Update 24 October: Click here to see a letter of protest on the Siyanda evictions sent to Obed Mlaba by COHRE.

Siyanda Residents March

Breaking News: Siyanda shack-dwellers, facing eviction from the MR577 Freeway site, are staging ongoing marches to halt building and allocations at the Kulula Housing Project. The contractors have just been stopped from proceeding with the patently unfair allocation of housing that has been undertaken without any form of meaningful consultation. There is a heavy police presence again today and the situation is tense. (There is an article in yesterday's Isolezwe here.)

Abahlali baseMjondolo has just won a major court victory against evictions. But outside the court the eThekwini Municipality is currently demolishing shacks in the Siyanda settlement. There is no court order and so, according to South African law, these demolitions are illegal and criminal acts. Media are urged to rush to the scene.

The shacks that are being demolished were built a month ago after renters in the area were left homeless when shack owners were moved to RDP houses and the renters illegally left homeless. This happens in every relocation or upgrade in Durban and in South Africa it is a completely illegal and in fact criminal act to leave someone homeless. The people who have been made homeless again today, just after being made homeless last month, will rebuild again. What else can they do? This is the cruel reality of the government's plans to eradicate shacks: give houses to shack owners and leave shack renters, the poorest of the poor, homeless and desperate.

Western Cape Anti-Eviction Campaign
URGENT NEWSFLASH!! (For updates, including video footage, visit the new Anti-Eviction Campaign site here)
10:57am
Tuesday 19 February 2008

POLICE SHOOT THREE CHILDREN IN DELFT

Police proceed with unlawful eviction of 1600 residents in Delft, Cape Town

Police have started shooting people at close range in Delft. There is pandemonium and brutality. Following yesterday’s ruling in the High Court which uphold’s Thubelisha Homes and the state’s eviction order against the community, the residents decided to appeal at the Supreme Court of Appeal in Bloemfontein. The lawyers worked through the night doing the paperwork for this appeal.

A defiantly red shack stands in Arnett Drive with Abahlali's injunction to 'Qina!'

26 August 2008

Judgment in this matter was handed down in the Durban High Court today - a total victory for Abahlali baseMjondolo. But while the court was in session the city moved against the Siyanda settlement, where Abahlali just opened a new branch last week with 50 members, illegally demolishing shacks and leaving people homeless...The struggle continues. (Click here to read the short report on the judgment in The Mercury).

Update:7 March 2008 Click here for an article in the Sowetan on a protest by people made homeless in this patently illegal eviction.

Update:13 November 2007 Click here to see an article in the Daily News on the (Slums Act?) 'transit camp' that has been set up for the evicted families.

After 15 years of living in a settled community people are now being evicted, apparently with a court order, after the municipality sold off the public owned land (that had been popularly appropriated for a new commonage) to a private owner. Last time around people in Sea Cow Lake vigorously resisted eviction. This is not an Abahlali settlement but, from outside, it seems unlikely that the court support for the eviction would stand up to an appeal given that people are being left homeless.