Solidarity: Activists Arrested Trying To Stop Eviction Of Addison Family

30 07 2011

Note: The Western Cape Anti-Eviction Campaign stands in solidarity with our sisters and brothers in Chicago

July 29, 2011 1:57 PM – CBS Local Chicago

ADDISON, Ill. (CBS) — An Addison mother and three sons are being evicted from their home, and some activists are trying to prevent it.

In so doing, five of those activists found themselves in the back of a police car.

As WBBM Newsradio 780’s Mary Frances Bragiel reports, DuPage County sheriff’s police arrested five members of the Anti-Eviction Campaign, including the spokeswoman, Holly Trig, who is six months pregnant.

The homeowner, Luz Smedbron, and her children had agreed to leave the home at 200 N. Maple St., which was lost to foreclosure and later sold at an auction. Read the rest of this entry »


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Kennedy Road 12 taste freedom

29 07 2011

NIREN TOLSI – Jul 29 2011 13:58 – Mail and Guardian

Outside the Durban magistrate’s court last week members of the “Kennedy Road 12″ 12 members of Abahlali baseMjondolo, a shackdwellers movement based in Durban — stood blinking in the sunlight, almost un­able to believe their fate.

“I’m just too happy. I can’t believe I am outside again,” said 24-year-old Sibulelo Mambi, one of them.

An hour earlier, a nightmare that had begun almost two years ago for the 12 finally ended when magistrate Sharon Marks acquitted them of charges ranging from murder to public violence. Read the rest of this entry »


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The City of Cape Town has created this war in Blikkiesdorp

29 07 2011
29 July 2011
Symphony Way Anti-Eviction Campaign Press Release

We warned the City.
We warned the courts.
We warned the public.
Fearing for our lives and with a heavy heart, we write this to tell Zille, Plato and de Lille and say: We told you so!

Yesterday, the morning of the 28th of July, Blikkiesdorp exploded into a full-scale drug war.

This is what we warned the government against when we resisted our eviction to Blikkiesdorp from the pavement of Symphony Way. The shacks we built ourselves were better than the shacks that our City has built and dumped us in.

We, as residents of this camp, have no control here because the City has disempowered us and stood by while drug-dealers have invaded the ‘temporary’ relocation area.

Yesterday morning, two adults were shot in broad daylight by three gunmen. Yesterday evening, a revenge shooting took place and three more people were shot and are now in hospital. One of those shot was a teenage boy, a member of the Symphony Way Pavement Dwellers. Some people have been arrested but all the residents of Blikkiesdorp know that this is only the beginning as revenge killings are likely to continue in the weeks to come. Read the rest of this entry »


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Media: Give us decent housing!

28 07 2011

Rusana Philander – The New Age

About 500 people protested over access to housing outside the High Court and offices of the city on Wednesday.

The protests came as 16 people from Tafelsig, Mitchells Plain, were due to appear in the High Court after the city obtained an

DEMANDING: Protestors gather outside the Cape Town High Court on Wednesday to demand decent homes. Picture: Rusana Philander

interdict against them.

The case is related to the invasion of the Swartklip sports field and Kapteinsklip in Mitchells Plain by more than 4000 people two months ago.

During the invasion many people were injured and the land invaders’ possessions impounded. The city has since obtained an interdict to remove people from the land.

The protesters who gathered outside the court yesterday were from the Mitchells Plain Backyarders Association.

They carried placards and chanted: “Access to housing is a constitutional right and we want houses for our children.” Read the rest of this entry »


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Media: Show of strength outside court

28 07 2011

July 28 2011 at 12:28pm – Cape Times – Shanti Aboobaker, Leila Samodien and Lauren Isaacs

About 300 people gathered on the steps of the Western Cape High Court where Tafelsig backyard dwellers were up against the city council. Photo: Mxolisi Madela

THEY came en masse, bearing placards and chanting as they gathered on the steps of the Western Cape High Court yesterday.

This as about 300 members of the Mitchells Plain Backyarders Association – supported by the Western Cape Anti-Eviction Campaign, Communities for Social Change, the Mandela Park Backyarders and Abahlali baseMjondolo associations – waited outside the court to hear the outcome of the case in which they face being removed from land they were occupying illegally.

This week the occupants submitted their answering papers in the matter that sees them pitted against the City of Cape Town.

In affidavits by some of the occupants, residents there outlined their living conditions which they say were “not conditions in which any human being should live”. Read the rest of this entry »


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Media: Tafelsig backyarders case postponed

28 07 2011

AEC Note: (1) There were closer to 1,000 people at the march, rather than just 400 estimated in this article. (2) Also, the march, while it did not have a permit, was a legal march according to the Gatherings Act.

Thursday July 28th 2011 – West Cape News

The city’s application to evict thousands of people from city-owned land in Tafelsig, Mitchells Plain was today postponed by the

Ibrahim Moosa from the Mitchell's Plain Backyarders Association leads about 400 people on a march to the Civic Centre today. The march coincided with the Western Cape High Court's postponement of an application by 16 backyarders opposing evicition from city-owned land. Photo: Sandiso Phaliso/WCN

Western Cape High Court to August 30.

Judge Nonkosi Saba postponed the matter as the respondents (backyarders) had only filed their papers on Monday. As a result the city could not file their reply in time for today’s court date.

Sheldon Magardie from Lawyers for Human Rights, said the LHR was representing 16 of the 4000 backyarders who were evicted from city-owned land in Tafelsig on May 14. The 16 respondents are those who have remained on the land.

About 400 people from Mitchells Plain Residents and Backyarders Association, Proudly Manenberg, and sympathetic NGOs, gathered in front of the High Court in support of the backyarders’ application and to protest the lack of land and housing for Cape Town’s poor.

Demonstrator Mary Petersen from Elsies River said about 50 people from Leonsdale Community in Elsies River had come to support the backyarders. Read the rest of this entry »


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We march today in defiance of the City of Cape Town!

27 07 2011
27 July 2011
Press Release by the Western Cape Anti-Eviction Campaign

With or without the permit from the city, today, we will be marching first to the High Court and then to the offices of the City of Cape Town. In terms of the Gatherings Act, when we want to march, the law says we must notify the city and SAPS within 7 days. The law further suggests that if the city refuses to grant a permit they need to provide us with written reasons after meeting in person with the organisers of the march. The City has not fulfilled its legal obligations and therefore the march is 100% legal.

We are going to stick to the law and go ahead with our legal march as planned. It is up to the city if they want to make sure the relevant authorities are present during our march. Our march will be organised, peaceful and dignified. We expect the same from the authorities.

Time of gathering: 9am
Time at the Cape High Court: 10am
When court is over, we will go to the City’s offices
Read the rest of this entry »


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Categories : Anti-Eviction Campaign, Archives, gugulethu, Mandela Park in Khayelitsha, Mitchell's Plain Backyarders Association, News & Press Release, Poor People's Alliance

The Kennedy Road Development Committee, the Kennedy 12 and other Displacees Return to the Kennedy Road Settlement

26 07 2011

Tuesday, 26 July 2011
Abahlali Press Statement

Our acquittal in court without freedom to return to resetting our feet in Kennedy Road would be pointless.


The ruins of Mondli Mbiko’s home in Kennedy Road

After two and half year the Kennedy Road Development Committee, members of the Kennedy 12 and their relatives, as well as some members of AbM, went to Kennedy Road on Sunday to check on their homes and sites that they were residing on when our movement was attacked. We were about a hundred people. Read the rest of this entry »


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Give us housing delivery data or else, city is warned

23 07 2011

Regina Graham - July 6 2011 at 12:41pm

THE Right2Know campaign is threatening further action against the City of Cape Town if it has not provided all the information requested in a PAIA application over a month ago.

Murray Hunter, national co-ordinator of the Right2Know Campaign, said that documents from the city were delivered yesterday.

“It is a huge pile of information that we received from the city, but is it actually answering the questions we asked?” said Hunter.

On May 24, community organisers from Blikkiesdorp, Zille-Raine Heights, Newfields Village Anti-Eviction Campaign and the Mandela Park backyarders joined Right2Know and submitted applications to the city requesting access to information about housing delivery and resettlement plans. Read the rest of this entry »


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“Kennedy 12″ Acquitted – Magistrate criticises “dishonest” and “unreliable” witnesses

18 07 2011

Socio-Economic Rights Institute of South Africa (SERI)
[Media Release, 18 July 2011]

Twelve members of Abahlali baseMjondolo – a shackdwellers movement based in Durban – brought to trial on spurious charges ranging from public violence to murder, were acquitted today in the Durban Regional Court.

The activists were prosecuted in the aftermath of the attacks on Abahlali’s members residing in the Kennedy Road Informal Settlement on 27 and 28 September 2009. Abahlali members were evicted from the settlement by an armed gang associated with the local branch of the African National Congress (ANC) while the police looked on. Read the rest of this entry »


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