They can move when they want to. They can move when they think the can exploit a disaster to reruralize the people.

Sekwanele!

Contact Mnikelo Ndabankulu on or George Bonono on 0782245441

http://www.dailynews.co.za/index.php?fArticleId=4590435

Fire leaves thousands homeless

September 15, 2008 Edition 1

SLINDILE MALULEKA

One person died, more than 3 000 people have been left homeless and more than 800 informal dwellings have burned down in the Foreman Road informal settlement in Clare Hills, Durban, after a fire on Saturday morning.

Residents claimed that the fire was started by a candle which was left to burn while the occupants of a shack slept.

The fire spread rapidly from one shack to another and resulted in the death of Thembelani Khweshube, 30.

Supt Muzi Mngomezulu, provincial communications officer for the South African Police Service, said an inquest docket had been opened.

The area’s ward councillor, Yacoob Baig, said a decision would be taken in a meeting with the municipal housing department on whether to house the displaced residents at the site of the fire or to propose temporary housing elsewhere.

Koglan Pather, head of the city housing department, said council would ensure there was adequate shelter, ablution facilities and water.

“We have put up six tents and have ordered three more. We have also put in four chemical portable toilets and are awaiting six more,” said Pather. He said there was also clean water on site.

“This is until a more permanent solution can be found,” he said.

NGOs have offered to lend a hand in supplying food parcels, hot meals and blankets.

Trevor Stevens, divisional commander of eThekwini Fire and Emergency Services, said the fire was extensive and five hose lines and two water tankers were used to extinguish the blaze.

13.36
City is attempting to turn Foreman Road into a transit camp – resident’s are resisting

The City has, as they always do these days, seized the opportunity of the disastrous Foreman Road fire, to send in the bulldozers and turn the Foreman Road settlement into one of their notorious transit camps. There has been no consultation at all and residents are, right now, organising to resist.

The transit camps can take 3 months or longer to build while residents, especially if supported with building materials, can rebuild a whole settlement in a week. Transit camps are clearly just a ruse to render a long standing occupation ‘temporary’ and thus weaken people’s hold on the land and make them much more vulnerable to forced removal.

This is the same strategy that was used in Ash Road after the flood and in Jadhu Place after the fire. It was also used after the floods in New Orleans in America. Kennedy Road successfully resisted it after the recent fires. All over Durban and KZN and around the world disasters are being exploited to drive the poor out of the cities.

Mnikelo Ndabankulu is on the scene: 0797450653

Abahlali baseMjondolo demands that all municipalities upgrade the settlements where they are. The movement opposes all forced removals and evictions. The movement opposes the exploitation of disasters by the government to further its notorious apartheid style ‘slum eradication’ agenda. Shack settlements must be supported not eradicated. Slum clearance is just another attempt to drive the poor out of the cities.