Abahlali baseMjondolo report on the recent judgement on the 2007 Kwa ZuluNatal Slums Act in Durban. The shackdwellers had applied to the court to declare the Act unconstitutional. Their application was denied by the Judge whose statement was clearly an attack against the poor....
The Slums Act makes things more orderly in this province and the Act must be given a chance to show off its potential to help deal with problem of slums and slum conditions."
The shackdwellers take the view that settlements are living communities which need to be developed and the Slum Act is a return to apartheid politics whereby it is now poverty that has become a security problem and the poor are criminalised for being poor. Their next step is to take their case to the Constitutional Court of South Africa.
The Movement still believes that Amandla is still Awethu and that there is no one that can take that away from us. We will continue to protest against the government's ongoing attacks on the poor, against evictions called 'delivery', against government shacks called 'transit camps', against rural human dumping grounds called 'housing opportunities', against the failure to provide services to settlements resulting in fires, endless water queues, sickness and attacks in dark nights.

Sokwanele – This is Zimbabwe comments on Morgan Tsvangirai’s statement to finally agree to join ZANU PF in ruling Zimbabwe – no not yet time to open the champagne!
“Friday’s announcement from Morgan Tsvangirai came as no surprise. For me it was a moment of resignation – I am resigned to the fact that following nine years of hard work, hours spent recording one catastrophe after another and the energy that has gone into saving the endless victims of the vile regime, we now have to accept the great compromise.”

Yet before the ink is even dry, it seems ZANU-PF are already backtracking on the inclusive governing agreement
“Today, the Zanu PF negotiators said they could not talk about the issue because they have no mandate from their leader who is attending the AU summit in Ethiopia.
We in the MDC are convinced that there is no intention on the part of Zanu PF to put all these issues to rest. There is no wish to consummate an inclusive government in line with SADC resolutions. “

Sukuma Kenya comments on the failure of the Kenyan parliament to pass the necessary legislation to set up a special tribunal to implement the Waki Report (on the 2007/08 post-election violence). Rather than see this as a setback Sukuma says it is a blessing in disguise as the next step is the Hague where he believes justice will be better served under an independent judiciary.

“We, Kenyans, support The Hague option because having an independent unbiased third party such as the ICC in charge will ensure that the process for justice is free from political interference. Further, this will save the nation from soap-opera-like intrigues and the twists and turns that is customary with Kenyan public business as political elite battle to stay in power. Even as the parliament rushed in an attempt to pass the law to set up the Special Tribunal, there are crucial questions that either alarmed or concerned Kenyans:”

Staying with Kenya,Gukira returns to the Kenya’s independence and the unveiling of the national flag. Gukira asks who owns the flag (who owns Kenya?) then and now and what is it’s purpose. Although in 1963m Tom Mboya describes the flag as being a symbol of “national unity” and one that must be respected, he goes on to say that the public should not fly the flag on their bicycles thereby separating two key groups of Kenyans – those that define the flag and those for whom the meaning is defined, the political class and the public.
The distinction between the political class and the public is further defined by the spaces the flag should occupy. Mboya’s comment that it should not be displayed on bicycles expresses a clear division between the public and the political class. While the flag is not supposed to be displayed on bicycles, it is proudly displayed on vehicles belonging to politicians.
From the early years of the twentieth century, the bicycle promised freedom and mobility to black Kenyans. Even today, elderly Kenyans remember the first individuals who owned bicycles in their villages. The bicycle was the mwananchi’s lexus. During the 1920s, Jomo Kenyatta was famous for owning and riding his bicycle around Nairobi. In fact, it’s not overstating the point to claim that the bicycle is an integral part of Kenya’s political history.

The Trials & Tribulations of a Freshly Arrived Denizen of Ghana writes on the many possible meanings of being a West African. For example could it be “an ECOWAS” – the West African economic union which issues passports which are not recognised or are they?
Where's that ECOWAS passport?

But to move swiftly to the second reason why I don't feel I can call myself an "ECOWAS-ian" is to do with the passport. Despite the fact that the ECOWAS passport has been around for a while, it is still only operational in Benin; Mali; Nigeria and Senegal! Ghana made a lot of noise that by 2007 it would start operating it alongside the traditional ones.

It never happened.
Black Looks- How is it news when a President takes a vacation? When he does so without informing the legislature or allowing his deputy to deputise for him. Black Looks ponders on the ongoing saga of President Yar’Adua’s vacations and do nothing governance.

* Sokari Ekine blogs at www.blacklooks.org

* Please send comments to [email protected] or comment online at http://www.pambazuka.org/