The Innocent in the Dock, the Guilty in their Offices

eThekwini kukhala abangcwele

On 29 January the Abahlali 14 will be back in the dock.

On 25 February the Kennedy 6 will be back in the dock.

On 28 February Philani Zungu will be back in the dock.

We will never see the City officials that ordered the illegal and criminal demolitions in the Arnett Drive Settlement last week in the dock.

Thursday, 22 November 2007
Abahlali baseMjondolo Press Release
12:02

Neither the March nor the Money are Ours

The phones of the Abahlali spokespeople have been ringing all day with calls from journalists wanting to know about the shack dweller's march that was meant to happen today and the 10 Million dollars from the Gates Foundation for Housing. We thank all the journalists for their interest. We always appreciate it. But we need to explain some things. The march is not ours and the money is not for us.

In eThekwini alone there are more than 500 shack settlements and the people living in these settlements are represented by many organisations. We speak only for our members in 34 settlements. We work with all organisations with which we can find or build some common ground but we don't speak for anyone else. The many other organisations all speak for themselves. This is how it should be.

Discussing the Crisis

Update, 24 January 2008: A court interdict was secured preventing the Municipality from continuing to evict illegally. Click here for the full details.

Update, 17 January 2008: The Land Invasions Unit returned this morning. 3 shacks went down before the attack was stopped. Click here for the full details.

Update, 9 December: The contested shacks still stand. At 9:00 a.m. today a meeting was held to elect the Arnett Drive Abahlali branch secretariat for 2008. The whole community turned out in a strong show of support.

This is what (state) democracy (really) looks like in South Africa....

Update12: 29 January, 2008 - All charges against the Abahlali 14 were dropped in the Durban Magistrate's Court today after the prosecutor told the Magistrate that "there is no possibility of a successful prosecution in this matter." As the 50 or so Bahlali exited the court Mam Kikine, who was one of the 14, and who was shot 5 times in the back with rubber bullets at close range during the March on Mlaba in September last year, asked "Uphi uNayager nezinja zakhe?"

Update 11: The case has been remanded till 28 January 2008. There is an article on the march (and its violent repression) in groundWork's December newsletter.

Update 10 13/11/2007: The next court appearance for the Sydenham 14 will now be on 28 November 2007 in the regional court. Also, Mashumi Figlan's response to the police attack on the march has finally been loaded onto this site and the new issue of iBandla koweZindlu is all about the march and its repression.

Update 9: Click here for the minutes of the meeting held with Church Leaders to discuss the violent police attack on the march, here for an article on the police attack and the debate about dangers to democracy in South Africa by Stephen Friedman, here for a follow up article by Na'eem Jeenah and here for the full exchange of letters between COHRE and City Manager Michael Sutcliffe.

Update 8: Only 6 days after the criminal police attack on the Abahlali march police attacked a protest against the illegal eviction of 50 families who have been living in Sea Cow Lake for 8 years wounding still more people and arresting a further eleven. The municipality tried to justify their illegal evictions in the name of the Slums Act. The Sydenham 14 appeared in court on 2 October and the case was remanded for further police investigation. The next court date is 13 November.

Update 7: Click here to see the first batch of pictures to have come through the net of water cannon damage and police confiscation and deletion, here to read Police Violence in Sydenham, 28 September, 2007: A Testimony by Church Leaders, here to read An Open Letter to Obed Mlaba & Mike Sutcliffe by the Centre on Housing Rights & Evictions (Geneva), here to read a report on these two statements in the Sunday Tribune, here for some newspaper pictures of the march and here for the article in the Weekly Gazette.

Update 6 (Sunday, midnight): Click here to read S'bu Zikode's response to the attack on the march - Silencing the Right to Speak is Taking Away Citizenship and here and here for responses from Jacques Depelchin (DRC) and Anilliah Masaraure (Zimbabwe), here for a short solidarity statement from Peoples' House in Turkey and here for a solidarity statement from the people of Dikmen Valley, Ankara, Turkey.

Update 5 (Sunday evening): Numerous people have suffered minor injuries and the list of people who have received or who are receiving hospital treatment includes 2 people from Kennedy Road, 2 people from Joe Slovo (Durban), 1 person from Isaka ('Maritzburg) and 1 person from eNkwalini. Ma Kikine, 53, of Joe Slovo has been shot 5 times in the back and once on the back of the left arm at close range with rubber bullets. She is obviously frail and was obviously in great pain but did not receive any medical attention while in custody.

Update 4: Click here for the Memorandum that Mlaba didn't bother to come and collect, here for an article in the Independent on Saturday, here for an eyewitness account by Mark Butler, here for comment from Mnikelo Ndabankulu, here for comment from Brother Fillipo Mondini (here for a response by Jacques Depelchin), here for An open letter to Lindiwe Sisulu from 'Citizens Against Privatization' in New Zealand and here for an article in the Italian magazine Carta.