http://www.themercury.co.za/index.php?fArticleId=4719651

Developments need to be based on partnerships
Without government and communities working together, even the best-intentioned projects can do more harm than good

November 19, 2008 Edition 1

Imraan Buccus

NATIONAL attention remains fixed on the unlovely aftermath of Polokwane and the new political party, Congress of the People (Cope).

At times like this, we often forget the ordinary people who keep the country going, and in whose name most of the major battles continue to be fought.

http://www.themercury.co.za/index.php?fArticleId=4700038

Slums Act hearings begin in Durban

November 07, 2008 Edition 1

Tania Broughton

DANCING and singing, a crowd of red-T-shirt-clad shack dwellers descended on the Durban High Court yesterday to hear legal argument in their attempt to have the KwaZulu-Natal Slums Act deemed unconstitutional and scrapped from the law books.

"Phansi, Slums Act, Phansi," their T-shirts and banners proclaimed as they blew vuvuzelas and chanted freedom songs outside the court building at the start of the two-day hearing.

http://www.themercury.co.za/index.php?fArticleId=4647626

Opinion
Housing Concerns

October 07, 2008 Edition 1

A report released yesterday on housing rights and "slum eradication" in Durban makes for sobering reading.

In it the Geneva-based Centre on Housing Rights and Eviction praises the eThekwini Municipality for its zeal in building a considerable number of homes, but also expresses a number of serious concerns.

These include the size, quality and location of the houses being built, the failure to provide adequate levels of basic services to shack dwellers, the authoritarian methods used to evict people and to silence dissenters, and the strong perceptions in communities of corruption and political patronage in the municipality's housing system.

http://www.iol.co.za/index.php?set_id=1&click_id=124&art_id=vn20081006055013156C457741

'Change outlook on housing'

October 06 2008

By Mercury reporter

South Africa in general, and Durban in particular, need to abandon the idea that a "world-class" city is a place where the poor are hidden from view.

This is among the recommendations in a report released on Monday by the Centre on Housing Rights and Evictions, which is based in Geneva.

The centre argues in a report on housing issues in the eThekwini region that the South African government, cities and civic organisations should undergo a general paradigm shift regarding housing policy.

http://www.themercury.co.za/?fArticleId=4646145

Housing 'a cause for concern'

October 06, 2008 Edition 1

Mercury reporter

A MAJOR housing study released today has raised concerns about apparently high levels of state repression and perceptions of political patronage and rampant corruption in the eThekwini's municipality's housing system.

While pointedly commending the municipality for its zeal in building a "considerable number" of houses for the poor, the 200-page report into housing rights and slum eradication in Durban raised several worries. These concern the standard and location of new houses, methods used in evictions and the municipality's reluctance to properly consult and communicate with those affected.

Clearly shack dwellers don't count as 'residents' in this article...If they did, and were spoken to, the journalist would soon have discovered all kinds of worries on that side of the fence too....Like the fact that the building of the government shacks is still not complete months after the fire (unlike in Kennedy where people, with City help in getting building materials for the first time, rebuilt themselves in a week; like the fact that the government shacks are being allocated with shocking political bias resulting in long standing residents being left homeless while outsiders with the right connections get the government shacks....

The Mercury continues to report as if the Councillor's connection is an elected representative in Foreman Road....But it is interesting how both she and the councillor are now making some of the old Abahlali demands - taps, fire hydrants, houses. Although Baig is still talking about relocation and his handful of people in the settlement are welcoming the bulldozers....The morning after the fire a mass meeting open to all was held by the residents. A clear decision was taken to rebuild and not to accept a transit camp on the site or elsewhere.Clearly the people's views do no count for the councillor, the housing department or the newspaper...

http://www.themercury.co.za/index.php?fArticleId=4579146

Opinion
The social value of land must come first

August 27, 2008 Edition 1

Imraan Buccus

There has been considerable discussion after the announcement that the eThekwini Municipality is considering expropriating land from Tongaat-Hulett to finally move ahead with the long promised Cornubia development.

We all know that in Durban, as in cities around the country, the question of housing is the biggest source of conflict between poor people's organisations and the state.

http://www.themercury.co.za/index.php?fArticleId=4579195

Judge rules on threat to demolish shacks

August 27, 2008 Edition 2

Tania Broughton

RESIDENTS of a Durban informal settlement will sleep easy after securing a final Durban High Court interdict preventing city officials from demolishing their makeshift homes.

Yesterday's order by Acting Judge Jerome Mnguni is being hailed as a victory for the shack dwellers.

While the matter centred on a narrow issue of "reasonable apprehension" of demolition, their attorney, Mahendra Chetty, of Durban's Legal Resources Centre, said the ruling sent out a message that the rights of those living in informal settlements could not be trampled on.