23 May 2008
11pm

Anti-War coordinator arrested at anti-xenophobia vigil

CAPE TOWN - Some very disturbing events have unfolded in Central Cape Town this evening. A peaceful vigil was held in front of Parliament from 5pm onwards. The Cape Town Anti-War Coalition, Zille Raine Heights community, Cape Town Action Forum against High Prices, ILRIG, student groups and refugee organisations participated in relatively small numbers. We were shocked to see six police cars and vans at our protest. We would have thought that the police would have been very busy clamping down on xenophobic attacks around the city. It was also disturbing to see a number of what appeared to be National Intelligence Agency personnel at the march, monitoring the speeches closely.

Friday 12 October 2007 1pm

Press Statement for Immediate Release

Protests at Home affairs Planned

There will be a 24 hour picket outside of home affairs (the refugee home affairs beneath the high way next to the International Conference centre) in Cape Town starting at 8:30pm on Sunday the 14th Oct, where in an attempt to get attention, foreign students from UCT along with some South Africans (black and white) will be sleeping on the street along side our illegal friends- the Zimbabweans.

There will be further demonstrations in front of home affairs (the refugee home affairs beneath the high way next to the International Conference centre) at 13:00 on Monday the 15th Oct where large numbers of our PASSOP members will be coming through from the townships.

Joe Slovo residents will be at Cape High Court in large numbers tomorrow and protesting there on Wednesday

Monday 24 September 2007
5pm

The 6000 residents of Joe Slovo informal settlement in Langa, Cape Town will be individually handing in their legal notice of their intention to oppose the state's application to forcibly remove them from their land.

The residents will be doing this all day tomorrow at the Cape High Court, ahead of Wednesday's hearing. The Ministry of Housing has applied for a court order which would allow them to forcibly remove 100 families per week for the next 45 weeks, and this will be heard by the court on Wednesday. Each and every resident vowed at community meetings this week that they would oppose this application in the High Court. The law allows for each and every resident to state why they feel they should not be forcibly removed and they intend to do just that.

JOE SLOVO SHACKDWELLERS TASK TEAM PRESS STATEMENT

8:30am

Monday 10th September 2007

Joe Slovo Shackdwellers Statement on N2 Highway Blockade

LANGA, CAPE TOWN - More than one thousand residents from Joe Slovo informal settlement on the N2 highway near the Cape Town airport, have blockaded the highway since 4:30am this morning.

The residents are protesting their imminent forced removal to the wasteland of Delft, over 30kms away. They have held the highway for almost 5 hours and are refusing to move.

"We are angry. We want RDP house in Joe Slovo. We want the Department of Housing to stop moving our people to Delft. We refuse to be moved there. It is far from our workplaces and also from places where we look for work. Those of us who are not getting paid undecent salaries are spending every day looking for work. We can't and won't move. The government took this decision without consulting us and now they must change it," said Mzwanele from the Joe Slovo Task Team.

All are invited to attend Women's Day in Zille Raine Heights.

The event starts at 10am on Women's Day, 9th August 2007 and will finish at 1pm.

You are invited to bring your own activity.

Plays etc will be performed.

The struggle by the shackdwellers of Zille Raine Heights, most of whom are 5th generation shack dwellers, is led by women, who have stood up very strongly against one forced removal by police, and police brutality and other attempted evictions. It is thanks to the strong women of Zille Raine Heights, who have even led an occupation of the M5 highway before, that the entire community is still living in a neighbourhood where they have access to services like schools, clinics and transport, and not in the wasteland of Happy Valley where other shackdwellers are being dumped day after day.