http://www.dailynews.co.za/index.php?fArticleId=5252356

Bail delayed for sixth time
Prayer meeting in support of detained Kennedy Road 13

November 19, 2009 Edition 2

SLINDILE MALULEKA

THERE is still no decision on whether bail will be granted to the 13 people accused of the murder of two people living in the Kennedy Road informal settlement.

Yesterday magistrate B Mbulawa of the Durban Regional Court adjourned the matter to next week for an identity parade to be held, and to give judgment.

http://www.politicsweb.co.za/politicsweb/view/politicsweb/en/page71619?oid=151726&sn=Detail

Church and state collide at Kennedy road
Paul Trewhela
20 November 2009

Paul Trewhela on how the clergy are once more speaking truth to power

Something wonderful took place in Durban/eThekwini on Wednesday 18 November.

Continuing a tradition well over 50 years old in South Africa, the Church spoke truth to power.

The point is: that power was no longer the party/state governed by the National Party but the party/state governed by the African National Congress, its successor. This is the only difference, but it has great implications for the present and the future.

http://www.sowetan.co.za/News/Article.aspx?id=1089880

Call for release of ‘Kennedy Road 13’
20 November 2009
Mary Papayya

Anglican bishop and KwaZulu-Natal Christian Council chairperson Ruben Phillip has called for the immediate release of the “Kennedy Road 13”.

The 13, who were arrested after the September attacks on the Kennedy Road informal settlement in Durban, are members of the homeless movement Abahlali baseMjondolo.

On Wednesday they made their 6th appearance in the Durban magistrate’s court for a bail hearing.

http://www.iol.co.za/index.php?set_id=1&click_id=15&art_id=nw20091118184500946C943453

Clergy pray for Kennedy Road murder accused

November 18 2009 at 06:57PM

By Kamini Padayachee

Clergy from the Diakonia Council of Churches gathered outside the Durban Magistrate's Court on Wednesday to pray for 13 people charged with killing two men at the Kennedy Road informal settlement in Sydenham, Durban.

The council has come out in support of the 13 men, claiming that police had falsely arrested the members of shack dwellers' movement Abahlali baseMjondolo.

Click here to read this document in word.

“Save our land and save our people”
Durban Magistrate’s Court – 18 November 2009

(On the occasion of the sixth bail hearing for the “Kennedy Road 13”.)

ORDER OF SERVICE

Welcome: Bishop Barry Wood, OMI - Chairperson, Diakonia Council of Churches

Call to prayer: Bishop Barry Wood

Hymn: “Who will save our land and people?”

Who will save our land and people?
Who can rescue us from wrong?
We are lost – faint, false and foolish –

http://www.digitaljournal.com/article/282217#tab=comments&sc=0&contribute=&local=

Weekend attack on S.African shanty town allegedly led by police

Human rights groups have claimed that the police attacked Pemary Ridge, an informal community in Durban, South Africa on November 14th, randomly beating people.

A local group that unifies and advocates for shack dwellers in South Africa claims that the Sydenham Police in Durban, South Africa raided Pemary Ridge on Saturday night. Arriving in vans, the police are alleged to have terrorized the community by breaking down doors, shooting at people and randomly beating residents. While some people created a tire fire, supposedly in protest of the raid, others fled their homes to hide in bushes for the night. The November 14th attack was preceded by two other attacks on Pemary Ridge and one in September on a shanty town on Kennedy Road, Durban.

All Charges Dropped Against the Pemary Ridge 13

Abahlali baseMjondolo was unable to secure a lawyer to represent the Pemary Ridge 13 in the Pinetown Magistrate's Court this morning. They were represented by Shamita Naidoo, Chairperson of the Motala Heights Abahlali baseMjondolo branch. She made a vigorous argument against police brutality against shack dwellers in general, and the Pemary Ridge settlement in particular, and showed how the police claim to be victims of the people they brutally and unlawfully assaulted was entirely ludicrous.

All charges were dropped against the 13.

Click here to read this document in pdf.

AN URGENT CALL TO DEFEND OUR DEMOCRACY,SUPPORT THE VOICELESS AND JOIN THE “ABAHLALI 13 PRAYER SERVICE”

To all clergy and church leaders of Durban

By now many will be aware of the recent events in Kennedy Road and the subsequent arrests of thirteen members of the grassroots movement known as Abahlali baseMjondolo (AbM).

But just to be sure, here are some facts which we feel are important right now:

On 26 September, at 11.30pm, a group of 30 to 40 men, wielding pangas, sticks and guns surrounded the community hall in Kennedy Road informal settlement in Durban and launched a violent attack. Kennedy Road is the original home of AbM, the social movement of shackdwellers. In the violence that followed over the next few nights and days, people died, many fled and the shacks of a number of known AbM activists were systematically destroyed. All this while local and provincial ANC leaders proclaimed the events to be a liberation of Kennedy Road and installed ANC leadership over the community. Soon after the attack, 13 members of AbM were arrested and charged with various counts, including murder and aggravated assault, some as far afield as the Eastern Cape.

The Kennedy Road Thirteen have now appeared in court 6 times - each time in the face of an often drunken and armed ANC mob making open threats against AbM and its leaders. On each occasion the prosecution have failed to provide any evidence that the accused may be guilty of the crimes for which they have been arrested. On each occasion the case has been remanded to give the police a chance to provide such evidence - and in each case they have failed to do so. Are these endless delays not a means of achieving their detention without trial and without a bail hearing? The Kennedy Thirteen were severely assaulted in the Sydenham Police Station after their arrest and are also being subject to assault in Westville prison.