Category Archives: Land Occupations

Metro police fire rubber bullets at residents in Ekurhuleni’s Good Hope settlement

Nation Nyoka & Dennis Webster, The Daily Maverick

Residents of the Good Hope settlement in Germiston have occupied vacant land on the border of Germiston and Boksburg, partly in response to lack of space at the existing settlement. On Thursday morning, Ekurhuleni Metro Police dispersed them with rubber bullets. 

New Frame witnessed a brutal attack by Ekurhuleni Metro Police Department (EMPD) officers on residents of the Good Hope shack settlement in Germiston, Ekurhuleni, in the early hours of Thursday morning.

At least one resident, Siyambusa Mpolase, was arrested.

The police action was in response to the occupation of a piece of nearby land which began on Friday 11 May.  Continue reading →

We Build Your Homes, But Have No Homes Ourselves: Diary of a South African Land Occupation.

Vijay Prashad, NewsClick

Talitha and Johanna work as maids. They earn R150 per day, which is the price of a gallon of milk, a pound of cheese, a loaf of bread and four oranges (1 Rand is about 5 Rupees). They could just about eat for a day, but that’s about it. They smile at me when I ask them how they manage to get by. Johanna says, ‘barely’.

They live in Good Hope Settlement, a congested piece of land in Germiston – just outside Johannesburg (South Africa). Their homes are temporary, called ‘shacks’ in this part of the world. These shelters abut each other. They have no protection from the rain and offer no privacy. The lack of sanitation facilities means that sewage runs through their narrow lanes. It also means that illness is a constant worry.  Continue reading →

Overcrowding leads to Ekurhuleni land occupation

Nation Nyoka, GroundUp

A few days before a cold front swept over Gauteng, a group of shack dwellers braved a cold night in a bid to secure a piece of vacant land.

In the early hours of Saturday morning, 12 May, residents from Good Hope’s Extension 5 erected makeshift structures on a piece of land adjacent to a shack settlement called Ramaphosa in Germiston, Ekurhuleni. The community had been organising the land occupation for six months, claiming that the land had been vacant for 40 years. Continue reading →

When homes are built in the dark and demolished in daylight

Dennis Webster, The Daily Maverick

Recently burnt veld crunches under foot. Beneath the ash, green shoots are beginning to reappear. But the grass is not the only new growth.

It is early afternoon on Friday 11 May 2018. Around 30 members of Abahlali baseMjondolo’s Good Hope branch in Germiston move swiftly across a large and vacant piece of land owned by the Witwatersrand Gold Mining Trust. The land sits between Germiston and Boksburg. They are mapping out the grid of a new shack settlement. Some carry hammers, axes and tape measures.  Continue reading →

Abahlali continue to resist on the Zikode Extension Land Occupation on the East Rand in Gauteng

13 May 2018
Abahlali baseMjondolo Press Statement

Abahlali continue to resist on the Zikode Extension Land Occupation on the East Rand in Gauteng

Abahlali baseMjondolo in Gauteng who are currently in occupation of formerly unused land in the East Rand continue to resist in the midst of the continuous demolishing of their structures by the metro police. Today the metro police arrived at the occupation and demolished and burnt again.

We continue to resist. We will not move. We are demanding to be addressed by the premier David Makhura. We have been promised this land by the then MEC of Human Settlements in the province, Paul Mashatile. We are sick and tired of empty promises. We want to hold the Gauteng government accountable for the land that they have promised to us. Continue reading →