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Category Archives: Motala Heights
Sunday Tribune: Heights of abuse, claim shack owners
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These so-called ‘low cost houses’ will sell for R300 000 each….And Govender knows very well that the Temple was sacred ground. Everyone in the community knows that and when the funeral service was being held there for Bongo Dlamini Govender stood outside glaring at the people. He was on site when the Temple was being bulldozed.
Sunday Tribune – Herald Supplement
Developers say people were consulted
Mervyn Naidoo
MOTALA Heights shack dwellers near Pinetown are adamant they will not move and are prepared to die rather than be relocated.
The area they live in is being graded to build houses.
Residents, who say the neighbourhood reflects the Rainbow Nation, with various race groups living in harmony, are especially angry because a place of worship has been destroyed.
They accuse the eThekwini Municipality and the property developer of not respecting their constitutional rights and not consulting with them.
But the property developers say they have followed due process and worked with the municipality.
Tempers reached boiling point last week when graders were brought in to work on the land and bulldozed a 13-year-old Shembe worship site.
When residents saw the desecration, and questioned the driver of the grader, he referred them to local businessman Ricky Govender.
Shamitha Naidoo, chairwoman of Motala Heights A Branch, said this was not the first time a religious site had been disregarded.
“Last year there was a threat to destroy a Hindu temple in Mariannhill.
“(Deputy mayor) Logie Naidoo said there could be no demolition of religious buildings unless they were neglected. The temple was then saved from demolition. The Shembe Temple is sacred ground for the Shembe congregation and it must also be saved. No one has a right to just bulldoze another’s sacred place.”
Bheki Ngcobo, a local committee member of the Abahlali baseMjondolo Movement, a national organisation that looks after the plight of shack dwellers, said there had been no communication from the land owner or the municipality.
“If one looks at the constitution of this country, it is clear that there has to be some agreement and arrangements before people are relocated and religious sites interfered with.
Respect
“We have to wonder if we are citizens of this country or not. The municipality did not consult with us, but allows the rich to do as they please.
“Our rights as citizens are being violated. No respect has been shown for our place of worship. We are very disappointed.
“There are only two options left for us now. The first is to challenge the developer legally, but we don’t have millions so. We are prepared to die to prevent the development.
“We’ll make sure that no stone or cement comes into the area without proper consultation,” said Ngcobo.
“We were hoping that this land would be used for the building of low-cost houses, but it looks like it is going to be used for business,” Ngcobo said.
Govender says he doesn’t understand what all the fuss is about, because he is no longer the owner of the land. He had only been on site to find out what was happening.
Govender said he had sold the property to a Johannesburg developer, Mags Reddy.
“The allegations against me are false. I’ve recently sold the property to a developer at cost price, so the gap between low-cost and social houses can be closed. I made a deal with the developer when selling the property that he must build 160 low-cost houses,” Govender said.
“I was out of the country and as soon as I got back from Malawi I went straight to the site to see what was going on. I apologise if the place of worship was bulldozed.
“It didn’t resemble a church, there were just white stones on the ground. The guys may have made a mistake, but we don’t mind relocating the stones to a more appropriate place.
“The land in Motala Heights doesn’t belong to me, they are just targeting me for no reason.
Mags Reddy said lots 50 and 51 were privately owned and he intends building houses on them.
“I do property development around the country and we always follow all processes and protocols when it comes to property development. The land does not belong to the municipality,” said Reddy.
Couglan Pather, the municipality’s head of housing, was unavailable for comment at the time of going to press.
mervyn.naidoo@inl.co.za
Video Interview with Shamita Naidoo
Letter to the Motala Comrades from Jacques Depelechin
Dear friends, Dear Shamita Naidoo,
I am writing this to thank you all for your exemplary solidarity. At times
it is difficult to say thank you briefly. I wish i could be more brief,
but here it goes.
I have been meaning to write you since I heard of the latest attacks
against you. I still cannot understand how South Africa under the
leadership of the ANC is allowing the law of the land to be taken in the
hands of people whose behavior seems to come straight out of apartheid
South Africa. Such behavior seems to be widespread. It is happening in
Durban, in Joburg, in Cape Town, mostly against the poorest of the
poorest.
The assault is against the poorest of the poorest. In our common histories
of discrimination inside and outside Africa, there is a pattern one can
observe: the poorest of the poorest are seen/presented (especially by the
richest of the richest and their allies) as incapable of thinking for
themselves, by themselves. In other times, the poorest of the poorest were
enslaved in Africa and shipped across the Atlantic and northward. The
process was a complex one and there are still academic battles going on as
to the responsibility for a genocide whose impact and consequences still
remain impossible to calculate in human terms.
Atlantic slavery is mentioned because, in various places, in Africa and
outside of Africa, people resisted the process. The most well known one
was what the Africans did in Haiti from 1791 through 1804. Then, it was
also thought by the french (the “owners” of Haiti when it was still known
as Santo Domingo and its black population) that the slaves could not free
themselves from slavery. In the mindset of the ones who became filthy rich
through slavery, the slaves could not be capable of thinking of freeing
themselves. Indeed, according to the Black Code (1685-1848), enslaved
Africans were nothing more nothing less than furniture to be discarded when
it became useless. How could pieces of furniture think?
From Atlantic slavery to post apartheid South Africa, the poorest of the
poorest have been treated as if they are not part of humanity, as if they
cannot think for and by themselves. But, as in Santo Domingo/Haiti, the
same people who have been discriminated systematically have shown that they
are the conscience of humanity, they are the ones who live, who think, who
breathe human solidarity.
People who are eager to become the richest of the richest, like Ricky
Ricky Govender will seek to eradicate the poorest of the poorest because
they are the only safeguard against the quickest realization of their
dreams/our nightmares. I am sure Govender has other explanations and has
used them, but in the process of seeking to realize his dreams, he must be
shown, systematically, constantly that he is also eradicating humanity,
just like the enslavers were doing centuries ago, when this system was
invented. Such a system is increasingly revealing itself, through people
like Govender and its known and unknown allies, devoid of any respect for
the sacredness of life and living people.
Motala Heights is a sacred place because there are people who live there,
people who are born there, people who die there. In this sacred place, the
residents built a temple, the Shembe Temple.
Govender thought it was ok to destroy the Shembe Temple because he had been
destroying little by little the people of Motala Heights, with impunity,
and, apparently, with the approval of those who are supposed to defend
every member of society against unlawful practices. That is how, little by
little, the law of the land gets eroded. That is how, little by little, a
whole country can slide toward situations which are reminiscent of nazism,
apartheid.
I have written all of this to say thank you to Shamita, thank you to all
the people who are living in Motala Heights, thank you to all those who
stand, actively, in solidarity with the poorest of the poorest against the
destruction of the constitution in South Africa, the destruction of people,
the destruction of humanity. Thank you for showing, by example, what it
takes to stand up for the emancipation of humanity.
Deepest thanks
Jacques Depelchin
Metro Police Destroy a Home in Motala Heights
22 January 2011
Abahlali baseMotala Heights
Metro Police Destroy a Home in Motala Heights
The Metro Police attacked Motala Heights today. They came with axes and succeeded to destroy Mr. Buthelezi's home before the community could mobilise. They then attempted to destroy a second home but we mobilised quickly and stopped them from destroying any more homes.
The remains of Mr. Buthelezi's home after the Metro Police destroyed it on Saturday