Late last night 15 month old Mzomjani Mvunyiswa was attacked by a giant rant and bitten on the hand, leg and forehead.

Mzomjani is the third infant to be attacked by a rat in the settlement this year. In January Nkosi Cwaka died after a rat attack and in July Wandile Cikwayo was seriously injured when a rat gnawed at her fingers.

These attacks are a direct consequence of the failure to provide adequate refuse collection to shack settlements. The movement does what it can to organise clean up days, weekly fires to burn the rubbish and so on. But despite years of struggle around this issue, and many promises, refuse collection remaims entirely irregular and inadequate. The remains from the last fire have still not been picked up despite promises that this would be done quickly.

http://www.khayelitshastruggles.com/2008/11/fires-at-rr-section.html

Fire At RR Section, Khayelitsha, Cape Town

More than 100 shacks burned down over the weekend at RR Section Site B and left more than 500 people homeless including women, children and disabled people.

It was early in the morning past one on Saturday when the fire started at RR Section and it started at one shack which is owned by a 30 year old man, according to the neighbour's he was drunk and left paraffin stove unattended and most people believed that he was the cause of the fire.

Siyanda 9 November 2008, the day before the big march. For pictures of the march click here and here.

10 November 2008
Siyanda Abahlali Branch

Demands addressed to Mike Mabuyakulu, the MEC for Housing in KwaZulu-Natal, by the Siyanda Abahlali baseMjondolo Branch

1. We demand adequate land and decent housing in the city.

2. We demand one house per family and not one house per shack.

Durban High Court, 6 November 2008

3 November 2008
Press Statement by the Abahlali baseMjondolo Youth League

Abahlali baseMjondolo Case Against the KwaZulu-Natal Eradication and Prevention of Re-Emergence of Slums Act to be Heard in the Durban High Court on 6 and 7 November 2008

Across the country the government is chasing the poor people out of the cities. Across the country we are mobilising to defend our right to the cities.

We are in the cities for good reasons – we need work, education, clinics, libraries and more. Pay is higher and prices are lower in the cities. Therefore we need land and housing in the cities. But the government only want our votes. They do not want us in the cities. Therefore we have said ‘No Land! No House! No Vote!’

http://www.khayelitshastruggles.com/2008/11/matt-spent-10-days-living-at-qq.html

'Be a visitor, not a spy' - QQ Section, Site B, Khayelitsha

Matt Birkinshaw, October 2008

Introduction

For the first time in history more people in the world now live in cities than in rural areas. Globally one in five people live on land that does not legally belong to them. The UN predicts that this will rise to one in three by 2050. The future, to paraphrase Mike Davis, is not made of glass and steel, but of plastic, zinc and cardboard.

29 October 2008
Landless People’s Movement Press Release

Join Gauteng landless communities (Freedom Park, Protea Glen Bond Houses, Protea South Informal Settlement, Precast-Lenasia Extension 11, Chiawelo, Tembalihle Crisis Committee, Eldorado Park, Harry Gwala Informal Settlement)in a peaceful March demanding free basic services, the removal of the useless ward councillors and a halt to mass evictions. On the 30th October 2008, the march will start at Peacemakers Ground in Protea South and then proceed to Old Potch road and Union Road to deliver a memorandum to the Premier of Gauteng Paul “Mathousand” Mashatile.

A few minutes after receiving news that they qualify for a housing subsidy, Symphony Way residents get terrorised by the police - again!

Good news, bad news - a carrot and some shotguns...

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Cape Argus 23 October 2008

Event: AbM Western Cape March
Date: Wednesday 22 October, 2008
Time: 11h00-14h00
Assemble: In between Site-B Day Hospital and Train Station. March to Stocks & Stocks.

It begins. The shackdwellers of Khayelitsha will no longer be spoken about. We will speak for ourselves.

Abahlali baseMjondolo, the shackdweller's movement that has wrecked havoc on the oppressive town planning of the KwaZulu-Natal government, is now a force to be reckoned in the Western Cape.

Community leaders from across Gauteng will meet with newly elected Ekurhuleni Mayor Ntombi Mekgwe to show her the devastating impact of government policy in the informal settlement of Makause on the east of Johannesburg. The visit will take place on the 16th October, the eve of the United Nations' International Day for the Eradication of Poverty.

MEDIA ALERT: Stop the "Eradication and Prevention" of our homes.

Issued on 3 October 2008 by a coalition of Gauteng community organizations

Community leaders from across Gauteng will meet with newly elected Ekurhuleni Mayor Ntombi Mekgwe to show her the devastating impact of government policy in the informal settlement of Makause on the east of Johannesburg. The visit will take place on the 16th October, the eve of the United Nations' International Day for the Eradication of Poverty.

http://www.khayelitshastruggles.com/2008/10/upgrading-of-informal-settlements.html

Upgrading of Informal Settlements
(Don't destroy it upgrade it)

This is a very good concept, and ABM WC support the concept, because:

1. It house people where they have established them selves

2. It gives them legal status

3. It gives people security of tenure

4. It does not remove people where they are performing their daily economic activities

As much as we support the concept, there are few problem or challenges regard to this that still need to be addressed such as;