Court just wants city to care for the poor a bit better

13 04 2011

http://www.businessday.co.za/articles/Content.aspx?id=139916
KATE TISSINGTON and JACKIE DUGARD

THE government provides some subsidised housing for the poor and should be commended for this.

THE government provides some subsidised housing for the poor and should be commended for this. However, the housing subsidy scheme and roll-out of subsidised “RDP” houses is not a solution for everyone. Some — single men without dependants; people without identity documents, child-headed households, noncitizens and permanent residents — do not qualify.

For those who qualify, the supply is inadequate and the process is lengthy and dogged with corruption. Even then, all the “lucky” recipients get is a house on the urban periphery, far from where they need to be to make a living. In the interim, they seek shelter in informal settlements, backyard shacks or dilapidated buildings. This in itself is the consequence of unstoppable migration from impoverished areas to cities such as Johannesburg. Read the rest of this entry »





Media: ‘I don’t believe in voting anymore’

13 04 2011

Apr 10, 2011 2:25 AM | By BRENDAN BOYLE
http://www.timeslive.co.za/specialreports/elections2011/article1010864.ece/I-dont-believe-in-voting-any-more

Sarie Booi, better known as Ou Sis, is among many in Cape Town’s informal settlements who don’t intend voting on May 18 because they have given up on local government.

She is one of the original residents of Masincedane, a windswept settlement of some 70 shacks among the dunes of Strandfontein on the False Bay coast. It was started by her late father nearly 20 years ago, when he worked as a janitor in a children’s holiday camp.

There are enough toilets, there are a few taps and the rubbish is collected most weeks from a fly-infested skip, but the high-mast light hasn’t worked for two years, drugs are a problem even among pre-teen children and the promise of new houses has become a standing joke. Read the rest of this entry »





Civic action group threatens protests over evictions

13 04 2011

Madikizela is conveniently ignoring the fact that while a land occupation is illegal it is a minor civil offense (trespass) while his own actions, when he authorizes evictions without a court order, are a criminal offense.

Malungelo Booi – EWN

Civic action group Abahlali baseMjondolo on Thursday warned of rolling protests if government does not stop evictions and demolitions in the Western Cape.

The group says it wrote to Human Settlement MEC Bonginkosi Madikizela on Wednesday.

The organisation wants him to sign an undertaking within seven days that no structures will be destroyed, even if erected illegally on government land. Read the rest of this entry »





Protest Day 1: A call for Madikizela, MEC for Human Settlement to resign

12 04 2011

PROTEST DAY ONE

Last week Abahlali baseMjondolo Western Cape made a call to MEC for human settlement M.R Bonginkosi Madikizela to sign an undertaking that he will never, ever again within the Western Cape Province demolish or evict people without any order from the court.

This follows number of illegal activities and intimidation carried by his office lead by him. ABM WC gave him seven working days to respond, and as an organization we were only expecting him to sign an undertaking that says he will not demolish people’s structures without following legal rout and a failure to sign such undertaking it simply shows that he is arrogant and thinks that he is above the law. Read the rest of this entry »





Social Movement Media, Post-Apartheid (South Africa)

2 04 2011

Social Movement Media, Post-Apartheid (South Africa) by Wendy Willems

Social organisations central in the resistance against South Africa’s apartheid regime, such as the African National Congress (ANC), the Congress of South African Trade Unions (COSATU), and t he united Democratic Front (UDF), effectively mobilized their constitutencies through use of alternative media, such as T-shirts, murals, music, pamphlets, and posters.  Their tactics, use of alternative media, and strategies of resistance lived on in the new social movements that emerged in South Africa in the early 2000s.

Excerpt from Social Movement Media by John Downings.   The entire book can be access here: http://www.uk.sagepub.com/refbooksProdDesc.nav?prodId=Book220860








Follow

Get every new post delivered to your Inbox.