Category Archives: Mary Papayya

Sowetan: Call for release of ‘Kennedy Road 13’

http://www.sowetan.co.za/News/Article.aspx?id=1089880

Call for release of ‘Kennedy Road 13’
20 November 2009
Mary Papayya

Anglican bishop and KwaZulu-Natal Christian Council chairperson Ruben Phillip has called for the immediate release of the “Kennedy Road 13”.

The 13, who were arrested after the September attacks on the Kennedy Road informal settlement in Durban, are members of the homeless movement Abahlali baseMjondolo.

On Wednesday they made their 6th appearance in the Durban magistrate’s court for a bail hearing.

Phillip said the proceedings against the 13 were a clear case of “detention without trial”.

“It is clear that the legal process for the Kennedy Road 13 is a complete travesty of justice.” the bishop said.

He said in April he had visited another six members of Abahlali baseMjondolo, who had been on a hunger strike for 14 days at Westville Prison.

“The murder charges that had been trumped up against them were dropped.”

He accused the ANC of having taken a political stand on the matter.

Local government MEC Willies Mchunu visited Kennedy Road soon after the incident in September. He held meetings with some community members and appointed a special task team to probe the conflict.

The Kennedy Road 13 case has been postponed to next Friday.

Meanwhile, a Pinetown magistrate on Monday dropped all charges against another 13 members of Abahlali baseMjondolo arrested at the nearby Pemary Ridge informal settlement.

Sowetan: Church enters Kennedy Road fray

http://www.sowetan.co.za/News/Article.aspx?id=1074851

Church enters Kennedy Road fray
06 October 2008

AS PROVINCIAL government authorities stepped in to find a lasting solution to the violence that has engulfed the Kennedy Road informal settlement in Durban, church leaders yesterday called on the national government to urgently establish a commission of enquiry.

Two people died, while many others were injured during the unrest. Thousands have since fled the area after a mob, armed with an assortment of weapons, went on the rampage assaulting people and destroying homes.

The chairperson of Diakonia Council of Churches, Bishop Barry Wood, has since called on the local and provincial governments to provide immediate relief to the displaced, especially women and children.

The settlement, home to more than 7000 people , has been fraught with tensions arising from, among other things, poor service delivery .

Wood also came out in support of social movement Abahlali baseMjondolo whose leaders, including chairperson S’bu Zikode, were attacked and their homes destroyed .

“The resultant deaths, detentions, beatings and displacement of an estimated 2000 residents are deeply saddening,” he said.

Wood’s support for Abahlali comes amid increased pressure for the movement to be engaged in all peace efforts by local government leaders. MEC for transport, community safety and liaison Willies Mchunu yesterday made an impassioned plea for Zikode to engage in all future talks.

“I am informed that Zikode is part of the local leadership structures or at the very least has some interest in Kennedy Road.

“I am disappointed that he could not make it to the Kennedy Road Stakeholders’ Symposium.”

Zikode, in response, said he was not invited to the recent meetings, and that some members of his movement have received death threats. – Mary Papayya

Sowetan: ‘The poor need proper homes’

http://www.sowetan.co.za/News/Article.aspx?id=833970

‘The poor need proper homes’

01 September 2008
Mary Papayya

MILITANT: Sbu Zikode giving the Diakonia Council of Churches lecture in Durban.
Shack dwellers call for land to be expropriated to provide housing

The shack dwellers movement, Abahlali baseMjondolo, has called on local authorities to expropriate land from so-called rich landowners such as Tongaat-Hulett to house the poor.

Speaking at a Diakonia Council of Churches lecture in Durban on Friday, the organisation’s chairman, Sbu Zikode, said they were concerned about the plight of shack dwellers, particularly their safety.

Apart from the fires, he said, shack dwellers were increasingly subject to “illegal evictions, abuse and beatings from landowners including farmers”.

He said it was important for the government to understand that when people have to be moved they must be given the option of moving to well-located land.

“Land must be expropriated from Tongaat-Hullett to house the poor. There must be no more forced removals.”

He said the right to land and housing remained huge problems in South Africa.

“These problems are not technical, they are political,” he said. “They will not be solved by consultants’ reports, academic conferences and meetings with the MEC.

“These problems will be solved when people who do not count in the system, the people who have no proper accommodation, are able to stand up and take their place and be counted as citizens of the country.”

He warned that the shack dwellers were fed up.

“We will no longer be good boys and girls that quietly wait for our humanity to be recognised one day. Voting has not worked for us. We have already taken our place on the land in the cities and we have held that ground.”

He said growing poverty in rural communities encouraged young people to migrate to the cities.

“So as long as the cities grow in the same way as poverty, urbanisation is not an exception,” Zikode said. “People will have to keep moving to the cities in search of hope.

“This reality calls on all city authorities to learn to share the cities and to accept this growth. We need democratic cities. We need fair cities. We need welcoming cities. We need cities for all.”

He said shack dwellers needed to be part of any solution regarding their future.

“If you take people out of their communities, sometimes at gunpoint, and move them to rural human dumping grounds where there is no work, they won’t stay there.”

Shack dwellers believe that land and housing in the cities will bring about a safer environment.

“An environment that is free from shack fires, free from rats, rapes and crime when our children and women have to find water and toilets in the bushes.

“If we are serious about caring cities, the first step will be to respect human life and human dignity.”