http://www.themercury.co.za/index.php?fArticleId=4700038

Slums Act hearings begin in Durban

November 07, 2008 Edition 1

Tania Broughton

DANCING and singing, a crowd of red-T-shirt-clad shack dwellers descended on the Durban High Court yesterday to hear legal argument in their attempt to have the KwaZulu-Natal Slums Act deemed unconstitutional and scrapped from the law books.

"Phansi, Slums Act, Phansi," their T-shirts and banners proclaimed as they blew vuvuzelas and chanted freedom songs outside the court building at the start of the two-day hearing.

http://www.themercury.co.za/index.php?fArticleId=4579195

Judge rules on threat to demolish shacks

August 27, 2008 Edition 2

Tania Broughton

RESIDENTS of a Durban informal settlement will sleep easy after securing a final Durban High Court interdict preventing city officials from demolishing their makeshift homes.

Yesterday's order by Acting Judge Jerome Mnguni is being hailed as a victory for the shack dwellers.

While the matter centred on a narrow issue of "reasonable apprehension" of demolition, their attorney, Mahendra Chetty, of Durban's Legal Resources Centre, said the ruling sent out a message that the rights of those living in informal settlements could not be trampled on.

According to CALS Govenders' attempt to legally evict his tenants has no chance of success. Click here to read the CALS letter to Govender's attorney.

http://www.themercury.co.za/index.php?fArticleId=4569458

Land owner to take legal action to evict tenants

August 21, 2008 Edition 1

Tania Broughton

MOTALA Heights land owner Ricky Govender, who stands accused of waging a "war of attrition" against some of his tenants to force them off the land so that he can develop it, says they are "delusional" and are fabricating stories against him.

http://www.themercury.co.za/index.php?fArticleId=4458497

June 17, 2008 Edition 1

Tania Broughton

RESIDENTS of Motala Heights, near Pinetown, have secured another court interdict against landowner Ricky Govender, who they accuse of waging a "war of attrition" against them, to drive them off the property so that he can develop the land.

And they also hope for a Durban High Court order to compel the Pinetown police to "perform their statutory duties" and come to their aid, instead of "acting in cahoots" with Govender, his relatives and friends.

http://www.themercury.co.za/index.php?fArticleId=4255295

The Mercury

Move to prevent evictions

Slum eradication Bill slated
February 15, 2008 Edition 2

Tania Broughton

NEW provincial legislation aimed at slum eradication has come under attack from shack dwellers, who have gone to court to have it scrapped.

The shack dwellers, under the umbrella of the Abahlali baseMjondolo movement, said that the Slums Act - which was only signed into law six months ago - reduced them to "offensive nuisances to be cleared away by force, if necessary".

http://www.themercury.co.za/index.php?fArticleId=4222239
The Mercury

Shack demolitions halted

January 25, 2008 Edition 1

Tania Broughton

WHILE two little boys played in the rain in the ruins of a neighbour's home, lawyers acting for shack dwellers from Reservoir Hills were in the Durban High Court securing an interim interdict preventing the council demolishing any more homes.

The urgent court action against the eThekwini Municipality by six Annette Drive settlement residents came after officials from the city's land invasion unit destroyed three shacks there earlier this month and another yesterday.