Western Cape Anti-Eviction Campaign

Update: AEC was able to raise funds from within the community and from various well-wishers.  They are now in the process of appealing the conviction in Cape Town High Court.

The Anti Eviction Campaign is under attack in the Western Cape. Magistrate Van Graan sentenced two leading members of the Delft-Symphony Way settlement, Jerome Daniels and Riedwaan Isaacs, to a year in prison. The Anti Privatisation Forum cannot doubt the report from the AEC that the magistrate
made a politically motivated judgement in wanting to teach the AEC a lesson. He was not shy in his conduct and his judgement to emphasise the ties of the defendants to the organisation. Being a member of an organisation of the poor is incriminating enough for these hawks.

The crimimalisation of the poor is neither new nor restricted to the Western Cape. To be poor in south Africa today is to be at odds with the law. Matthews Ndlhovu was imprisoned for malicious damage to private property for removing a prepaid water meter in Phiri, Soweto in 2004 which device was
declared unlawful in 2007. This year Community activists have been facing down police beatings in Sebokeng, and death in detention in the killing of comrade Mathafeni. Police have gone on door-to-door hunts for ‘troublemakers’ in Boiketlong.

The APF shares the AEC’s outrage at the judgement against the AEC. Jerome Daniels and Riedwaan Isaacs were living in tents on the pavement outside the houses they had a right to be occupying. Their guilt in this case is to be struggling for the community’s right to housing. The courts have demonstrated that they are not just institutions as much as ready weapons.

The judgement against the AEC – because it is not against comrades Jerome and Riedwaan – must be overturned. From their houses, to the streets and now to the prisons, the state is trying to break the resolve of poor communities to struggle. There is no need to say it when the numbers of the poor are growing, that their struggle is our struggle and it will continue.

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Anti Privatisation Forum
123 Pritchard Street (cnr Mooi)
6th floor Vogas House, Johannesburg
Tel: (011) 333-8334 Fax: (011) 333-8365
Website: www.apf.org.za