Lwandle inquiry chair Denzil Potgieter on 8 August slammed the police for withholding video footage and key documents relating to evictions at the informal settlement in June. He accused the police of giving the inquiry secretariat the “run around” during its numerous attempts to access the footage.
Daneel Knoetze
News | 8 August 2014
Tracts of private suburban land will have to be expropriated by the state at below market value if spatial apartheid in South African cities is to be reversed. The property clause in the Constitution can be interpreted in a revolutionary manner to allow for this. Expropriated land, subsidised by existing government property, should be used to provide housing for shackdwellers from the city fringe, so that informal settlements can be less dense and upgraded. These were the concluding opinions in a roundtable discussion on the Urban Land Question in the Cape Town CBD on 7 August.
Daneel Knoetze
News | 8 August 2014
The testimony of a Khayelitsha taxi driver corroborating the alibi of Azola Diyamani on the night of murder victim Rowan du Preez’s assault is “shocking” and “defies any logic”, prosecutor Phistus Pelesa told the court on Thursday, 7 August. This follows the testimony of Monde Cofa, who told the court he had been in possession of the taxi for the entire weekend in question.
Barbara Maregele
News | 8 August 2014
The SA National Roads Agency, already under investigation after the brutal eviction of Lwandle residents from SANRAL land in June, is facing furious residents from six Eastern Cape villages who are adamant they were misled about the new Wild Coast toll road, writes Mzamo Dlamini.
Mzamo Dlamini
Analysis | 8 August 2014
After being evicted four times from private land, about 100 Mfuleni residents have now found respite in a tent on a piece of vacant land in Bardale.
Mary-Anne Gontsana
News | 7 August 2014
The lack of professional boxing fights in Cape Town sees two boxers from the Cape off to Johannesburg to participate in a Golden Gloves Promotions tournament on the weekend, 9 to 10 August.
Siyabonga Kalipa
News | 7 August 2014
“There is life after incarceration,” said Denise Mitchell, a former inmate at Pollsmoor Prison. She was giving a speech at a graduation ceremony for a group of prisoners who have obtained certificates as chefs on the 31 July.
Johnnie Isaac
News | 7 August 2014
In its 15 years of existence, the National Lotteries’ Board (NLB) has disbursed more than R18 billion to good causes, according to Minister of Trade and Industry Rob Davies. However, the 2013 annual report indicates that while 5,455 applications were adjudicated in the year, 10,928 applications were still outstanding as of 31 March 2013. 7,500 of those are applications from charities.
Katy Scott
News | 7 August 2014
The man accused of hitting murder victim Rowan du Preez multiple times with a golf stick the night before he was found severely burned, told the court he was at home watching movies at the time.
Barbara Maregele
News | 7 August 2014
On 6 August, shackdweller movement Abahlali baseMjondolo (AbM) marched on the the Austrian honourary consul in Durban to protest the eviction of squatting “comrades” under way in Vienna. This, in reciprocation of months of solidarity and support from people and organisations based in Europe and the United States for AbM.
Daneel Knoetze
News | 6 August 2014
It started on 16 July in Langebaan at Freeport block of flats. Immigrants were deported with nothing on them. Deportees, leaving friends and relatives behind, lost their possessions, furniture and money. Then on 31 July, the Department of Home Affairs (DHA) raided a block of flats in Somerset West and Sholoza Villa in Kraaifontein. Immigrants who did not have documents -- mainly Congolese, Tanzanians, Malawians and Zimbabweans -- were arrested.
Tariro Washinyira
News | 6 August 2014
In June, the homes of hundreds of Nomzamo informal settlement residents, who were living on SANRAL-owned land, were demolished. The evictions resulted in violent clashes between residents and police. Lulama Ndevu, 33, her partner Soyiso Jackman, and their children, including their three-week-old son Nkosana, are the first family to move into the newly built corrugated iron homes in Nomzamo. The couple, who have two older children aged three and eighteen months, moved into their new 8 metre by 6 metre home in July. Ndevu nearly gave birth inside the community hall where hundreds of destitute residents are still being housed. Ndevu says she was nine-months pregnant at the time when she was kicked and assaulted by police during the violent clash. As a result, she couldn't walk until she gave birth on 7 July.
Masixole Feni and Barbara Maregele
News | 6 August 2014
A new organization called Public Transport Voice has launched itself at the offices of the Treatment Action Campaign, Khayelitsha. The organisation plans to educate people through workshops about the transport system and how it works. It also aims to conduct training for taxi drivers on how to conduct themselves appropriately to customers.
Pharie Sefali
News | 6 August 2014
In temperatures near freezing, the Joostenberg family were left with little option but to spend the night amongst their possessions on the side of the road. For a second time, they were evicted from their home by a sheriff of the court, their possessions carried out and transported off the farm where the family has lived for 50 years, and dumped next to the R318 outside Montagu.
Daneel Knoetze
News | 6 August 2014
Isaac Mbadu, who is accused of killing Rowan du Preez nearly two years ago, took the stand this week to give his account of the events which led to his arrest. Mbadu, his wife Angy Peter, and their co-accused Azola Dayimani and Christopher Dina, are on trial in the Western Cape High Court for the kidnapping, assault and murder of Du Preez in October 2012.
Barbara Maregele
News | 6 August 2014
In June, the homes of hundreds of Nomzamo informal settlement residents, who were living on SANRAL-owned land, were demolished. The evictions resulted in violent clashes between residents and police. Lulama Ndevu, 33, her partner Soyiso Jackman, and their children, including their three-week-old son Nkosana, are the first family to move into the newly built corrugated iron homes in Nomzamo. The couple, who have two older children aged three and eighteen months, moved into their new 8 metre by 6 metre home in July. Ndevu nearly gave birth inside the community hall where hundreds of destitute residents are still being housed. Ndevu says she was nine-months pregnant at the time when she was kicked and assaulted by police during the violent clash. As a result, she couldn't walk until she gave birth on 7 July.
Masixole Feni and Barbara Maregele
News | 6 August 2014
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