Category Archives: Zikode Extension

Unprovoked police attack on the Good Hope Settlement in Germiston

1:32 a.m., Thursday, 17 May 2018

Abahlali baseMjondolo Emergency Press Statement

Unprovoked police attack on the Good Hope Settlement in Germiston

Yesterday afternoon all the shacks on the Zikode Extension Land Occupation were demolished again. Tonight a large number of police officers, from various units, including a SWAT team, launched an unprovoked, violent and brutal attack on the nearby Good Hope Settlement in an attempt to prevent people from moving back to the occupied land. Rubber bullets were fired and tear gas was used. Individuals were targeted and threatened. There has been at least one confirmed arrest. Continue reading →

Overcrowding leads to Ekurhuleni land occupation

Nation Nyoka, GroundUp

A few days before a cold front swept over Gauteng, a group of shack dwellers braved a cold night in a bid to secure a piece of vacant land.

In the early hours of Saturday morning, 12 May, residents from Good Hope’s Extension 5 erected makeshift structures on a piece of land adjacent to a shack settlement called Ramaphosa in Germiston, Ekurhuleni. The community had been organising the land occupation for six months, claiming that the land had been vacant for 40 years. Continue reading →

When homes are built in the dark and demolished in daylight

Dennis Webster, The Daily Maverick

Recently burnt veld crunches under foot. Beneath the ash, green shoots are beginning to reappear. But the grass is not the only new growth.

It is early afternoon on Friday 11 May 2018. Around 30 members of Abahlali baseMjondolo’s Good Hope branch in Germiston move swiftly across a large and vacant piece of land owned by the Witwatersrand Gold Mining Trust. The land sits between Germiston and Boksburg. They are mapping out the grid of a new shack settlement. Some carry hammers, axes and tape measures.  Continue reading →

Abahlali continue to resist on the Zikode Extension Land Occupation on the East Rand in Gauteng

13 May 2018
Abahlali baseMjondolo Press Statement

Abahlali continue to resist on the Zikode Extension Land Occupation on the East Rand in Gauteng

Abahlali baseMjondolo in Gauteng who are currently in occupation of formerly unused land in the East Rand continue to resist in the midst of the continuous demolishing of their structures by the metro police. Today the metro police arrived at the occupation and demolished and burnt again.

We continue to resist. We will not move. We are demanding to be addressed by the premier David Makhura. We have been promised this land by the then MEC of Human Settlements in the province, Paul Mashatile. We are sick and tired of empty promises. We want to hold the Gauteng government accountable for the land that they have promised to us. Continue reading →

A New Land Occupation in Germiston

12 May 2018

Abahlali baseMjondolo Press Statement

A New Land Occupation in Germiston

Last night more than two hundred people occupied unused land in Germiston, on the East Rand in Gauteng. We laid out our design for the occupation in the afternoon, built throughout the night and slept on the occupied land. Around 350 stands have been marked out via a democratic and carefully planned process. The new occupation has been named the Zikode Extension in honour of S’bu Zikode. Continue reading →