http://www.businessday.co.za/articles/topstories.aspx?ID=BD4A724355

Top Stories

Posted to the web on: 11 March 2008
‘Know your rights’ drive kicks off
Sibongakonke Shoba

THE public service and administration department’s campaign to educate the public about their service rights was widely welcomed by nongovernmental organisations (NGOs) and researchers, but organisations that joined in service delivery protests said it would not make a difference.

Public Service and Administration Minister Geraldine Fraser-Moleketi launched the campaign in Johannesburg yesterday.

http://www.themercury.co.za/index.php?fArticleId=4287402

The Mercury

Columnists

Everyone needs a stake in our society

Across the country, housing has become the single largest cause of conflict between the state and poor communities

March 05, 2008 Edition 1

Imraan Buccus

Last week shocking images of the police shooting at Cape Town's poorest citizens were beamed around the world as the people of Delft were attacked. The damage to the city and the country caused by these images that looked like a flashback to the 1980s is incalculable.

http://www.capetimes.co.za/index.php?fArticleId=4259562

Judge orders metro to buy land for squatters
Cape Times
February 18, 2008 Edition 1

Anna Louw

JOHANNESBURG: In a landmark judgment, a high court judge has ruled in favour of a group of landless people living in an informal settlement near Buhle Park, Germiston.

The court ordered the Ekurhuleni Metro to buy the land that the people had occupied illegally for the past seven years and to provide them with basic services - immediately.

http://www.sundaytribune.co.za/index.php?fArticleId=4236310

OpEd
Poor in hell while elite buys heaven
Sunday Tribune

February 03, 2008 Edition 1

Imraan Buccus

National attention remains fixed on the unlovely aftermath of Polokwane and the electricity debacle. 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.

The old Swahili proverb about the grass suffering when the elephants fight has become something of a cliché, but certain things do bear repeating.

Summit discusses abuse of farm dwellers

Sne Masuku, Sowetan, 7 December 2007

Emotions ran high when community-based organisations met the ministry of land affairs at a two-day Land Agrarian indaba aimed at addressing problems of farm dwellers in Zululand.

The abuse of farm dwellers was high on the agenda. Land Affairs Minister Lulu Xingwana and KwaZulu-Natal MEC for agriculture and environmental affairs Mtholephi Mthimkhulu attended the summit that ends today.

Xingwana said she hoped the summit would find ways of resolving the issues of abuse against farm dwellers.

http://www.themercury.co.za/index.php?fArticleId=4158137

Residents lash out over demolition

December 04, 2007 Edition 1

PROFfESOR NDAWONDE

More than 50 children and 20 women were left homeless when their shacks at an informal settlement in Reservoir Hills were destroyed last week, apparently by the eThekwini Municipality's Housing Department.

Hundreds of Abahlali base Mjondolo (shack dwellers' movement) members were affected by the action.

Thabisile Ndlovu, 33, a mother of three children, including a 2-year-old, was among those left without a roof over her head.

"We are sleeping at my friend's house and there is not enough space for all of us. It a pity because we voted for this democracy, but we are being oppressed by our own leaders," she said.

http://www.isolezwe.co.za/index.php?fArticleId=4157969

Basale dengwane bedilizelwa imijondolo

December 04, 2007 Edition 1

PROFFESOR NDAWONDE

Izimvula ezihambisana namakhaza kanye nelanga elikhipha umkhovu etsheni kuphelela ezinganeni ezingaphezulu kwezingu-50 kanye nonina bazo njengoba imijondolo abahlala kuyo eReservoir Hills idilizwe yonke nguMasipala weTheku.

Iningi lemindeni esale dengwane ngenxa yalesi simo yileyo engamalungu enhlangano eyaziwa ngokuthi Abahlali baseMjondolo.

UNksz Thabsile Ndlovu (33) ongunina wezingane ezintathu okukhona kuyo eneminyaka emibili ungomunye wabantu abangase bawudlele esigangeni uKhisimusi njengoba abamele uMasipala beshaya phansi bethi ababafuni kule ndawo.