Delft Anti-Eviction Campaign Press Statement
9 October, 2008 - For Immediate Release

A few days ago, Jerome Daniels and Riedwaan Issacs were released parole after their lawyer lodged an appeal to the ruling of Magistrate Van Graan. Jerome and Riedwaan, who have been serving their sentences in Polsmoor and Goodwood prisons, where sentenced by Van Graan who argued that he needed to hold the defendants responsible even if they were not present during the incident and that he furthermore needed to "teach the Anti-Eviction Campaign a lesson".

The AEC maintains that the ruling is both politically motivated and an attempt discourage poor South Africans from participating in social movements such as the Anti-Eviction Campaign. Residents of Symphony Way have stated that "if the justice system was fair, the Magistrate would never have sentenced Jerome and Wanie in what his judgment stated was in the interest of the community. Because if you ask anyone in our community, the judgment meant that we had lost two of our most tireless community workers. This was obviously not in our interest."

Update 24 October: Click here to see a letter of protest on the Siyanda evictions sent to Obed Mlaba by COHRE.

Siyanda Residents March

Breaking News: Siyanda shack-dwellers, facing eviction from the MR577 Freeway site, are staging ongoing marches to halt building and allocations at the Kulula Housing Project. The contractors have just been stopped from proceeding with the patently unfair allocation of housing that has been undertaken without any form of meaningful consultation. There is a heavy police presence again today and the situation is tense. (There is an article in yesterday's Isolezwe here.)

Update: 20 August 16:46 Word has just been received that another home, this one occupied by 3 families, is burning in Motala Heights....

19 August 2008
Press Release from the Motala Heights Abahlali baseMjondolo Branch

Armed De-Electrification in the Motala Heights Settlement

This morning an eThekwini Municipal official invaded the Motala Heights settlement with a group of security guards. They drew their guns, said that they were there to disconnect what they call 'illegal electricity connections' and what every one else calls 'lifesaving community connections' and threatened to shoot anyone that resisted.

Tuesday, 19 August 2008
LPM Protea South Press Release

The Protea South Branch of the Landless People's Movement Has Won a Breakthrough Court Order Against the City of Johannesburg

Since 2003 the Landless People's Movement in the Protea South shack settlement in Soweto has been trying, without success, to engage the City of Johannesburg around the future of the settlement. The Protea South LPM branch has clear demands:

1. There must be no evictions.

2. Every effort must be made to build houses for the people in Protea South.

3. If it is genuinely not possible to build houses for all residents in Protea South then discussions must be held to find the closest possible alternative site.

Anti-Eviction Campaign Press Statement
Sunday 29th June, 2008
Police Intimidate/Assault Delft-Symphony Pavement Dwellers

AEC v SAPS

Delft-Symphony -- Last night, three police vans pulled up to Symphony Way dressed in riot gear. Without warning, they began pepper spraying people in the settlement and attempted to arrest an older resident named Auntie Tilla. When it was all over, the road's pastor had been assaulted, beaten and abducted and five residents had been pepper sprayed multiple times. An American journalist had also been sprayed merely for taking photographs of police officers. The Anti-Eviction Campaign believes this intimidation and violence is uncalled for and condemns such cowardly actions by police. As of today, residents and the American journalist have laid charges of assault against Superintendent Van Wyk and the police under his command. Pavement Dwellers call on police to work with them to protect them from speeding drunk drivers rather than against them.

3:03 p.m.
Wednesday 25 June 2008

Update: All charges brought against James Pillay by Leon Govender were dropped in the Pinetown Magistrate's Court today. The Pinetown SAPS now have to account for why they twice arrested James on patently ridiculous charges after assaults and intimidation by Govender's thugs and, the first time, held him for 47 hours and 45 minutes. The good news is that James and his wife Mallie remain in their house despite Govender's ongoing attempts since 2005 to have them evicted.

Western Cape Anti-Eviction Campaign
URGENT NEWSFLASH!! (For updates, including video footage, visit the new Anti-Eviction Campaign site here)
10:57am
Tuesday 19 February 2008

POLICE SHOOT THREE CHILDREN IN DELFT

Police proceed with unlawful eviction of 1600 residents in Delft, Cape Town

Police have started shooting people at close range in Delft. There is pandemonium and brutality. Following yesterday’s ruling in the High Court which uphold’s Thubelisha Homes and the state’s eviction order against the community, the residents decided to appeal at the Supreme Court of Appeal in Bloemfontein. The lawyers worked through the night doing the paperwork for this appeal.

Update: Sunday, 17 February 2008 As predicted there was a serious fire in Kennedy Road following the mass disconnections. It began in one of the shacks disconnected from electricity on Thursday. S'bu Zikode's response to the tragedy of being proven right so quickly is here, Phili Mjoli's article in Isolezwe is here and David Ntseng's photographs are here.

Friday, 15 February 2008
Abahlali baseMjondolo Press Release

City Escalates Its War on the Poor