Martin Legassick
Submitted by Abahlali_3 on Wed, 2009-10-14 07:28.
Cape Times | Martin Legassick | Mzonke Poni | The Attack on AbM in Kennedy Road http://www.capetimes.co.za/index.php?fArticleId=5201423
The Kennedy Road killings are akin to Stalinism and a threat to democracy
October 14, 2009 Edition 1
Martin Legassick and Mzonke Poni
ON September 26 at 11.30pm, a group of 30 to 40 men wielding pangas, sticks and guns surrounded the community hall in Kennedy Road informal settlement in Durban.
Kennedy Road is the original home of Abahlali baseMjondolo (ABM), a social movement of shackdwellers which has active branches in 34 Durban settlements and 54 nationally, with about 20 000 members. ABM is respected internationally and throughout South Africa by civil society organisations for its participatory democratic and non-violent procedures.
Submitted by Abahlali_3 on Fri, 2009-10-09 15:14.
court | Macassar Village | Martin Legassick | Mzonke Poni | police Click here to read Mzonke Poni's essay on his arrest and the meaning of 'public violence' in contemporary South Africa
‘Police lies exposed in court’
Mzonke Poni, leader of Abahlali base Mjondolo in the Western Cape, and accused on a charge of ‘public violence’ had his case discharged in court on Tuesday 29 September for ‘lack of reliable evidence’. Mzonke conducted his own defence and he did so brilliantly. He led the three witnesses, one from the Metro Police and two from Cape Town’s anti-land-invasion unit, into contradicting themselves and each other.
Submitted by Abahlali_3 on Wed, 2009-08-12 16:43.
Cape Times | delft | Martin Legassick | newspaper_story http://www.capetimes.co.za/index.php?fArticleId=5121142
an emergency effort is needed
The Western Cape housing crisis can be solved
August 12, 2009 Edition 1
Martin Legassick
It is good news that Tokyo Sexwale and Helen Zille have decided to bury the hatchet on the petty squabbling between the ANC and DA (largely, let it be said, initiated by the ANC) over the N2 Gateway project and land allocation in the province.
The spat has hampered housing delivery in the province. We are now told "the three spheres of government are to sit around one table to decide on the future of the project." ("Sexwale, Zille and city to decide on N2 Gateway," August 10).
Submitted by Abahlali_3 on Fri, 2009-05-22 11:42.
Macassar Village | Martin Legassick | occupation 
Macassar Village, 19 May 2009
Click here to read the version of this article published in the Cape Times.
Bankruptcy of responses to Macassar land occupation underlines Western Cape housing crisis
21/5/2009
By Martin Legassick
On Tuesday 19th backyarders in Macassar, desperate for homes, built shacks on municipal land on a field adjoining the N2 – and were illegally evicted by Cape Town’s DA Helen-Zille-inspired Anti-Land Invasion unit, together with SAPS and Metro Police. Their building materials were confiscated and taken off in a truck. In the process four people (including a 2-year old child) were unnecessarily wounded by police rubber bullets, four people (including myself) were unnecessarily taken into custody and three of these wrongfully charged with public violence.
Submitted by Abahlali_3 on Sun, 2007-09-16 16:49.
Martin Legassick | newspaper_article | slovo | Sunday Argus 
Updates are being added below - scroll down to see them or click here to see the Joe Slovo solidarity digital archive.
http://www.capeargus.co.za/index.php?fSectionId=3131
Since the launch in 2004 of N2 Gateway, Housing Minister Lindiwe Sisulu’s pet ‘flagship’ project has run into problem after problem: delayed delivery, cost over-runs, above all lack of consultation. In their 2004-5 report the Development Action Group, an NGO, wrote “The top-down approach in the N2 project undermines its overall sustainability… The casual, continued and increasing practice of excluding people from decision-making about development processes that directly affect their lives is an obstacle that communities are unlikely to tolerate for much longer.”
Submitted by Abahlali_3 on Tue, 2009-10-27 08:10.
Martin Legassick | The Attack on AbM in Kennedy Road | The Witness The article by Willies Mchunu, the Safety & Security MEC who notoriously claimed to have have 'liberated' Kennedy Road after the attack on the AbM, to which the letter below was written in response, is online here.
http://www.witness.co.za/index.php?showcontent&global[_id]=29984
Questions for Willies Mchunu
27 Oct 2009
SAFETY and Security MEC Willies Mchunu’s article (The Witness, October?20) evades almost every key aspect of the Kennedy Road situation. Abahlali baseMjondolo (ABM) is respected internationally and throughout South Africa as a democratic, nonviolent social movement. It is, in fact, Mchunu, and not his critics, who brings the African National Congress into disrepute with his vicious, undemocratic attack on ABM.
Submitted by Abahlali_3 on Thu, 2009-06-18 15:26.
Cape Argus | letter | Martin Legassick | slovo http://www.capeargus.co.za/index.php?fArticleId=5037783
Ruling brings relief to too few shack dwellers
June 16, 2009 Edition 1
Your editorial ("A mixed outcome", June 11) claims the Constitutional Court's decision on the eviction of the residents of Joe Slovo informal settlement to make way for N2 Gateway homes included the provision that "70 percent of the shack dwellers who were recorded as being resident there in 2000, and qualified for this housing, should be returned to the area once new homes have been built."
Submitted by Abahlali_3 on Wed, 2009-05-27 07:07.
Cape Times | Macassar Village | Martin Legassick | occupation http://www.capetimes.co.za/index.php?fArticleId=4998648
Opinion
Macassar: if the state can't provide, people must be allowed to build themselves
Too few houses, too many people to house
May 26, 2009 Edition 1
Martin Legassick
On Tuesday last week, backyarders in Macassar, desperate for homes, built shacks on municipal land on a field adjoining the N2 - and were illegally evicted by Cape Town's Anti-Land Invasion unit, together with the SAPS and Metro Police.
Their building materials were confiscated and taken off in a truck. In the process, four people, including a two-year old child, were wounded by police rubber bullets, four people - including myself - were taken into custody and three of these charged with public violence.
Submitted by abahlali on Wed, 2008-02-20 16:50.
article | Martin Legassick http://westerncapeantieviction.wordpress.com/2008/02/19/background-to-delft-evictions/
Thoughts provoked by being interviewed by Keketso Sechane, Heart 104.9 radio, 19/2/2008
Today people have been evicted from houses in Delft at police gunpoint – despite their non-violence. But this situation, arising from illegal occupation of N2 Gateway Houses, was not caused, as the Housing DG said on your programme earlier, by DA councillor Frank Martin. It is a product of a contradiction between two things: on the one hand a desperate and worsening housing crisis in the Western Cape; and, on the other, the inflexible bureaucratic attitude of the tops of the national and provincial Housing Departments and the management of Thubelisha Homes in the N2 Gateway project.
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