Category Archives: Nandi Mandela

Nandi Mandela Evicts from the Richmond Farm Transit Camp, 24 July 2009

Nandi Mandela Celebrates Grandfather’s Birthday with the Eviction of 9 Families in Siyanda

KWAMASHU – 23 July 2009 – At 3pm this afternoon, Nandi Mandela, along with police, and a demolition team, attempted to evict three families living in the Richmond Farm transit camp. Mandela and the team broke the locks on the front door, entered, and dumped all the families’ personal belongings outside. The families were at work and school at the time. They received no notice of the eviction. A truck waited to transport them from the site.

Meanwhile, 6 other families living in shacks in nearby Siyanda Section B were told they must move to the Richmond Farm transit camp. They are to replace the 3 families, whose eviction was attempted today. These families also received no official eviction notice, which by law, must be ordered by the courts and delivered by the sheriff. The 6 families are to be forcibly removed to the transit camp to make way for a fence that will run alongside the MR577, a new freeway construction. Nandi Mandela is a representative of Linda Masinga & Associates, a consultancy firm hired by the Department of Transport.

Residents at Richmond Farm transit camp asked Nandi Mandela why her team was breaking the locks and removing the belongings of their neighbours. She said that the families were being moved to permanent houses elsewhere. But the 3 families were never told that they had to move, or that they had been allocated houses. At this time, they still do not know where those permanent houses are located, or if they even exist.

Both these attempted evictions are illegal, and therefore criminal acts. The Prevention of Illegal Evictions Act (PIE) applies to all places where people live, be they jondolos or amatins.

The Abahlali baseMjondolo branch of Siyanda Section C, currently residing in Richmond Farm transit camp, would like to state the following:

– Journalists are encouraged to come to Richmond Farm transit camp. Nandi Mandela said she and her team would return later today. They did not. While the unlawful evictions could proceed at any time, the community expects that the team will return tomorrow.

– Once again, the Department of Transport has its numbers wrong. If 3 families are moved out of the amatins, and 6 families are moved in, it means that some will be left homeless or that two families will have to occupying the same itin. After speaking to us, Nandi Mandela and her team realized they had made a mistake. One of the families, whose belongings were outside, was on a list that meant they were not supposed to be moved. Nandi Mandela apologized, and her team put the belongings back inside.

– Again, Nandi Mandela, Linda Masinga & Associates and Bheki Cele at the Department of Transport are not talking to the community. There is an elected development committee in Richmond Farm. At no time was the development committee, or Abahlali informed of these eviction plans. When members of the committee asked Nandi Mandela why she had not contacted the committee, she did not answer.

– Again, it seems the freeway is breaking apart the whole community. 52 families from Siyanda Section C came to Richmond Farm together in a landmark court case. It forced the municipality to investigate corruption on the Khalula Housing Project, and imposed a timeline for our stay in the amatins. Now, 3 families among the 52 are being told they are being moved to permanent houses, without any indication of where they will be living. It is unacceptable to move people without notice and without any indication of where they will be moved.

– We want to make clear that we will not accept any further attempts to break the locks on the amatins, and remove our personal belongings without notice or consultation. We will respond by replacing the locks, and putting our belongings back inside.

– Finally, we wish to ask, how would you feel if someone was to come and break into your home, take all your belongings while you were at work or at school, and then sat in the car with the police waiting for you to return?

Abahlali, COHRE, and CALS have warned what could happen when people are moved to transit camps with no secure tenure. It seems that Nandi Mandela and Bheki Cele of the Department of Transport think they can move people around whenever and wherever they please without consultation with the community. It seems that they think the amatins are outside the law. This will not be accepted.

Contact:
Mama Nxumalo 076 333 9386
Abahlali baseMjondolo National Office 031 269 1822

Siyanda – Digital Archive

  • Siyanda residents wounded by police rubber bullets during road blockade, 4 December 2006
  • Protesters hurt as police fire rubber bullets, Daily News, 5 December 2005
  • What Happened at or to the SMI, 18 December 2006
  • Abantu abampofu namaPhoyisa, Izwe Labampofu, 14 January 2007
  • The Strong Poor and the Police, Izwe Labampofu, 19 January 2008
  • No one can have it if we can t , Daily News, 20 August 2008
  • Victory in Court While Evictions Continue Outside, 26 August 2008
  • Ward councillor locked in home over service delay, 12 September 2008
  • Bebesho ukubakhipha ngodli ezindlini zomxhaso,Isolezwe 16 September 2008
  • Siyanda Crisis: Evictions, Police Intimidation, Unjust Housing Allocation etc., 17 September 2008
  • Siyanda Pictures, 17 September 2008
  • Letter to Obed Mlaba on the Siyanda Crisis from the Centre on Housing Rights & Evictions, 24 October 2008
  • Siyanda – the day before the big march, 9 November 2008
  • Memorandum of Demands by the Siyanda Abahlali baseMjondolo Branch, 10 November 2008
  • Pictures of the Siyanda March (1), 10 November 2008
  • Pictures of the Siyanda March(2), 10 November 2008
  • KZN housing development threatened, Daily News 13 November 2008
  • Pictures of the meeting to plan resistance to Bheki Cele s evictions & pictures of the transit camp to which people are supposed to be forcibly removed, 7 December 2008
  • Bheki Cele Threatens 61 Siyanda Families with Forced Removal, 7 December 2008
  • Siyanda Abahlali baseMjondolo Letter to the State Attorney, 9 December 2008
  • Pictures of the removal to the transit camp (accepted by 2 families), 11 December 2008
  • Siyanda on Google Earth, uploaded 12 December 2008
  • 50 Families Remain in the their Homes and Refuse Eviction to “Transit Camp” Under Heavy Police Presence, 18 December 2008
  • Siyanda, Report Back from the High Court, 9 January 2009 (This picture set also shows the size of the Siyanda shacks
  • Siyanda: Agreement on Negotiations, Court Date Set Down for 27 January, 12 January 2009
  • Abahlali baseMjondolo answering affidavit, 22nd January 2009
  • CALS Statement on Forced Removal of Siyanda Residents to Transit Camps, 23 January 2009
  • Mercury Op-Ed: Forced Removals , by Kerry Chance, Marie Huchzermeyer and Mark Hunter 29 January 2009
  • Durban High Court Delays Bheki Cele s Attempt at Forced Removal from Siyanda to the Richmond Farm Transit Camp, 7 February 2009
  • Mercury, Op-Ed: Meeting people s housing rights, by Mike Mabuyakhulu, 9 February 2009
  • Photo of one of the 5 room Siyanda jondolos, 10 February 2009
  • Project halted by protests, The Mercury, 17 February 2009
  • Abahlali baseMjondolo to Launch New Branch in Siyanda , 6 March 2009
  • At the Durban High Court for the Siyanda Case, 6 March 2009
  • Siyanda Win in Court: The Struggle Against Corruption and Transit Camps Continues, 6 March 2009
  • Court orders immediate probe – Progress for shack dwellers in housing row, Mercury, 9 March 2009
  • No temporary solution, The Weekender, 14 March 2009
  • State Criminality in Siyanda, 17 March 2009
  • Pictures of the Siyanda Eviction to Richmond Farm Transit Camp on 17 March 2009 (under judicial oversight……)
  • Balale emnyango ababethenjiswe izindlu zomxhaso, Isolezwe, 20 March 2009
  • Siyanda A and B to March on Housing MEC Mike Mabuyakhulu on Tuesday 14 April 2009, 9 April 2009
  • Pictures of the Siyanda (A&B) March from Siyanda to Downtown KwaMashu, 14 April 2009
  • No homes, no vote threat, The Mercury, 15 April 2009
  • Bakhala ngentuthuko egqozayo abaseSiyanda, Isolezwe, 15 April 2009
  • Siyanda – Mpola – Macassar Village: The War on the Poor Continues, 19 May 2009
  • Siyanda – some pictures, 19 May 2009
  • Video interview from the Siyanda transit camp, 19 May 2009
  • Sad Song of Siyanda, short film by Elkartasun Bideak, 22 May 2009
  • Another Illegal Demolition in Siyanda – call for the immediate arrest of Municipal Official, 27 May 2009
  • Photographs of the remains of Mpume Nompumelelo s shack after illegal demolition, 27 May 2009
  • Mpume Nompumelelo, short film by Elkartasun Bideak showing Mpume Nompumelelo s home, 28 May 2009
  • Mpume Nompumelelo II, short film by Elkartasun Bideak showing the illegal destruction of Mpume Nompumelelo s home, 28 May 2009

    • Mercury: Court orders immediate probe – Progress for shack dwellers in housing row

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    http://www.themercury.co.za/index.php?fArticleId=4879172

    Court orders immediate probe
    Progress for shack dwellers in housing row

    March 09, 2009 Edition 1

    Tania Broughton

    A Durban High Court has ordered an immediate investigation into the “corrupt allocation” of housing at a low-cost estate in northern Durban, and wants a report on it in two months.

    Nelson Mandela’s granddaughter, Nandi Mandela, is named in court papers as being involved in the alleged scam because she is a director of the consultancy hired by the eThekwini Municipality and the provincial Department of Transport to do the allocation.

    In a “structured interdict”, Judge Themba Sishi also wants reports every three months on the conditions in a nearby transit camp, to where those who lost out on the formal houses are now being forced to move because their shack settlement is in the path of the construction of a major arterial road.

    And he has ordered the municipality to provide permanent housing to those affected in a year.

    The issue was raised late last year when the transport department brought an urgent application to evict the 50 families who live in the Siyanda settlement in KwaDabeka so that their homes could be bulldozed to make way for the R550 million MR577 which will cross the Mgeni River to link Inanda and Pinetown.

    The residents fought back. They said that they had been promised brick, “better-than-RDP” houses at the nearby Khulula formal housing estate by Mandela’s Linda Masinga and Associates in 2005.

    They said that those houses had now been given to “outsiders”- a fact conceded by Mandela – and they were now being forced to move to an “unsightly and uninhabitable” transit camp about 1.5km away.

    They said transit camps were like concentration camps with razor-wire fencing, spotlights, single entrances and 24-hour police guards. Residents were often highly controlled in these places, as if they were in prisons.

    They would be forced to live in containers with no access to decent amenities, and would then simply “fall off the radar” and be forgotten, like others who had been forced to move to such camps.

    While the shack dwellers were refusing to move, Durban’s Legal Resources Centre drafted new court papers suggesting the “structured interdict”.

    At a hearing in the judge’s chambers on Friday, the interdict was made an order of court with the consent of the transport department. Although named as a party to the proceedings, the municipality remained silent on the issue.

    In terms of the order, the Siyanda families agreed to move to the camp by March 17.

    S’bu Zikode, of shack dwellers’ movement Abahlali baseMjondolo, which supported the residents in their court battle, said the state’s compliance with the orders would be monitored.

    “We also insist that the investigation into corruption must be done independently,” he said. “This is major progress. There is now judicial oversight over the camps and claims of corruption.”

    However, he said, problems were already looming because a site visit to the camp at the weekend had revealed that there were only 23 rooms available for the 50 families, no clean running water, and blocked toilets, despite assurances given to the judge by transport department lawyers.

    “The judge was given wrong information. We will be contacting our lawyers on Monday to discuss the way forward,” said Zikode.

    Mercury: Court battle holds up major road – shack people fight plan to move them

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    http://www.themercury.co.za/index.php?fArticleId=4810365

    shack people fight plan to move them
    Court battle holds up major road

    January 26, 2009 Edition 1

    Tania Broughton

    RESIDENTS of an informal settlement in KwaDabeka are fighting a court battle to prevent their removal to an “undignified, unsightly and uninhabitable” transit camp to make way for a major arterial road.

    The transport department brought an urgent application in the Durban High Court late last year for the eviction of the residents so that their homes could be bulldozed to clear the way for the dual carriageway highway.

    The department claims the residents are being obstructionist and have threatened construction workers. It said it was losing R65 000 a day because of the delay in the construction of the R550 million MR 577, which will cross the Umgeni River to link Inanda with Pinetown.

    But the residents of Siyanda settlement said they had been promised two-storey brick “better than RDP (reconstruction and development)” houses by the department’s consultants, and that it was reneging on the deal.

    In papers filed with the court, Buzani Cele, on behalf of the 50 affected families, said it had been agreed at a meeting with consultants Linda Masinga and Associates in 2005 that some families would be moved to Mount Moriah, some to Ntuzuma and some to the Khulula formal housing estate. She said all the houses at the Khulula estate had been allocated to Siyanda residents by the eThekwini Municipality.

    However, the department had breached this agreement and given some of the houses to “outsiders”. Cele said this “misallocation” had been conceded by consultant representative Nandi Mandela.

    And, while an investigation into the matter was under way, the department had served eviction notices on the shack dwellers, directing them to move off the land by December.

    Cele said the transit camp was at Richmond Farm, about 1.5km away.

    “These (the accommodation at the camp) are not houses. They resemble containers … they are two thirds the size of a government house. Many of our families have six or seven members and it is impossible to move into such tiny units.

    “On top of this, they will be baking hot in summer and freezing in winter.”

    Cele said that whichever judge was to decide on the issue, an on-site inspection of the camp should be done before a ruling was made.

    “We all fear that, once we have been moved to the transit camp, we will fall off the radar as the department will have achieved its aim, being to clear the way to build their new road,” she said, citing other examples in South Africa where communities had remained in transit camps for up to 12 years.

    Cele said the department had refused to say how long the residents would be required to live there. She denied that she or her neighbours had threatened or interfered with the contractors and that they were living in “slums” and the transit camp would be better for them.

    “Transit camps are breeding grounds for domestic violence, poor hygiene, HIV transmission and assaults, and are totally unsuitable for habitation by any community,” she said.

    The matter will be before court tomorrow.