Category Archives: Tembisa

Mob Violence in Vusimuzi, Tembisa

Monday, 3 February 2020
Abahlali baseMjondolo Press Statement

Mob Violence in Vusimuzi, Tembisa

There has been a long struggle against reblocking in Vusimuzi. It has been imposed in a top down way, with no democracy. Many people’s homes have been destroyed. The situation has been made worse by the local councillor, Councillor Seloane, who has exploited an already authoritarian process to try and weaken our movement and strengthen the ANC. Our members have been systematically disadvantaged by the process, and the mob violence has been encouraged against us from the ANC. At the time the local police have acted under the instruction of the councillor, ignored the law, and colluded in repression.  Continue reading →

Abahlali baseMjondolo to hold Heritage Celebration in Gauteng

27 September 2019
Abahlali baseMjondolo Press Statement

Abahlali baseMjondolo to hold Heritage Celebration in Gauteng

Our movement continues to grow and to support the impoverished to organise themselves and to build democratic counter-power to the state and capital. We now have branches in five provinces. There has been rapid growth in the Eastern Cape and Mpumalanga, and we are steadily advancing in Gauteng.

The recent xenophobic attacks were centred in Gauteng, and they continue in various neighbourhoods. In a number of neighbourhoods people continue to be removed from their homes by xenophobic mobs. Some of our members tell us that they are still sleeping with their IDs under their pillows. Continue reading →

Abahlali baseVusimuzi Comrades to Appear in Ekurhuleni Magistrate’s Court this Morning

Thursday, 19 September 2019
Abahlali baseMjondolo press statement

Abahlali baseVusimuzi Comrades to Appear in Ekurhuleni Magistrate’s Court this Morning

In August this year, in the Women’s month, two women from Vusimuzi-Section, Tembisa, Mam Hlatshwayo and Neli, were arrested and charged with fabricated cases for organising and loudhailing in the community. This follows the top down and imposed re-blocking project that has been imposed on the community. Reblocking has become a new eviction terminology to justify eviction by the City of Ekurhuleni. The community resisted reblocking in streets and in courts.

Continue reading →

The Tembisan: A look at the Vusimuzi reblocking process

The Tembisan

Vusimuzi informal settlement was founded in 1995 and it has been seriously neglected by the government for years

A car drives past a reblocked street which is smaller than promised.

What started as a promise to deliver Vusimuzi shack dwellers from hardship, soon escalated into modern-day apartheid forced-removal tactics. In 2017, the City of Ekurhuleni came up with the reblocking programme, which came with the promise of a better life and development for residents living in informal settlements, such as Vusimuzi and Emandleni, located on the boarder of Wattville and Actonville in Germiston.  Continue reading →

Abahlali to take the City of Ekurhuleni to Court

Wednesday, 26 June 2019
Abahlali baseMjondolo press statement

Abahlali to take the City of Ekurhuleni to Court

The Abahlali baseMjondolo branch in Vusimuzi, Tembisa, will tomorrow take the City of Ekurhuleni, to the Johannesburg High Court over longstanding brutal and illegal evictions in the area. Since 2018 the community has suffered ongoing attacks in the name of reblocking.

Reblocking is supposed to be a process by which shacks built closely together are separated to make space for development. This is done to build passage ways, road access, provision of sewer pipes, water and sanitation and electricity. Continue reading →