JOHANNESBURG – About 1 000 members from various non-governmental organisations travelled from across the country to the Constitutional Court in Johannesburg to protest against the KwaZulu-Natal Slums Act.
General secretary of the Rural Network in KZN, Mbhekiseni Mavuso, said his organisation was pledging its support to Abahlali baseMjondolo (ABM), which has applied to have the Act declared unlawful under the Constitution. Read the rest of this entry »
At 8:00 a.m. on 14 April 2009 we will march from Garrupa Park (next to the V.N. Naik School for the Deaf) in Newlands to the Metro Police Station in KwaMashu.
We have been marching on Councillor Madondo, for quite long now. He has never answered our memorandums. We have confronted him and he has made it clear that he cannot answer our questions. In February last year we marched on Mayor Mlaba. We have received no answer to our memorandum. Late last year the Abahlali baseMjondolo branch in Siyanda Section C marched on Provincial MEC for Housing Mike Mabuyakhulu. They received no reply to their memorandum. Now Siyanda Section A and B, those living in self built shacks and those living in government shacks, will march on Mabuyakhulu. Read the rest of this entry »
‘The other day, my [nine-year-old] daughter and her friend were coming back from school through the bushes and a man tried to rape them,’ says Neftal Ntuli (40)
“Luckily a car was going past and the driver brought them home. In broad daylight! It’s not safe there.”
Ntuli, his wife and three children form part of the first batch of families relocated by the eThekwini municipality from their informal shack settlement near Umlazi’s King Goodwill Zwelithini Stadium to a transit camp in peri-urban T-section. Read the rest of this entry »
SIYANDA – 17 March 2009 – At 5am on a rainy Tuesday, 50 Siyanda families in Siyanda Section C began to dismantle their shacks in compliance with a negotiated relocation order to the Richmond Farm transit camp. The Department of Transport and the eThekwini Municipality had sought their eviction to make way for the new MR577 freeway. People had agreed to go to new houses in the Khalula Project but then their houses were sold off corruptly. They were then told to go to the Richmond Farm Transit Camp (government shacks) with no garuantees of when, if ever, they would get houses. They refused this and rebelled. Eventually they went to court and they won in court – they won an investigation into the corruption, that various measures would be put in place to ensure judicial oversight over conditions in the camp and that no one would spend more than one year there before being given a formal house
Homeless
The court order, issued by the Durban High Court last week, stated that all respondents in the case would be allocated transit camp structures. But 3 families cited in the case are now homeless. In South Africa it is a criminal offence to leave any person homeless in an eviction. In this case it is also contempt of court. Read the rest of this entry »
Posted to the web on: 14 March 2009
Source: The Weekender
Life is uncertain for the residents of Blikkiesdorp, and they fear its thin tin walls may be permanent, writes JEANNE HROMNIK
BLIKKIESDORP won’t be found on any South African map. Its official name is Symphony Way Temporary Relocation Area and it is not supposed to exist for more than a short time.
The residents prefer their nickname Blikkiesdorp — Tin Town — as it accurately describes the 1000 or more structures that the city of Cape Town erected in Delft last year to house them.
The temporary relocation area is a stone’s throw from the shacks of the Symphony Way pavement dwellers . The 100-odd families have been living illegally along a blocked-off section of Symphony Way since February last year.
On March 2, the city notified the pavement dwellers of its intention to seek an eviction order in the high court to remove them. But last week, the Durban High Court granted judicial oversight of a transit camp in KwaZulu-Natal, and now the Cape Town residents intend to use this precedent to defend their eviction.
Provincial governments across the country have been using these settlements — known as temporary relocation areas in Cape Town, transit camps in Durban and government shacks in Gauteng — to “temporarily” house residents from squatter camps and inner-city slums until formal housing is provided for them.
“Transit camps often look like concentration camps with razor-wire fencing, spotlights, single entrances and 24-hour police guards,” says shack-dwellers’ movement Abahlali baseMjondolo, which won the Durban High Court victory . “Residents are often highly controlled in these places, as if they are in prisons.
“In most cases, these camps are far from the cities where people live, work and school. People are taken there against their will with no guarantees about the conditions there, how long they will be kept there and where, if anywhere, they will be taken next.”
Unlike Tsunami, a neighbouring temporary relocation area , Blikkiesdorp does not look like a slum. The tin walls and roofs of the dwellings gleam in the afternoon sun. There is little space between the structures which are arranged in blocks, with one toilet shared by four households . The toilets appear to be functioning and do not emit the foul smell coming from those in Tsunami. There are taps with running water, but no ablution facilities.
Ashraf Cassiem, chairman of the Anti-Eviction Campaign in the Western Cape, says “the toilets (at Blikkiesdorp) are concrete, the pipelines are concrete” — an unexpected feature in a “temporary” camp .
At the entrance to Blikkiesdorp, three police vehicles and an armoured truck, manned by the Land Invasion Unit, are permanently stationed to maintain order and monitor the area .
Cassiem says there are no temporary relocation areas. The city, he claims, was given R20m to build Blikkiesdorp. It built 1200 structures for people evicted from the adjacent N2 Gateway houses in February last year and is planning to build 1200 more units.
Instead of a temporary stop and a prelude to permanent housing, it is being used to house everyone: people evicted by the council and other homeless families. The city has a 22-year lease on the land on which Blikkiesdorp is erected.
Blikkiesdorp, says Cassiem, is part of a strategy to move unwanted people — “like cattle … as if you are doing them a favour” — to the fringes of cities and outlying areas where they are less visible.
Temporary relocation areas in the Western Cape — such as Happy Valley, built more than 12 years ago outside Stellenbosch and now a vast informal settlement — are permanent relocation areas. Read the rest of this entry »
March 09, 2009 Edition 1
Tania Broughton
Source: The Mercury
A Durban High Court has ordered an immediate investigation into the “corrupt allocation” of housing at a low-cost estate in northern Durban, and wants a report on it in two months. Read the rest of this entry »
Siyanda Win in the Durban High Court
The Struggle Against Corruption and Transit Camps Continues
Today 8 orders were granted in favour of Abahlali baseMjondolo in the Durban High Court. The orders that have been granted are a breakthrough. We can call this a landmark judgment because the orders provide for judicial oversight of the new and entirely notorious phenomenon of the transit camp – also known by the government as decant areas in Jo’burg, as temporary relocation areas in Cape Town and as amatins, blikkies and government shacks by the people. However while it is progress to get judicial oversight over the transit camps our aim is to eradicate them entirely. We will not claim victory until this has been achieved.
The background to this matter is that residents of the Siyanda settlement had been told that they would have to be moved for the construction of a new free way. They were promised houses in the nearby Kalula development and they agreed to accept relocation on the basis of this promise. However the houses promised to them were corruptly allocated. Transport MEC Bheki Cele then sought the forced removal of the Siyanda shack dwellers to the nearby Richmond Farm transit camp. Residents were offered no guarantees about conditions in the transit camp, about the duration of their stay there or where, if anywhere, they would be sent next. They were also subject to ongoing and armed intimidation by the state.
Transit camps often look like concentration camps with razor wire fencing, spot lights, single entrances and 24 hour police guards. Residents are often highly controlled in these places as if they were in prisons. In most cases these camps are far from the cities where people live, work and school. People are taken there against their will with no guarantees about the conditions there, how long they will have to be kept there and where, if anywhere, they will be taken next.
The Symphony Way pavement squatters have received court eviction orders to vacate the area, but say they are “ready and prepared to die or fight” for their right to proper housing.
About 20 police vehicles entered the little pavement community on Monday to deliver the notices.
Kylie Hatton from the City confirmed that the notices were served and that residents had 21 days to vacate. She said alternative accommodation had been offered to them in Blikkiesdorp, about half a kilometre down the street.
“Some people have already accepted the alternative accommodation and we will assist anyone who would like to accept the accommodation,” she said.
The 127 families, totalling about 300 people, decided to squat on the road in Delft next to the RDP houses they invaded a year ago in protest at the lack of housing.
Last week they marked a year of living on the pavement with a series of events.
The families have received court papers ordering them to appear in the Cape High court on March 20. But they have vowed to die on the pavement rather than move to the Temporal Relocation Area (TRA) provided by the government.
“We are ready and prepared to die for our land and rights,” said resident Lilian Jansen. The residents labelled the TRA a playground for criminals and rapists.
“I know someone who lost everything in the Blikkiesdorp (Tin Can Town)… they took everything. I don’t know why they want us to live there,” said Mathilda Groepe.
“They bring the entire Western Cape police force to deliver court orders… for what, we are not criminals, and they even put on their bullet-proof vests when they got here, like they were entering a battlefield.”
The Anti-Eviction Campaign’s Ashraf Cassiem said: “The TRA is not a reasonable alternative accommodation… we cannot and will not be moved anywhere that will disadvantage ourselves.” Read the rest of this entry »
REJECTION of transit camps and contestations around “adequate housing” are central to urban livelihoods.
Tomorrow the Durban High Court will rule on whether residents of Siyanda shack settlement near KwaMashu will be forcefully moved into a “transit camp” to make way for a new road.
This is a matter of life-changing importance to the 50 households facing removal.
But the way the court defines “adequate alternative accommodation” is of much wider significance.
Siyanda residents argue that the tiny masonite-and-tin structures of the transit camp are not adequate alternative accommodation, as required by the law.
They demand a clear assurance of permanent housing, or to be allowed to rebuild their larger shacks – some comprising five rooms – on land near Siyanda.
For the government, the alternative accommodation is “formal” and thus, by definition, acceptable.
This conflict cuts to the heart of the nature of housing after apartheid. After a slow start, more than two million houses have now been built.
At the same time, the reconstruction and development programme houses are usually tiny two-roomed structures, are often constructed poorly and are usually built on the outskirts of towns.
Their living space is typically a meagre 30m2.
Yet the Richmond Farm transit camp to where the authorities want to move the Siyanda residents contains structures that are only around 20m2. Read the rest of this entry »
AEC Note: The letter from Centre for Applied Legal Studies (CALS), see below, concerns the proposed forced removal of Siyanda residents to Temporary Relocation Areas (TRAs). Forced evictions to TRAs, aka Transit Camps, is a huge issue for communities all over South Africa. Some of the communities opposing eviction to TRAs or who are protesting conditions within TRAs include:
The AEC sees TRA’s as an apartheid era policy of controlling space. Only this time residents are forcibly removed because they are poor and not necessarily because they are black. The country’s largest political parties (DA, ANC, ID, UDF) all support the creation and forced relocation of residents into TRAs.
–
Johannesburg, 23 January 2009
FORCED REMOVAL OF SIYANDA RESIDENTS TO TRANSIT CAMPS
CALS condemns the current government policy of using transit camps as alternative accommodation for forcibly removed shackdwellers
The Centre for Applied Legal Studies (CALS) is disturbed at a growing trend in South African cities in terms of which the state forcibly removes shackdwellers from large shacks on well-located land to ‘temporal housing’ in transit camps (also known as ‘temporary relocation areas’ or TRAs) on the urban periphery. Relocation to transit camps is most often done to make way for infrastructure and development projects which will not benefit those being removed. Read the rest of this entry »
AEC Recent News Feed Abahlali baseMjondolo
Stumble It!
