The man shot by police during evictions in Philippi East a month ago is back at work -- and still waiting for police investigators to contact him.
Daneel Knoetze
News | 23 September 2014
Residents from Marikana informal settlement were jubilant outside Athlone Magistrates Court today when twelve of their neighbours were granted bail. The men had been in custody since 22 August for resisting evictions at the settlement in Philippi East.
Daneel Knoetze
News | 22 September 2014
Around 50 residents from Marikana informal settlement in Philippi East descended on the Athlone Magistrates Court to support twelve of their neighbours who have been detained for almost a month.
Daneel Knoetze
Brief | 19 September 2014
A new report by SERI profiles a community protest in Lenasia, Gauteng, and concludes that the criminal justice system was "abused" in order to intimidate activists and protesters. A look at similar cases in Cape Town seem to support this finding.
Daneel Knoetze
Opinion | 18 September 2014
Regina Mahlombe is 64. She has become bed-ridden as a result of being stabbed by muggers in Gugulethu when she was 21. She yearns to leave her shack for a proper home.
Mary-Anne Gontsana
News | 12 September 2014
Andries Joostenberg, the retired farmworker who was evicted along with his family from a farmhouse in which they had lived for 26 years, has applied for urgent leave to appeal the court order which legalised the eviction. Papers were filed by family lawyer Johan van der Merwe in the Land Claims Court (LCC) on Wednesday.
Daneel Knoetze
News | 5 September 2014
This week in political activism we look at Sonke Gender Justice’s call for government to take urgent action on hate crime, charges laid by TAC against senior health officials in Bloemfontein, and the launch of an urgent intervention on behalf of Marikana residents.
Thembela Ntongana
News | 4 September 2014
Police are only allowed to use force as an absolute last resort when managing protests. But recent violence around several evictions of shackdwellers in Cape Town, prompted GroundUp to establish what the law says.
Daneel Knoetze
Opinion | 2 September 2014
Twelve men arrested for public violence, among other charges, while resisting evictions in Philippi East have been incarcerated for more than a week. Their case was again postponed at the Athlone Magistrates Court this morning. The accused will now remain in custody until 12 September, when their bail application will be heard.
Daneel Knoetze
Brief | 1 September 2014
The law on evictions has changed since the landmark Grootboom judgment in the Constitutional Court in 2000. But the recent spate of evictions and demolitions of shelters in informal settlements in the Western Cape – Lwandle, Philippi East, and Khayelitsha – must make the right to housing ring hollow for those left homeless, writes Sandra Liebenberg.
Sandra Liebenberg
News | 1 September 2014
At the Lwandle Commission of Inquiry today, the police were hammered for failing to engage community leaders in an attempt to prevent the escalation of violence during evictions at Lwandle informal settlement in June. Such a failure falls foul of the legal requirements for public order policing.
Daneel Knoetze
News | 28 August 2014
The City's Mayoral Committee Member for Utility Services writes that the electrification project at Agstelaan in Valhalla Park has been halted for periods of time due to excessive and highly dangerous gang violence in the area.
Councillor Ernest Sonnenberg
News | 27 August 2014
Residents of 8th Lane in Valhalla Park protested along Robert Sobukwe Drive after being without electricity for eight months despite Mayor Patricia De Lille making them firm pre-election promises.
Armand Hough
Brief | 27 August 2014
On Friday 22 August, Public Order Police battled residents of Rolihlahla Park, who fiercely resisted being evicted from a piece of private land off Sheffield Road in Philippi East. The City of Cape Town's Anti-Land Invasion Unit demolished dozens of shacks during the course of the morning. Police meanwhile provided cover, by firing rubber bullets, stun grenades and tear gas cannisters. Residents responded by stoning police. At least one protester was shot with live ammunition from, according to eyewitnesses, a police service pistol.
Daneel Knoetze
News | 25 August 2014
On Friday 22 August, Public Order Police battled residents of Rolihlahla Park, who fiercely resisted being evicted from a piece of private land off Sheffield Road in Philippi East. The City of Cape Town's Anti-Land Invasion Unit demolished dozens of shacks during the course of the morning. Police meanwhile provided cover, by firing rubber bullets, stun grenades and tear gas cannisters. Residents responded by stoning police. At least one protester was shot with live ammunition from, according to eyewitnesses, a police service pistol.
Daneel Knoetze
News | 25 August 2014
In this week in activism, the massacre at Lonmin mine is remembered two years on, relief in the courts for people removed from Saratoga Avenue by the City of Johannesburg, and anticipation mounts ahead of the release of the report by the commission into policing in Khayelitsha.
Thembela Ntongana
News | 22 August 2014