PRESS RELEASE: THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 2005

IZINKULUNGWANE ZIZOBHIKISHA ZIPHIKISANA NOMPHATHI WESIGCAWU uYACOOB BAIG NGO MHLAKA 14 SEPTEMBER 2005

Giya! Giya!
Bathengisa Ngathi

NINI: Ngehora lesishayagalombili ekuseni, ngolwesithathu, zingu 14 September 2005.

KUPHI: Ukubhikisha kwabantu kuzosuka ehholo lomphakathi kuKennedy Road ose 286 Kennedy Road, nase Clare Estate. Ukubhikisha kuyophelela emahhovisini akhe umnumzane Baig elisekhoneni lika Randles no Spark’s Road eSydenham.

NGOBANI: Lezinkulungwane zifuna imihlaba, izindlu, izidingo zomphakathi ezibalulekile kanye nenhlonipho, baphinde bamnikeza amaviki amabili okushiya esikhundleni umnumzane Baig. (Ungafunda encwadini yezikhalazo engezansi ukubona izidingo zethu eziphelele).

Wednesday, November 22, 2006
MORE FAMILIES LEFT HOMELESS BY ETHEKWINI MUNICIPALITY

More than 35 families from the Juba Place settlement in Reservoir Hills are preparing to go to court after the eThekwini Municipality smashed up their homes, in the rain, over the weekend. Shack owners were coerced at short notice into accepting relocation to what people call 'formal jondolos' in Nazareth. These houses have no electricity and have toilets which don't work. Most people did not want to be moved away from work and schools and feel unwelcome and nervous in Nazareth where local people had expected the houses. The Municipality moved people out of Juba Place at gun point and now has to protect them from local people in Nazareth at gun point. Meanwhile shack renters in Juba Place were simply left homeless. So much for the constitution..

13 August 2006

ANOTHER PERSON DIES IN ANOTHER DURBAN SHACK FIRE

At around 8:30 p.m. on Friday 11 August a candle fell over in the front room of a shack in the Kennedy Road settlement. Four people lived in the large shack. They were all able to get out except for Mr. Zithulele Dhlomo whose room was at the back of the shack. He was an old man, around 70 years old, and the way out was blocked by fire burning hot from the plastic sheeting in the roof. He was burnt to death.

Last week there was a major conflagration in the Jadhu Place settlement. Before that it was Quarry Road and before that it was Lacey Road. The fires happen more or less every week. These fires are not acts of god. They are a direct consequence of the eThekwini Municipality's infamous and unconstitutional 2001 decision to suspend the provision of electricity to shack settlement. The policy states that 'In past (1990s) electrification was rolled out to all and sundry...electrification of the informal settlements has now been discontinued'.

Shacks Demolished at Motala Heights, Pinetown
29-10-2006

One could be forgiven for thinking that a tornado had ripped through Motala Heights shack settlement on Saturday (28 October 2006). About 20 shacks have been reduced to mangled piles of timber which their former residents pick through in order to salvage their belongings.

Yet this was no tornado, but rather the actions of the eThekwini municipality. Residents reported that at about 8:00 am on Saturday morning, about 25-30 metro security arrived driving vehicles with NDM number plates. They brought with them a further 12-15 unskilled labourers with large hammers.