Category Archives: Road Blockades

Road Blockade in Isipingo Yesterday

Wednesday, 30 October 2013

Abahlali baseMjondolo Press Statement

Road Blockade in Isipingo Yesterday

The Isipingo transit camp was badly flooded during the recent rains. It is built in a dangerous area and there is no drainage. It is not fit for human habitation.

Yesterday a road blockade was organised in protest at:

–       The flood and the inhuman conditions in the transit camp

–       The failure to honour to the promise, made more than a week ago, to start moving people out of the transit camp within a week

–       The attempt to silence us with lies on one hand and repression on the other hand

One person was arrested on the blockade but she was later released without being charged.

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Statement from this morning’s road blockade in Siyanda

Update 20:34: Police bail was refused. A pro bono lawyer was secured but the prosector on standby had her phone switched off and so a bail hearing was made impossible. The three comrades will have to spend the weekend in the holding cells.

Update 10:10: The three comrades arrested today are are Themba Msomi, Thembeka Sondaba & Fikiswa Mgoduka.

Yesterday there was a blockade in Clare Estate. This morning there are blockades in iSiyanda and uMlazi. Three comrades, including the chairperson are under arrest in uMlazi. She still has her phone with her and she is strong. A police car turned over in uMlazi. This was because the driver failed to control it. We did not attack it. However we were attacked with tear gas and rubber bullets – the same bullets that killed Andries Tatane – in both iSiyanda and uMlazi.

uTata Nelson Mandela said that if the ANC does to us what apartheid did to us then we must do to the ANC what we did to apartheid. We are living in apartheid under black management. Therefore we are back to the streets. In these actions we are honouring Madiba.

The demands that are being issued on these blockades are clear. The first one is the same demand as the one issued in Cato Crest on Monday, in Clare Estate yesterday and in Clare Estate, iSiphingo and Cato Crest last week. That demand is that we want a full and proper response to the memoranda that we handed over to the Municipality on our march on 16 September. We have a new demand too now: Free Bandile Mdlalose!

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Road Blockades Around the City

Update 27 September 2013, 12:42: They are feeling the pressure. The provincial MEC wants to open negotiations this afternoon.

Update 27 September 2013, 8:47: There are road blockades again this morning. There are more than 500 people on the Isipingo blockade. The Kennedy blockade is strong too. One arrest so far.

Update 26 September 2013: The three Cato Crest comrades have been released. The charges were withdrawn because the police had no case against them. The person arrested at Kennedy Road has also been released. She was beaten by the police.

26 September 2013
Abahlali baseMjondolo Press Statement

Road Blockades Around the City

On the 16th of September 2013 we marched on the Durban City Hall in our thousands with the hope that this is the Republic of South Africa and thus we shall be taken seriously. We delivered memoranda demanding well located land and decent housing and the restoration of our dignity to the Provincial Dept of Human Settlement, Cooparative Governence and Traditional Afairs and eThekwini Mayor James Nxumalo. We made it clear that we expected a response within seven days.

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The three comrades arrested for public violence were bailed out last night

Abahlali baseMjondolo Press statement
06 September 2013

The three comrades arrested for public violence were bailed out last night

Yesterday three Abahlali baseMjondolo members were arrested after Bellair Road was blockaded in protest at more illegal and violent evictions in Cato Crest. These evictions violated the law, the Constitution and an order of the court. The three comrades who were arrested are Sibongile, Nokulunga and Mr Mzinhle.

After the arrests the leadership of Cato Crest branch, together with the Abahlali baseMjondolo leadership, went to the Cato Manor Police Station to negotiate bail for our comrades. We were glad to have secured police bail for them without any objection from the police. 

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Statement on Last Night’s Road Blockade by Kennedy Road Residents

9 July 2013
Abahlali baseKennedy Press Statement

Statement on Last Night’s Road Blockade by Kennedy Road Residents

Last night, and again this morning, hundreds of us blocked road around the Kennedy Road shack settlement with burning tyres. There is still a heavy police presence in the settlement.

The reason for these road blockades is that Mayor James Nxumalo failed to keep his promise to meet with us. On the 25 of May this year we organised a major road blockade. More than 500 people held the road. At that road blockade we handed over a memorandum of demands which included (1) that the upgrade of Kennedy Road and the provision of housing at Cornubia for everyone that that cannot be accommodated in the Kennedy Road upgrade that was negotiated with Mayor Mlaba’s administration be implemented; (2) that formal electricity be provided to the settlement and (3) that Nigel Gumede be immediately dismissed from his post.

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