Western Cape Anti-Eviction Campaign

by Anti-Eviction Campaign activist Monday, Feb. 24, 2003 at 1:17 PM

last report from Mandela Park on anti-eviction campaign activists arrested sunday evening.

As reported earlier today, the ‘crackdown’ which has been targetting the Khayelitsha Anti-Eviction Campaign since November 2002 continued with full force last night and today.

Last night saw the sinister abduction of Max Ntanyana of the Mandela Park Anti-Eviction Campaign. After community pressure, it turned out he was in Bishop Lavis police station, being questioned by the ‘special unit’ set up under orders of ‘Community Safety’ MEC Leonard Ramatlakane. He was later moved to Site B police station in Khayelitsha, before appearing in court on contempt of court charges this morning. His case was postponed to Wednesday to give his lawyers time to prepare a defence.

Part of the community pressure applied last night involved capturing a woman who had pointed out Max to the intelligence operatives who abducted him last night. As part of the police response to that event, the doors of the Andile Nose community centre were kicked in. This community centre is used by the Anti-Eviction Campaign for meetings, and is also the site of a school – ‘People’s Power Secondary School’ – staffed by unemployed teachers, which provides education to students excluded from the education system due to poverty, and age.

Also as part of the police response, four comrades from Mandela Park were arrested early this morning. They are apparently to be charged with kidnapping and armed robbery (??!!) after last night’s events. They have been held overnight pending an identity parade, which will happen tomorrow.

When not in police cells, these comrades are held in the notorious Pollsmoor Prison, near Tokai in Cape Town. Pollsmoor is notorious for the control that prison gangs exert, with rapes, intimidation and murder being common occurences within its walls.

These actions of the South African government are just the latest steps in the campaign to criminalise and intimidate the Anti-Eviction Campaign, which has fought since its inception to reverse the tide of evictions of the poorest of the poor. For the South African government, crushing this campaign is vital in order to be able to ‘secure’ the low income housing market for private sector banks. Since 1994, the post-Apartheid government has been pursuing that objective, agains the strenous criticism and
resistance of the poor majority.

Once again, we are in a desperate situation. Any donations towards bail money, and operating funds for the highly stretched Khayelitsha Anti-Eviction Campaign would be greatly appreciated. Solidarity support is also necessary.

Aluta continua!

Mandela Park Anti-Eviction Campaign activist arrested in suspicious circumstances
24 February 2003  at 1pm

Last night, at about 7:30pm, Mandela Park Anti-Eviction Campaign activist Max Ntanyana was abducted from outside his house after a community meeting. He was walking down the road when a black car with no number plates pulled up behind him. Three men jumped out, grabbed Max, and dragged him into the car.

The Max’s family and the Mandela Park community was left not knowing what had happened. Members of the community had, however, recognised some of the men who grabbed Max, as they had been at the earlier community meeting. A group of women had been seen talking to these men, and one of these women was grabbed by Mandela Park residents.

It was only this action that cause police to admit that the men in the unmarked car were acting for the police, and that Max had been arrested (apparently on ‘contempt of court’ charges). In their attempts to search for the woman that the community was holding, police kicked down doors in the Andile Nose community centre. The Andile Nose community centre is currently being used as school for 1500 learners who cannot get education elsewhere!

The woman being held was released after the head of the Khayelitsha police, Mr Shivuri, came to Mandela Park late last night to negotiate with the community.

Today, Max appeared in court, and his hearing was postponed to
Wednesday. The Mandela Park Anti-Eviction Campaign has stated that it will protest outside the court on Wednesday morning.

The arrest of Max Ntanyana is the latest act in a campaign of
criminalisation of the poor by the government. The issue that caused the formation of the Mandela Park AEC remains: the poor of Mandela Park are forced to pay unaffordable repayments on houses financed by banks.

The houses are at best the basic minimum that every person should have a right to (as guaranteed by the Constitution), yet Mandela Park, and other areas of Khayelitsha and beyond, have seen the full force of the state imposed on them to evict people from their houses and to safeguard a ‘secure lending environment’ for private sector banks.

ENDS

Released by the Western Cape Anti-Eviction Campaign on behalf of the Mandela Park Anti-Eviction Campaign

For more info: Andy 073 130 4966