High Court orders eThekwini Mayor, City Manager and Director of Housing responsible for ensuring compliance with court order, to provide houses to evicted Siyanda occupiers

Dear Mayor Patricia de Lille,

This letter has been written by the provincial executive of Abahlali baseMjondolo Movement South Africa. As poor people living in informal settlements, we have many severe grievances regarding our living conditions.

Following threats against S’bu Zikode, leader of South African shackdwellers movement Abahlali baseMjondolo, by the chair of a municipal housing committee, the group has called on democrats across the country to support Zikode and other activists ‘facing imtimidation and repression’.

This morning the eThekwini Municipality launched another armed raid on the Kennedy Road shack settlement to try and disconnect the people from electricity. As usual there was resistance, unarmed resistance, to this attack from the Municipality. The Municipality's security guards responded by firing live ammunition at the protesters.

This morning Municipal Security Guards arrived at the Kennedy Road shack settlement and began disconnecting people from electricity. The community had previously negotiated an understanding with the Municipality that they would not send their security guards into the settlement to disconnect.

‘On 16 June 1976, the youth died for Freedom, yet today while we are told that we are free it is clear that we are not free,’ writes South African shackdwellers movement Abahlali base Mjondolo, as the country marks both Youth Day and the 35th anniversary of the Soweto uprising. ‘We are struggling for a freedom that everyone can experience for themselves in their every day lives. That means decent education, decent work, a decent guaranteed income for those without work and a decent place to stay for everyone. It also means the freedom to organize as we want and to say what we want in safety.’

South Africans are still recovering from the heavy rains that caused a lot of damage and flooding especially to poor communities. In Siyanda people have to deal with fire as well as flood. The Shange family, the Buthelezi family and one other family have all been left homeless after a fire that destroyed three shacks in Siyanda B Settlement on Saturday, 11 June 2011 during the broad day light.

Abahlali baseMjondolo stands in full solidarity with the democratically elected leadership of the Makause settlement as they face threats of violence from the ANC branch in Primrose. We are far away in distance but close in spirit and we will do all that we can to mobilise support for the comrades in Makause as their community politic faces the threat of repression from the party politic. As our experience shows very well these threats must be taken very seriously by all democrats.

Following last week's municipal elections in South Africa, Abahlali baseMjondolo have issued a statement on the threat posed by the eThekwini Municipality’s Land Invasion Unit.

South African shackdwellers’ movement Abahlali baseMjondolo has issued a statement in support of the Makhaza back yard dwellers, whose homes are being demolished by the City of Cape Town without a court order.

‘It is one thing to be attacked by the police or securities. It is another thing to be attacked by other poor people that have been mobilised, on an ethnic basis, against an independent movement by the ruling party and given the support of the police to attack, to threaten, to demolish homes and to drive all the leading members of a movement out of a community,’ writes South African shackdwellers' movement, Abahlali baseMjondolo.

Abahlali baseMjondolo would like to invite your organisation/
community/area to SHACK FIRE SUMMIT that will be held at QQ informal
settlement site B Khayelitsha on 27 April 2011 from 10:00am to 13:00pm.

The aim of the event is to:

- Light candles in memory of those who lose their lives within shack fire
and the victims of shack fires.
- Explore the course of shack fire, governmental intervention, and other
humanitarian intervention
- To come up with a program/ campaign to call for electrification of all
shack settlement

For further details and direction please call our admin @ 073 412 8218.

On behalf of Abahlali baseMjondolo Western Cape

Mzonke Poni, WC chairperson
073 2562 036/ 083 446 5081

South African shack dwellers’ movement Abahlali baseMjondolo marched to Durban City Hall on 21 March to deliver the message to the local councillors that ‘they have corrupted this city for too long and that? their time is up.’ Pictures from the march are available on the . Below is the statement Abahlali made.

On the 21 March 2011 Abahlali baseMjondolo Western Cape will have a mass rally at VE informal settlement at 10:00 till 13:00.

Engaging in ‘unlawful and criminal evictions’ and blacklisting a journalist for her political views undermine the Democratic Alliance’s claims of support for the rule of law and press freedom, says the Western Cape branch of South African shackdwellers movement, Abahlali baseMjondolo.

As people all over South Africa ask why the government continues to ignore the demands of shack dwellers, not just for the right to the city but for their basic human needs to be met, Abahlali baseMjondolo reply: ‘Everybody knows that we are the people who do not count in this society…the truth that must be faced up to is that we have been sentenced to permanent exclusion from this society.’ But, write Abahlali, ‘we have recognised our own humanity and the power of our struggle to force the full recognition of our humanity. Therefore we remain determined to continue to refuse to know our place.’

The following statement was released by Abahlali baseMjondolo on Sunday 11 July in anticipation of the trial against its 'Kennedy 12' at Durban High Court, beginning Monday 12 July.

The following is a press statement from Abahlali baseMjondolo released on Monday 12 July. It details the movement's plans to attend Durban High Court in solidarity with the accused 'Kennedy 12'.

The following is a press statement from Abahlali baseMjondolo released on Monday 12 July and detailing the postponement of the trial.

Abahlali baseMjondolo of the Western Cape 21 days ago launched its campaign ‘the right to the city campaign’ today the world and South Africans are counting few days before the kick off of the 2010 FiFa World cup, also Abahlali baseMjondolo of the Western Cape is counting few hours before kick starting its campaign.

Part of the aim of the campaign is to build shacks outside Green Point soccer stadium at Cape Town, occupying governmental offices, invading open public spaces within the city and occupying unused hotels, flats and schools within the City.

Tomorrow, the 11th June 2010 is the first day of our campaign, about 100 members of Abahlali baseMjondolo will meet at Cape Town next to Cape Peninsula University of Technology (CPUT) at Keizerngracht Street at 10:00 from there we will proceed to where our protest is going to take place.

Our action in terms of South African gatherings Act is viewed as illegal, as it suggest that we need to notify the police 14 days before such action but according to us our action is genuine and legitimate and we see no reason for us to notify them while we are going to occupy their offices because we refused to be controlled in any way in our actions.

All media agencies are invited to expose the police and governmental arrogance towards the poorest of the poor. We want the world to see how the poor are denied the right to well located land by South African Government and by the City of Toilets or the ‘Shit City’ (The City of Cape Town).

For more information please contact Mr. Qona at 076 875 9533 or Nobantu Goniwe at 078 760 5246