Category Archives: land occupations
Road Blockade Happening in Siyanda Now
Thursday, 30 July 2015
Abahlali baseMjondolo press statement
Road Blockade Happening in Siyanda Now
The ANC in eThekwini now support land occupations but only ANC members are allowed to build
When we began our struggle in 2005 the ANC was attempting to ‘eradicate’ shacks. We successfully opposed attempts to ‘eradicate’ numerous shack settlements in different parts of Durban and smaller towns in KwaZulu-Natal. We have also supported many land occupations which we see as the ‘peoples’ land redistribution programme’ or ‘land reform from below’ and as a form of ‘grassroots urban planning’. The ANC has long referred to land occupations, which they have called ‘land invasions’, as criminal acts and have used state violence and other forms of repression to try and prevent them. Continue reading
Back to the Durban High Court
Wednesday, 20 May 2015
Abahlali baseMjondolo Press Statement
Back to the Durban High Court
Following several brutal and unlawful evictions at a gun point by the eThekwini Municipal Land Invasion Unit in Cato Crest (Marikana land occupation) and Lamontville (Sisonke Village) Abahlali baseMjondolo won several court interdicts against the Municipality. Each and every time we secured an interdict, or an undertaking from the Municipality to cease its illegal behaviour, the interdicts and undertakings were ignored and the Municipality continued with their violent and unlawful evictions. It is clear that the eThekwini Municipality considers itself to be above the law and impoverished black people to be beneath the law. Continue reading
City Press: Land occupations: All eyes on KZN court ruling
Paddy Harper, City Press
The struggle for urban land is set to heat up as land occupations – and court actions to defend them – escalate.
Ahead of next year’s local government elections, the Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) will continue its land occupation programme, which has seen more than 100 small-scale occupations, while other rights groups are set for a series of court actions on which the future of thousands of squatters living on government-owned land hinges.
EFF national spokesperson Mbuyiseni Ndlozi said his party would continue its land occupations “slowly but surely” as branches mobilised people who had been on housing waiting lists for more than a decade, or who had been evicted and were looking for shelter. Continue reading
From Assassination with Bullets to Assassination with Words
17 October 2014
Abahlali baseMjondolo Press Statement
From Assassination with Bullets to Assassination with Words
On the 6th of October 2014, exactly one week after Thuli Ndlovu was assassinated, The Mercury published an article by Bongani Hans and Sihle Manda that was nothing but an attempt to assassinate the reputation of S’bu Zikode, of our movement and of the many people who are striving for land and housing in Durban independently of our movement.
The article, ‘Shacks pop up in Durban land grab’ by Bongani Hans and Sihle Manda is online here: http://www.iol.co.za/news/crime-courts/shacks-pop-up-in-durban-land-grab-1.1760398#.VDfdg2eSxps
It has since been republished by The Post and the South African Housing Federation which also circulated it via email. Continue reading