Abahlali baseMjondolo press statement – 14 July 2016<\/p>\n
We have faced many evictions in the city of Durban since our movement was
\nformed in 2005. Almost all these evictions have been violent, unlawful and
\ncriminal.
\n<\/p>\n
We have stopped almost all these evictions through organised resistance,
\nmass protest and action in the courts. When the state has attempted to
\nchange the law to make it easier for them to evict us we have defeated them
\nin court. In 2009 we won against the \u201cSlums Act\u201d at the Constitutional
\nCourt. Last year we also won against the \u201cblanket order\u201d sought by the
\nKwaZulu-Natal MEC for Human Settlements. The \u201cblanket order\u201d was intended
\nto authorise mass evictions and to prevent the occupation of at least 1 568
\nproperties in KwaZulu-Natal.<\/p>\n
However evictions continue, especially against people who are not Some of these shacks had been built by the municipality to accommodate The eThekwini municipality eventually responded to complaints and protests It will be remembered that the Public Protector came to visit the After the violent and unlawful demolition of shacks last Friday residents This protest was not organised by our movement. We do not have members in We have always warned that the anger of the impoverished and oppressed can We support many forms of struggle \u2013 including, where necessary, land We are in solidarity with the residents of Kennedy Road who continue to We condemn the violent acts of the state and we condemn the violent act of If the municipality continues to govern impoverished people in a violent, We are trying to set up a meeting with the eThekwini municipality that will Contact:<\/p>\n S\u2019bu Zikode 083 5470 474<\/p>\n Zandile Nsibande 062 947 1947<\/p>\n TJ Ngongoma 084 613 9772<\/p>\n Thapelo Mohapi 062 8925323<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Abahlali baseMjondolo press statement – 14 July 2016 We have faced many evictions in the city of Durban since our movement was formed in 2005. Almost all these evictions have been violent, unlawful and criminal.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":177,"featured_media":296,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8,20,42],"tags":[283,512,566,588,626,629],"class_list":["post-295","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-announcement","category-communique","category-news","tag-eviction","tag-occupations","tag-racism","tag-road-blockades","tag-solidarity","tag-south-africa"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.sindominio.net\/trespass\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/295","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.sindominio.net\/trespass\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.sindominio.net\/trespass\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.sindominio.net\/trespass\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/177"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.sindominio.net\/trespass\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=295"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.sindominio.net\/trespass\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/295\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.sindominio.net\/trespass\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/296"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.sindominio.net\/trespass\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=295"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.sindominio.net\/trespass\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=295"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.sindominio.net\/trespass\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=295"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\norganised. On Friday, 8 July 2016 at about 10:00 a.m.<\/span><\/span> the eThekwini
\nMunicipal Anti-Land Invasion Unit stormed a section of the Kennedy Road
\nsettlement. As always they were armed and they demolished homes without any
\nnotice or eviction order. It was a violent, unlawful and criminal act. Some
\nfamilies were still inside their shacks when they were demolished. The
\nAnti-Land Invasion Unit assaulted people and vandalized their belongings
\nincluding their furnitures, etc. At least 30 shacks were destroyed.<\/p>\n
\nvictims of a shack fire. In 2014 there was a shack fire that destroyed more
\nthan 200 shacks. The municipality refused to allow people to rebuild their
\nshacks. The municipality took several months to build a \u2018transit camp\u2019
\n(government shacks) as an alternative to self-built shacks. After the
\n\u2018transit camp\u2019 was completed there was serious corruption in the
\nallocation. Some of the government shacks were distributed to wrong people,
\nwhile others were sold to people who never had their shacks burnt. As a
\nresult of the corruption in the allocation some of the government shacks
\nwere used as spaza shops while other were rented out.\u00a0 More than 20 people
\nwhose shacks burnt down did not get the government shacks that were
\nsupposed to be allocated to them. These families were left to live in a
\ncommunity hall for more than a year.<\/p>\n
\nby building another \u2018transit camp\u2019 along the side of the M19 . However
\nthis
\n\u2018transit camp\u2019 did not have enough government shacks to fit everyone who
\nwas still homeless after the 2014 fire. Early this year, after further
\ncomplaints, some families were given building material by the municipality
\nto build for themselves. It is very disturbing that the very same
\nmunicipality that gave permission for people to build on this land and
\nprovided the building material is now illegally and violently tearing these
\nshacks down.<\/p>\n
\nsettlement late last year and was told about corruption in \u2018transit camp\u2019
\nconstruction. The Public Protector discovered that each government shack in
\nthe \u2018transit camp\u2019 was built at the cost of R35 0000 amounting to a total
\nof R35 million. She was probing these allegations. The building of \u2018transit
\ncamps\u2019 has become a big business for people in the ANC and the rampant
\ncorruption in the building and allocation of these government shacks is
\nused to enrich people in the ruling party and to strengthen the power of
\nthe party against the people.<\/p>\n
\nprotested. They blockaded the M19 and burnt a municipal motor vehicle. On
\nthe following day, Saturday, a municipal truck and a municipal bus were
\nburnt on the M19. There were passengers in the bus when it was attacked and
\nsome people were injured.<\/p>\n
\nthat \u2018transit camp\u2019. The residents affected by the demolitions organised
\nthe protest independently of any organisation. Our leaders, their families
\nand other well known members of our movement were driven out of the Kennedy
\nRoad settlement by the ANC, at gunpoint, in 2009. We do still have strong
\nsupporters in the settlement but none of them were affected by the recent
\neviction or participated in the protests that followed the eviction.<\/p>\n
\ngo in many directions. We have always insisted that the state must relate
\nto us in a peaceful and democratic manner. We have always opposed state
\nviolence and criminality. We have always carried out our struggle in a well
\norganised and non-violent manner.<\/p>\n
\noccupations and road blockades \u2013 but we have always insisted that struggle
\nmust be conducted in an organised and non-violent way. When we organise a
\nroad blockade we will always make sure that no one is threatened or harmed.
\nWe will always allow an ambulance or other emergency vehicle through the
\nblockade.<\/p>\n
\nface shack fires, who have not been allowed to rebuild their homes after
\nthe 2014 fire, who have been forced into government shacks or have been
\ndenied access to government shacks due to corruption, who have faced
\nillegal and violent evictions at the hands of a criminal state and who have
\nbeen lied to for so many years by Nigel Gumede and the eThekwini
\nMunicipality. We are also in solidarity with the people who were in the bus
\nwhen it was attacked on Saturday.<\/p>\n
\nthe protestor or protestors who threw a petrol bomb at the bus.<\/p>\n
\nunlawful, corrupt and criminal way there will be a risk of more incidents
\nof this kind. The way forward is for the municipality to learn to
\nnegotiated with impoverished people in a respectful and democratic manner
\nso that conflicts can be resolved in a just and peaceful way.<\/p>\n
\nbe aimed at working out a way forward. We will continue to urge the
\neThekwini municipality to deal with communities in a non-violent,
\nrespectful and democratic manner. We will remind them that as Abahlali we
\nare committed to non-violent and democratic forms of struggle. We will urge
\nthe eThekwini Municipality to respect the laws of this country and to
\nengage meaningfully and respectfully with communities. We will, once again,
\nremind the eThekwini Municipality that the anger of the impoverished and
\noppressed can go in many directions. We will remind them that unlawful,
\ncorrupt and violent forms of governance cannot move the city towards a just
\npeace.<\/p>\n