Someone has to stop SANRAL and other stories

Featured Stories

Someone needs to stop SANRAL

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

Lifelong farm tenants evicted

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

Dumping on the poor in Siqalo

Rubble dumping on the fringe of Siqalo informal settlement has forced hundreds of shackdwellers to evacuate their homes. Boulders have rolled into shacks; dumping has prevented winter rains from draining, leaving dozens of households flooded and abandoned. Yet the dumping carries on unchecked.

Daneel Knoetze

Evicted Mfuleni backyarders now live in a tent

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

Firgrove residents want their land back

Two thousand residents removed forcefully from Firgrove, Somerset West, between 1971 and 1975 under the apartheid Group Areas Act, want their land back. \xe2\x80\x98Blacks\xe2\x80\x99 were moved to Mfuleni and \xe2\x80\x98coloureds\xe2\x80\x99 were moved to Macassar.

Mary-Anne Gontsana

Photo Stories

Lone family in Lwandle

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.

Masixole Feni and Barbara Maregele

Neighbour tries to bury Siqalo informal settlement

Rubble dumping on the fringe of Siqalo informal settlement has forced hundreds of shackdwellers to evacuate their homes. Those on the fringe of the settlement have experienced large boulders hitting their shacks.

Masixole Feni

Reports

Police give Lwandle inquiry the \xe2\x80\x9crun around”

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 \xe2\x80\x9crun around\xe2\x80\x9d during its numerous attempts to access the footage.

Daneel Knoetze

African immigrants experience a spate of raids and deportations

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. Mainly Congolese, Tanzanians, Malawians and Zimbabweans were arrested.

Tariro Washinyira

Good causes left to die waiting for lotto millions

In its 15 years of existence, the National Lotteries\xe2\x80\x99 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

Long walk to healthcare

Langa residents are complaining about the distance they have to walk to Bonteheuwel to access basic health care.

Thembela Ntongana

SA shackdwellers protest against evictions in Austria

On 6 August, shackdweller movement Abahlali baseMjondolo (AbM) marched on the the Austrian honourary consul in Durban to protest the eviction of squatting \xe2\x80\x9ccomrades\xe2\x80\x9d 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

Durban police refused to open a case for a Zimbabwean man

A 38-year-old Zimbabwean man claims he was assaulted by a metro police officer in Durban and two Durban police stations refused to open an assault case.

Tariro Washinyira

New organisation vows to hold City transport accountable

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

Life after incarceration

\xe2\x80\x9cThere is life after incarceration,\xe2\x80\x9d 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

Special Features

Rwandans remain divided - even in South Africa

20 years after the Rwandan genocide, the political intrigues and legal ambiguities of its aftermath are still being played out in South Africa among the expat community. Requests from Kigali for the extradition of several Rwandans living in South Africa heightened diplomatic tensions between the two nations.

Lara Sokoloff

Expropriate the suburbs, say activists

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.

Daneel Knoetze

Angy Peter trial

Alibi belatedly corroborated for co-accused in Angy Peter case

The testimony of a Khayelitsha taxi driver corroborating the alibi of Azola Diyamani on the night of murder victim Rowan du Preez\xe2\x80\x99s assault is \xe2\x80\x9cshocking\xe2\x80\x9d and \xe2\x80\x9cdefies any logic\xe2\x80\x9d, 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

Angy Peter trial co-accused also claims he was framed

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

Accused Mbadu takes the stand in Angy Peter case

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

In brief

Sound advice for Women\xe2\x80\x99s Month

Community outreach programmes will be a focus of Women\xe2\x80\x99s Month in parts of the Western Cape affected by a high incidence of violence against women and children, provincial police commissioner Arno Lamoer has said.

Johnnie Isaac

Treatment Action Campaign in a tavern

People should view taverns as part of the community, where young people can meet to enjoy themselves, and not as enemies, community activists told a meeting at the weekend of the Kuyasa branch of the Treatment Action Campaign.

Munda Kula

Labour

The uneven scales of justice

\xe2\x80\x9cA scab\xe2\x80\x99s charter.\xe2\x80\x9d This was one published description of the Labour Relations Act (LRA) when it came into being 19 years ago. Because, although the bulk of the Act was warmly accepted by the labour movement, it contained a clause that seemed to undermine its basic precept.

Terry Bell

Sport

Wheelchair tennis in Khayelitsha

27-year-old Mayenzeke Gwija from Khayelitsha was born disabled in both legs. But he has not let disability get in the way of becoming a success in sport. He is currently ranked fifth by Wheelchair Tennis of South Africa.

Siyabonga Kalipa

Boxers say too few pro fights in Cape Town

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