Business Day

Ruling in Abahlali case lays solid foundation to build on

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http://www.businessday.co.za/articles/Content.aspx?id=85924

Ruling in Abahlali case lays solid foundation to build on
Marie Huchzermeyer
Published: 2009/11/04

ABAHLALI baseMjondolo hit the headlines recently. First, attacks on Durban’s Kennedy Road informal settlement drew a ground swell of newsworthy international condemnation, including a statement from US intellectual Noam Chomsky. A week later, media reported on the outcome of Abahlali’s Constitutional Court appeal on the KwaZulu-Natal slums act.

Business Day: Acid Test for ANC's Commitment to Democracy

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Business Day

STEVEN FRIEDMAN
Published: 2009/10/07 06:37:16 AM

WHILE those who shape the national debate avert their eyes, the government’s commitment to democracy is being tested in a Durban shack settlement. And it is failing.

Ten days ago, armed men descended on the Kennedy Road shack settlement. They reportedly killed several people and drove hundreds out. The raid was aimed at activists of the Abahlali baseMjondolo (AbM) shack- dwellers’ movement, whose leaders fled the settlement after being warned they would be killed. AbM has repeatedly challenged the local African National Congress (ANC) leadership; it has urged members not to vote and has launched a Constitutional Court action against the government.

Business Day: Burning message to the state in the fire of poor’s rebellion

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Bu makaleyi Türkçe okumak için buraya tiklayin.

http://www.businessday.co.za/articles/Content.aspx?id=76611

Burning message to the state in the fire of poor’s rebellion
Richard Pithouse
Published: 2009/07/23 06:30:32 AM

DU NOON, Diepsloot, Dinokana, Khayelitsha, KwaZakhele, Masiphumelele, Lindelani, Piet Retief and Samora Machel. We are back, after a brief lull during the election, to road blockades, burnt-out police cars and the whole sorry mess of tear gas, stun grenades and mass arrests. Already this month, a girl has been shot in the head in KwaZakhele, three men have been shot dead in Piet Retief, and a man from Khayelitsha is in a critical condition.

Media Reports on the Slums Act Case in the Constitutional Court

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Anti-Eviction Campaign, Abahlali baseMjondolo and Landless People's Movement banners outside the Constitutional Court

Update:Click here for the report in the Mail & Guardian, here for the report at One.World, , here for the editorial in the Witness and here for some video footage of the court hearing.

Slums law based on flawed interpretation of UN goals

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http://www.businessday.co.za/articles/opinion.aspx?ID=BD4A768901

by Marie Huchzermeyer in Business Day, 19 May 2008

NEWS that the KwaZulu-Natal Elimination and Prevention of Re-emergence of Slums Act will be replicated in other provinces comes as no surprise. Since 2001, national and provincial housing departments have been mandated with achieving this target, which stems from a fundamentally flawed South African interpretation of the United Nations’ (UN’s) Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) of 2000.

Business Day: Amnesty backs calls for Kennedy Road violence probe

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http://www.businessday.co.za/articles/Content.aspx?id=89957

Amnesty backs calls for Kennedy Road violence probe
FRANNY RABKIN
Published: 2009/12/21 07:15:52 AM

HUMAN rights organisation Amnesty International has thrown its weight behind the call for an independent commission of inquiry into September’s violence in KwaZulu-Natal’s Kennedy Road informal settlement.

On September 25, about 40 men carrying assegais, knobkerries, spears and guns attacked the settlement during a youth camp held by the Abahlali baseMjondolo movement, a shack- dwellers’ organisation. Two people were killed in the attack.

Business Day: Citizen groups need to grow deeper roots among the poor

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http://www.businessday.co.za/Articles/Content.aspx?id=86545

Citizen groups need to grow deeper roots among the poor
Eusebius McKaiser and Steven Friedman
Published: 2009/11/10 06:22:50 AM

CITIZENS’ organisations in SA may have more influence than they believe — but only if they think more strategically and try harder to represent people at the grassroots. This is the key finding of a study of civil society organisations undertaken by the Centre for the Study of Democracy at Rhodes University and the University of Johannesburg and funded by the Heinrich Böll Foundation.

Business Day: Slum dwellers’ body wants Langa to lead attack probe

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http://www.businessday.co.za/articles/Content.aspx?id=86059

Slum dwellers’ body wants Langa to lead attack probe

WILSON JOHWA
Published: 2009/11/05 06:24:08 AM

FORMER chief justice Pius Langa is among the eminent persons a slum dwellers’ association would like to lead an independent inquiry into the attack on a Durban informal settlement in which two people were killed six weeks ago.

Scores of people were also injured on September 26 when about 40 armed men struck at the Kennedy Road informal settlement, which is associated with Abahlali baseMjondolo, a body claiming a membership of 50000 in KwaZulu-Natal and the Western Cape. The incident was thought to be politically motivated.

Business Day: Worrying utterances

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http://www.businessday.co.za/articles/Content.aspx?id=8343

Worrying utterances

Crispin Hemson
Published: 2009/10/08 06:25:32 AM
The Kennedy Road issue in Durban has serious implications for the way SA
handles its informal settlements (Kennedy Road truth being hidden,
October 7).

I attended the stakeholders’ meeting called by the provincial
government. The tone of MEC Willies Mchunu’s address was very different
from that of earlier statements, to his credit. However, there were some

Business Day: Kennedy Road Truth Being Hidden

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Business Day
Published: 2009/10/07 06:37:17 AM

Kennedy Road Truth Being Hidden

African National Congress (ANC) stalwart and transport, community safety and liaison MEC Willies Mchunu has been sending out many press statements and holding a number of press conferences lately. The recurrent theme is that there is some sinister “forum” associated with Abahlali base Mjondolo president Sbu Zikode and that it was this “forum” that carried out the recent mob attacks in the Kennedy Road settlement in Durban, which killed at least four people and displaced as many as a thousand others.

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