http://www.news24.com/News24/South_Africa/News/0,,2-7-1442_2193292,00.html

Two die in shack fires
30/09/2007 16:10 - (SA)

Cape Town - Two people died and about 2 000 lost their homes on Sunday after five separate fires broke out in informal settlements around Cape Town, emergency services said.

About 400 shacks were destroyed at Nonzamo, with over 1 800 people left destitute, said Cape Town emergency services head Greg Pillay.

At Wallacedene to the north, another 60 informal homes were razed and 200 people left homeless.

The destitute have been temporarily housed at community centres, and non-governmental bodies were providing meals, blankets and clothing.

http://www.int.iol.co.za/index.php?set_id=1&click_id=13&art_id=qw1157474522368B216

'Right to protest is being curtailed'

September 06 2006 at 07:22AM

The right to peaceful protest and demonstration was widely suppressed in South Africa, a report by the Freedom of Expression Institute said on Tuesday.

"There is widespread violations of the right to demonstrate in South Africa. Demonstrators are denied their constitutional rights to freedom of expression and assembly," the FXI said.

Activists opposing the government's macro-economic policies and their communities' slide into deeper poverty are finding themselves isolated and targeted by municipalities and law enforcement bodies.

http://www.int.iol.co.za/index.php?set_id=1&click_id=13&art_id=qw1161176042227B225

New homes fail to dent SA's housing backlog

October 18 2006 at 07:00PM

South Africa's housing backlog has widened due to growing urbanisation and demand despite the building of 1,9-million new homes for the poor since the end of apartheid in 1994, the government said.

Of the total figure, 1,6-million houses worth about R37-billion have already been transferred to poor households, according to a review released late Tuesday by the national treasury.

"Despite these delivery rates, the housing backlog has grown," it said, adding that the number of dwellings classified as "inadequate" - mostly shacks - had grown 20 percent from 1,5-million in 1996 to 1,8-million in 2001.

Available at
http://www.int.iol.co.za/index.php?set_id=1&click_id=13&art_id=qw1162725301232B216

Shack fire claims three

November 05 2006 at 01:34PM

Three people were killed in a shack fire in Kwa-Dabeka near Pinetown on Sunday morning, KwaZulu-Natal police said.

"Three unidentified adults were killed. We suspect it was caused by candles falling over. Seven shacks were destroyed," said Superintendent Danelia Veldhuizen.

An inquest docket was opened. - Sapa

http://www.sapa.org.za/secure/view.cfm?id=1963473

BC-PROTEST-LD-SHACKS
PROTEST-LD-SHACKS
DURBAN Feb 27 Sapa
HUNDREDS OF SQUATTERS TAKE TO THE STREETS IN DBN

Hundreds of squatters took to the streets of Durban over poor
housing on Monday after the Durban High Court overruled a council
decision not to allow the protest.
Police stopped the marchers earlier in the day, claiming their
action was illegal.
However they were allowed to proceed to the Durban City Hall --
under a heavy police presence -- to hand over a memorandum of
grievances after the court's ruling in favour of the Shack Dwellers

Available at
http://www.int.iol.co.za/index.php?set_id=1&click_id=3012&art_id=qw1141049881345B216

February 27 2006 at 05:40PM

Four members of the Shack Dwellers Movement, also known as also known as Abahlali Base Mjondolo, arrested at the beginning of a march on the Durban City Hall on Monday, will lay assault charges against the police.

Mdu Hlongwa, 26, said he and three others were beaten with a mop handle and kicked while forced to the floor by police in a cell at Sydenham police station after being arrested on Monday morning.

"Later they took us to a fence and pushed us really hard against it," he said.

Available at http://www.int.iol.co.za/index.php?set_id=1&click_id=124&art_id=qw1135493101629B225

December 25 2005 at 01:50AM

From the slums of Durban, a new movement is giving voice to millions of South Africans living in shacks and increasingly feeling forgotten by the post-apartheid government.

Abahlali Base Mjondolo, the Zulu name for shack dwellers, is the largest group to emerge from South Africa's "informal settlements", the sprawling slums of wood, corrugated steel and cardboard shacks that have mushroomed near cities.

Its leader, 30-year-old petrol attendant S'bu Zikode, gained national prominence last month when newspapers published a letter he wrote poignantly describing the lives of South Africa's poorest of the poor.