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
The City of Cape Town has announced it intends to sell off 65 municipal properties prompting a backlash from the hosts of a recent symposium on the Urban Land Question.
Daneel Knoetze
News | 22 August 2014
There is a glimmer of hope for Andries Joostenberg and his family who, earlier this month, were evicted from the farm where they have lived for 50 years. As they near the prospect of becoming homeless again, a Stellenbosch attorney, Johan van der Merwe, has agreed to appeal the eviction order which put the family out on the street.
Daneel Knoetze
News | 21 August 2014
On Searle Street, six semi-detached Victorian cottages house a handful of families not forcibly removed from District 6 during apartheid. Now, as the cottages go on sale, the tenants face imminent eviction.
Daneel Knoetze
News | 20 August 2014
It’s an hour before snack time at the Sophumelela Day Care centre in Site C, Khayelitsha, and one of the toddlers has indicated to his teacher that he needs to use the toilet.
Barbara Maregele
News | 19 August 2014
When eight-year-old Jessica Jordaan returned home from De Villiers Primary yesterday afternoon, a pile of bricks lay in place of the house where she had lived all her life.
Daneel Knoetze
News | 19 August 2014