Macassar Village Land Occupation

This is the reality; thats how macassar village land occupation live, without A roof on their head and with children at this time of the year at cape.

currently the city of cape town disaster management team are out there assessing areas that are affected by floods but none of them went to macassar village to see how people are affected by cape town's winter rain.

we call up on all communities, individuals, progressive academics to support the macassar land occupation whatever way people can.

City gives law firm the boot 23 June 2009 Anna Majavu

Fury at handling of shack case

THE city of Cape Town has purged a major law firm because it took on a case for the Abahlali baseMjondolo shack dwellers movement.

The axing of Smith Tabata Buchanan Boyes has been slammed by Reverend Siyabulela Gidi of the South African Council of Churches, who hired the law firm to represent about 200 Macassar families who had occupied an empty piece of council land last month.

“It took us more than three days to get a lawyer and this explains why. High quality law firms are too afraid to go up against the city because they get victimised,” Gidi said.

“It’s an indication that poor black people don’t have a right to a good lawyer in Cape Town. Abahlali baseMjondolo is a very dynamic national movement, so the city wants to kill them before they become a force in Cape Town,” a furious Gidi said.

The families won a victory in the Cape high court when they succeeded in interdicting the city from demolishing their shacks. But after demolishing the shacks, the city got its own interdict preventing the organisation from rebuilding them.

Then the city fired the firm. Sowetan is in possession of a letter from the city to attorney Vusumzi Matikinca. It reads: “Whilst acting on behalf of the city of Cape Town, you also acted for a third party against the city. The city is therefore terminating its mandate with your firm … your law firm will not receive any further instructions from the city. ”

Raylene Keightley of Wits University’s Centre for Applied Legal Studies said this undermines the constitutional right of access to justice.







Anna Majavu

Sowetan Political Journalist

CAPE TOWN

Tel: 021 4032754

Tel: 072 5036625

www.sowetan.co.za

Kuyasa carbon credits cut electricity costs

Steve Kretzmann

Over one thousand Khayelitsha residents in the low-cost housing suburb of Kuyasa have had their electricity bills cut by as much as 40 percent.

This is thanks to their electrical geysers being replaced with solar water heaters, and having insulated ceilings and energy-efficient light bulbs installed in their homes as part of the groundbreaking city-owned Kuyasa Project.

Having kicked off in May last year, the project has recently passed the half-way mark and is expected to reach 2,309 homes by early 2010.

Not only is the project reducing residents’ electricity bills, reducing the need for paraffin-fired heaters and stoves, and providing 76 jobs for the local community, it is reducing global warming carbon emissions from coal-fired power stations.

As such, it is the first African project to be registered with the Clean Development Mechanism (CDM) under the Kyoto Protocol and can sell carbon credits on the international market.

Plans are for future sales of the carbon credits to be used to establish a trust which would employ local residents to provide ongoing long-term maintenance on the solar water heaters.

The R20 million project, which was developed by non-profit organisation SouthSouthNorth for the City of Cape Town’s environmental management department, has potential to effect the larger economy too.

Up until very recently all the solar water heaters used in the project have been imported from China.

But the South African Export Development Fund (SAEDF), the private company that has financially underwritten it, has hopes that Kuyasa’s success may lead to locally-manufactured solar water heaters being fitted to the approximately two million other low-cost homes in South Africa.

SAEDF sustainability division head Carl Wesselink said the strategic thinking was that the success of the Kuyasa Project would create a “massive uptake of demand”, giving local manufacturers the incentive to bring costs down.
“The people manufacturing solar water heaters (in South Africa) are targeting Mrs Jones in Constantia,” said Wesselink. But the SAEDF wanted to “promote social service delivery where there is much greater demand”.

And it appears their strategy is paying off; the locally manufactured Xstream solar water heater is now available at a cost which rivals the Chinese Genergy heater, and installation of the local product in the remaining Kuyasa homes has recently begun, said Kuyasa site manager Zuko Ndamani.

The project, which has received funding from the provincial housing department, International Association of Local Governments (ICLEI), and the national Department of Environmental Affairs and Tourism (DEAT), also has undeniable microeconomic benefits and has “dramatically” changed the nature of an otherwise marginalised area on the extreme eastern edge of the city, said Ndamani.

“It has brought together the community, something you don’t necessarily see in the townships. You normally only see that Ubuntu thing in the rural areas,” said Ndamani.

He said part of the reason for the sense of community and safety was that the workmen needed to gain access to the houses in order to install the insulated ceilings and change light bulbs. Therefore if people needed to be away at work they would entrust their keys to neighbours and ask them to move furniture out. This fostered trust and co-operation.

He said the buy-in from residents was such that the site office had no security guard or alarm. If anything went wrong residents would phone him.

He said he even got calls if residents spotted that workmen had left tools or materials lying around after the end of the workday. Initial fears of vandalism had also proved to be completely groundless.
- West Cape News

Evictees rally to ‘decelebrate’ Youth Day

June 17, 2009 Edition 1
Fouzia van der Fort – Cape Argus

YOUTH Day was no cause for celebration for the people evicted from Macassar Village land earmarked for formal housing, and their fellow shack dwellers turned out to support them in their protest to “de- celebrate” June 16.

Representatives from different informal settlements across the Peninsula, along with members of the shack dwellers group Abahlali baseMjondolo, toyi-toyied in protest at the site yesterday.“We want to pledge our solidarity to expose the appalling conditions our comrades are living in,” said Mzonke Poni, chairman of the group.

He said the 1976 struggle was fought by ordinary people, and it was the ordinary people who should be mobilising now to “take back our history of struggle from the politicians”.

“We want to empower the occupants of Macassar.

“They are not alone. There are people supporting them,” Poni declared.

About 50 residents have been sleeping either in makeshift shacks or without any shelter at all since they were evicted from the land, which is currently the subject of an environmental impact study.

The city has plans to build 2 500 houses there.

Poni claimed the residents were fighting “for a small thing – a piece of land – so that they may be recognised as people to whom the government will provide a minimal level of service of water, roads and electricity”.

Following previous clashes with police in the area, Poni was expected to appear in the Somerset West Magistrate’s Court on a charge of public violence today.

For the past month the group has been living on the side of the road, alongside the open land.

Yesterday, their mattresses and other belonging were lying covered in black plastic beside an open fire which they used for cooking and warmth.

The homes they built on the land were demolished by law-enforcement officials from the City of Cape Town, in accordance with a court order preventing occupation of the land.

For Theliwe Macekiswana, 33, who has 10-month-old baby Iphendule, the fight for freedom is meaningless when she has nowhere to live.

Unemployed since March, she said she had nothing to celebrate.

The municipality had evicted her, taking her materials “instead of protecting us on this land”.

“They took my whole hokkie,” she said.

Joseph Jantjies, 52, who has been living in a Macassar backyard for 20 years since his arrival here from the Eastern Cape, said they had resorted to protests to force the government to take notice of them.

“These people have nothing to celebrate.

“They can’t be satisfied with living like this,” he said.

Several Metro Police officers stood monitoring the protest throughout the morning yesterday.

Letter to Dan Plato, Helen Zille & Tokyo Sexwale from the Centre on Housing Rights & Evictions

9 June 2009

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The Honourable Mr. Dan Plato

Mayor of Cape Town,

The Mayor’s Office,

City of Cape Town

Cape Town 8001

South Africa

Reference: Violation of housing rights of 60 families in Macassar Village, Cape Town.

Dear Mayor Plato,

The Centre on Housing Rights and Evictions (COHRE) is an international human rights non-governmental organisation based in Geneva, Switzerland, with offices throughout the world. COHRE has consultative status with the United Nations and Observer Status with the African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights. COHRE works to promote and protect the right to adequate housing for everyone, everywhere, including preventing or remedying forced evictions.

COHRE is deeply disturbed by reports of the repeated demolition of shacks in Macassar village by Cape Town’s Anti Land Invasions Unit, South African Police Service (SAPS) and Metro Police. COHRE also expresses concern about the reported violent arrest of Abahlali baseMjondolo activist Mzonke Poni on 1 June 2009.

According to information received by COHRE, several backyard dwellers in Macassar village, frustrated with poor living conditions and their increased vulnerability to evictions resulting from rising rents, occupied vacant municipal land along the N2 highway on 18th May 2009. On the 19th morning, however, police personnel demolished approximately 60 shacks and fired rubber bullets injuring four people including a woman and a child. Police also arrested three persons including Professor Martin Legassick. On 20th May, Macassar SAPS Superintendent facilitated an agreement between the occupiers and their local ward councillor where the occupiers were given permission to build shacks on another piece of land in the vicinity. We understand that occupiers were informed that this agreement would be endorsed by your presence at the new site the following day.

COHRE notes with disappointment that according to reports received, you reversed the ward councillor’s decision and ordered the Anti Land Invasions Unit to once again demolish newly constructed shacks and confiscate building material. COHRE would like to point out that an estimated 300 backyard dwellers have thus been rendered homeless and are forced to live and sleep in the open.

COHRE expresses shock at the City’s apparent disregard for the Prevention of Illegal Eviction from, and Unlawful Occupation of, Land Act 1998 as well as for the interdict against further demolitions secured in the Cape High Court by Abahlali baseMjondolo. According to information received, the Anti Land Invasions Unit continued to illegally demolish shacks despite being informed about the interdict of 29th May.

South Africa’s Constitution states in Section 26(3) that “no one may be evicted from their home…without an order of the court made after considering all the relevant circumstances [emphasis added]”

COHRE respectfully reminds the Government of South Africa that under international human rights law, evictions can only occur lawfully in very exceptional circumstances and after all feasible alternatives have been explored in consultation with affected persons. If, and only if, such exceptional circumstances exist and there are no feasible alternatives, can evictions be deemed justified. Furthermore, evictions should not result in rendering individuals homeless or vulnerable to the violation of other human rights. Governments must therefore, ensure that adequate alternative housing is available to affected persons.

The backyard dwellers of Macassar, like several other poor communities, are victims of South Africa’s ongoing housing crisis marked by growing waiting lists for subsidised housing every year and the inability of the State to adequately respond to the growing demand. Many of the backyard dwellers who occupied land in Macassar have been on the waiting list for 15-20 years, with no solution in sight.

Instead of facilitating access to the right to adequate housing through the allocation of vacant public land to the back yard dwellers of Macassar, the City has sought to forcibly evict them and thereby unlawfully deprive them of the shelter they had. COHRE therefore urges the City of Cape Town to:

* Take urgent steps to provide emergency shelter and relief material to all those affected by the forced eviction;
* Devise and implement a strategy to resolve the crisis through meaningful consultations with affected people and with a view to fulfil their right to adequate housing;
* Adequately compensate all those who have lost their belongings and building materials in the demolition drives;
* Withdraw all charges against those protesting against the demolitions; and
* Initiate an independent enquiry into allegations of violence and illegal actions by members of the Anti Land Invasions Unit, SAPS and the Metro Police.



We look forward to your response.

Thank you very much for your time and consideration.

Yours sincerely,

Salih Booker

Executive Director



Cc

The Honourable Mr. Achmat Ebrahim

City Manager, Cape Town

The Honourable Ms. Helen Zille

Premier, Western Cape

The Honourable Mr. Tokyo Sexwale

National Minister for Housing

Ms. Raquel Rolnik

United Nations Special Rapporteur on Adequate Housing

Anti-land invasion unit gets R10m budget June 08,

Brenda Nkuna

THE City of Cape Town is spending R10 million in the current financial year to fund its Anti-Land Invasion Unit.

This is to safeguard housing projects it says "are being threatened by systematically planned and executed land invasions".

But anti-eviction organisations have slammed the unit, saying the money could be better spent elsewhere.

They have warned that the unit's existence will lead to "war" between communities and the city.

The unit, established to monitor, stop and evict those who attempt to erect shacks illegally, addressed 29 land invasions during the 2008/09 financial year, according to its head, Steve Hayward.

These included 17 in Helderberg, six in Tygerberg, two in the South/Central region and four in Blaauwberg.

Hayward said that in all 29 land invasions the unit had succeeded in removing people from city-owned land. It had obtained eight court interdicts to prevent people from further occupying land.

In the latest high-profile incident, Macassar backyarders invaded city-owned land on May 19. The invasion saw rubber bullets being fired by police and the backyarders being evicted.

Hayward said that in the Macassar case structures had been taken down and building material confiscated, but that the material had been returned to the backyarders last week.

Macassar backyarders argue that their eviction was illegal, but Hayward denied this, arguing that the backyarders had attempted to take land "in an unlawful manner".

Anti-Eviction Campaign spokesman Mncedisi Twalo said he was "upset" by the way the unit had treated backyarders, and warned of mobilisation in the Western Cape because of what he described as people being "unfairly" treated.

He said while expensive infrastructure such as malls were being built, there were thousands in need of houses.

Cape Town's housing backlog is estimated at 400 000.

Twalo was critical of the money allocated to the unit, arguing that "so much money could have been used to build houses, instead of going to a unit that has formed war between communities and the city". - West Cape News

http://www.capeargus.co.za/index.php?fArticleId=5026432
Macassar Village residents torch truck in protest

June 08, 2009 Edition 2

Luleka Damane

A PROTEST over service delivery turned violent today when residents of Macassar Village burned tyres and attacked and torched a bread truck.

Police believe that the protest started at about 5am and calmed down by 8am.

Kramat Road was closed this morning while the road was being cleared of the burning tyres and the bread truck.

Provincial police spokesman Superintendent Andre Traut said the bread delivery truck had been on Kramat Road when it was stopped by five men who told the driver to step out the vehicle.

The men then set it alight.

The truck driver was not harmed and fled the scene.

Traut said a case of hijacking had been opened at Macassar police station.

He said police had a reason to suspect that the hijacking and torching of the truck were linked to the service delivery protest.

Traut said between 50 and 100 people had protested.

This the second protest in Macassar Village in the past few weeks.

Last month backyard dwell-ers, protesting against the slow roll-out of houses, burned tyres and threw stones at police officers.

The arrest of Mzonke Poni and indefensible actions of police officers

To whom it may concern,

I am a citizen of Cape Town and have received with great concern the news of the unlawful abduction and detention of Mzonke Poni, a member and leader of Abahlali baseMjondolo.

This follows the wilful and blatant disregard of a court order to stop the illegal demolition of peoples shacks. Even when the lawyer turned up to show evidence of the order, the lawyer was treated in a manner unbefitting any decency.

I have lived in Zimbabwe and have also witnessed the actions of the state there. The actions displayed by the SAPS are a chillingly replica of such barbaric behaviour. Furthermore, it is disgraceful that that 15 years into our democracy, police officers under the orders of the City of Cape Town, are contravening court judgements that protect the poor in our country. Such actions are indefensible.

I demand the immediare release of Mzonke and that the commanding police officers that ordered and lead all the unlawful actions be charged.

Yours etc,
Ashley Fataar
Keep Left
Zimbabwe Labour Centre
Social Justice Coalition

Isn't this public violence?

Estimated sir, I am a journalist from Spain, my name is Oskar Epelde,
and I am sending you this email in order to share with you some
questions about what public violence is. Empowering poors (who have no
house) to show themselves to the world, occupying empty land for means
of basic livelihood, supporting them from inside so that they can be
integrated as participants in the shared democracy of the world is not
"public violence", it's actually a need for healing the humanity from
the mistakes of the past. But arresting a leader of such a social
movement (like abahlali baseMjondolo), assaulting him when he is
returning home, and injuring him (because why has he been taken to the
hospital?) it's exactly public violence.
Please be a man of god, side with the people who are suffering an
ended reality (objetivity is near the standpoint of the oppressed) and
help Mzonke Poni in his sacred mission for the poor of Macassar
village
Thanks a lot
Your sincerely
osk

letter to the Mayor of City of Cape Town

To whom it may concern,

I am a concerned citizen from the University of Cape Town. I would
like to know under what charge Mzonke Poni was arrested this afternoon
(1 June)? According to a statement I read he was arrested due to
public violence. Witnesses at the protest this afternoon reported that
he committed no such acts of public violence. Exactly what acts are
you claiming that he committed? Furthermore, the police assaulted him
and the acts of the police are in direct violation of the courts as
Abahlali baseMjondolo obtained a court interdict to prevent shacks
being demolished at Macassar Village. It is disgraceful that that 15
years into our democracy, police officers under the orders of the City
of Cape Town, are contravening court judgements that protect the poor
in our country. Such actions are indefensible.

I suggest in the strongest possible terms that Mzonke be released
immediately and that police officers desist in ongoing illegal
activity by respecting the rights of the poor in our city.

Yours sincerely,
Thembi Luckett
Faculty of Law
University of Cape Town

Unconstitutional arrest of Mzonke Poni

Mayor Plato
I am writing in connection with the unconstitutional use of force by the police in Macassar Village during the last two weeks, and the arrest of Mzonke Poni on the charge of public violence yesterday. The police appear incapable of telling me why he has been arrested on this charge, and of why they have continued to demolish shacks and remove building materials despite the ruling by the courts that this is illegal. Perhaps you will be able to explain to me why this is the case.
According to your website, "CAPE TOWN’s new executive mayor, Dan Plato, is a ‘people’s person’ who knows the challenges that face our city well, and intends to do something about them from day one." I look forward to seeing you live out that conviction in this important case and act to protect the interests of those who are currently being victimised by the police.
Awaiting your reply,

Phil Harrison

Arrest & Police Assault of Mzonke Poni

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Matt Birkinshaw
Date: 2 Jun 2009 13:31
Subject: Arrest & Police Assault of Mzonke Poni
To: mayor.mayor@capetown.gov.za
Cc: abmwesterncape@abhlali.org


Dear Mayor Plato,

I wish to protest at the treatment of community activist Mzonke Poni,
Chairman of Abahlali baseMjondolo Western Cape, by City of Cape Town
police.

I believe that Mr Poni was detained by police on June 1, "pepper
sprayed in the eyes at point blank range" and badly assualted. Please
could you describe the steps that the City of Cape Town will be taking
to investigate and punish the police perpetrators of the assault?

Please could you also explain why Mr Poni is being charged with public
violence in relation to a land invasion, when trepass is a minor civil
offence?

Are you also aware that since 19 May 2009 City of Cape Town officials
and staff have committed many criminal acts towards the Macassar
Village occupation including demolishing shacks without an order of
the court, demolishing shacks in contempt of court, theft of building
materials, assault, public violence and wrongful arrest. Please could
you inform me what procedures the City will be following in order to
deal with these criminal acts by City employees in their official
capacity?

I am extremely concerned about Mr Poni's situation and the City's
reaction to the land occupation and will be attempting to publicise it
widely.

I look forward to your response.

Yours sincerely,

Matt Birkinshaw

Well-known activist, Mzonke Poni, is under arrest and is currently being assaulted in the Macassar Village Police Station

Emergency Update:

1. mzonke sent an sms moments ago to say that a women has also been arrested and that she has a one year old baby.
2. immediately after that mzonke's phone was taken from him while he was on the line to david ntseng of the church land programme.

its time to face up to the fact that in cape town the local state is habitually violent and criminal. moreover when the courts extend some protection to the poor that are also treated with utter contempt

Emergency Press Release
Monday 1 June, 2009

This morning the interdict was delivered to the Cape Town City Manager.

The Cape Town City Council responded by sending out a large contingent of highly armed police to the site of the occupation. They said that they were there to demolish (in contempt of court and in violation of the law).

Early this afternoon there was a vibrant protest by the occupiers. During the protest the police pointed out Mzonke Poni, chairperson of the AbM Western Cape, and threatened to arrest him.

Some time after the protest, and well away from the scene, of the protest the police accosted Mzonke and threw him into the van. He was handcuffed, pepper sprayed in the eyes at point blank rage and badly assaulted.

He is now in the Macassar Village Police Station. He has not been charged.

The Macassar Village Police Station can be contacted at: 021-8571020/1/2

Once again the City of Cape Town is engaging in criminal and violent behaviour.

The Abahlali baseMjondolo lawyer, church leaders and activists from across Cape Town are rushing to the Macassar Village Police Station. Mzonke will lay charges of wrongful arrest and assault against the police.

For comment on this latest outrage by the now habitually criminal regime in the Cape Town City Hall please contact the following representatives of the Poor People’s Alliance:

Mnikelo Ndabankulu, Abahlali baseMjondolo, Durban: 079 745 0653
Landless People’s Movement (Gauteng): Maureen Mnisi –082 337 4514
Rural Network (KwaZulu-Natal): Rev. Mavuso – 072 279 2634
Western Cape Anti-Eviction Campaign (Western Cape): Ashraf Casiem – 076 186 1408

« Back to Inbox Archive Report spam Delete Move to Labels More actions ‹ Newer 10 of 19 Older › Well-known activist, Mzonke Poni, is

Emergency Update:

1. mzonke sent an sms moments ago to say that a women has also been arrested and that she has a one year old baby.
2. immediately after that mzonke's phone was taken from him while he was on the line to david ntseng of the church land programme.

its time to face up to the fact that in cape town the local state is habitually violent and criminal. moreover when the courts extend some protection to the poor that are also treated with utter contempt

Emergency Press Release
Monday 1 June, 2009

This morning the interdict was delivered to the Cape Town City Manager.

The Cape Town City Council responded by sending out a large contingent of highly armed police to the site of the occupation. They said that they were there to demolish (in contempt of court and in violation of the law).

Early this afternoon there was a vibrant protest by the occupiers. During the protest the police pointed out Mzonke Poni, chairperson of the AbM Western Cape, and threatened to arrest him.

Some time after the protest, and well away from the scene, of the protest the police accosted Mzonke and threw him into the van. He was handcuffed, pepper sprayed in the eyes at point blank rage and badly assaulted.

He is now in the Macassar Village Police Station. He has not been charged.

The Macassar Village Police Station can be contacted at: 021-8571020/1/2

Once again the City of Cape Town is engaging in criminal and violent behaviour.

The Abahlali baseMjondolo lawyer, church leaders and activists from across Cape Town are rushing to the Macassar Village Police Station. Mzonke will lay charges of wrongful arrest and assault against the police.

For comment on this latest outrage by the now habitually criminal regime in the Cape Town City Hall please contact the following representatives of the Poor People’s Alliance:

Mnikelo Ndabankulu, Abahlali baseMjondolo, Durban: 079 745 0653
Landless People’s Movement (Gauteng): Maureen Mnisi –082 337 4514
Rural Network (KwaZulu-Natal): Rev. Mavuso – 072 279 2634
Western Cape Anti-Eviction Campaign (Western Cape): Ashraf Casiem – 076 186 1408

Weeping (On the Arrest and Assault of Mzonke Poni)

On the Arrest and Assault of Mzonke Poni

Mark Butler, 2 June 2009

“Mzonke Poni is under arrest and is currently being assaulted in the Macassar Village Police Station. ... Early this afternoon there was a vibrant protest by the occupiers. During the protest the police pointed out Mzonke Poni, chairperson of the AbM Western Cape, and threatened to arrest him. Some time after the protest, and well away from the scene, of the protest the police accosted Mzonke and threw him into the van. He was handcuffed, pepper sprayed in the eyes at point blank rage and badly assaulted. He is now in the Macassar Village Police Station”. (Emergency Press Release, 1 June 2009, Abahlali baseMjondolo of the Western Cape).



Jacques Ranciere says:



police intervention in public spaces does not consist primarily in the interpellation of demonstrators, but in the breaking up of demonstrations. The police is not that law interpellating individuals... It is, first of all, a reminder of the obviousness of what there is, or rather, of what there isn't: "Move along! There is nothing to see here!" The police says that there is nothing to see on a road, that there is nothing to do but move along. ... Politics, in contrast, consists in transforming this space of 'moving-along' into a space for the appearance of a subject: i.e., the people, the workers, the citizens: It consists in refiguring the space, of what there is to do there, what is to be seen or named therein.

(Jacques Ranciere, “Ten Theses on Politics”, translated by Rachel Bowlby & Davide Panagia, Theory & Event, 2001).



So the police react to shacks of Macassar by smashing them down, day after day, and stealing the materials, day after day; so the police react to the people's court interdict against this destruction and theft day after day, by taking the people's leader, Mzonke, in to their cells and beating him there, telling the world "Move along! There is nothing to see here". So, after I tell my ten-year old son why I am angry and upset tonight, I hear him singing an old song in the kitchen – the song he's singing is 'Weeping'. Written in the mid-1980s by Dan Heymann, an unwilling conscript into the apartheid army, 'Weeping' diagnoses elite violence against the people as the product of fear, fear of the demon that cannot be faced by the oppressors. Heymann says of the lyrics:


I've been asked many times about the symbolism in the Weeping lyrics... The man referred to in the Weeping lyrics is the late P. W. Botha, one of the last white leaders of South Africa before the end of the Apartheid regime; The demon he could never face in the Weeping lyrics refers to the aspirations of the oppressed majority, while the Weeping lyrics also refer to the neighbours, literally the journalists from other countries who were monitoring the situation in South Africa. That pretty much sums up the metaphorical content of the Weeping lyrics (see http://www.weeping.info/index.html).



So I find a recording I have of the song – the original 1987 release by Bright Blue. I am shaken as the music, rooted in quintessentially South African traditions and featuring snatches of 'Nkosi Sikelele iAfrika', resonates as powerfully with this awful, beautiful, place that is my home as it did back then at the height of State of Emergency.



WEEPING
Written by Dan Heymann
(Copyright Bright Blue)
______________________________

I knew a man who lived in fear
It was huge, it was angry, it was drawing near
Behind his house, a secret place
Was the shadow of the demon he could never face
He built a wall of steel and flame
And men with guns, to keep it tame
Then standing back, he made it plain
That the nightmare would never ever rise again
But the fear and the fire and the guns remain

It doesn’t matter now
It’s over anyhow
He tells the world that it’s sleeping
But as the night came round
I heard its lonely sound
It wasn’t roaring, it was weeping

And then one day the neighbours came
They were curious to know about the smoke and flame
They stood around outside the wall
But of course there was nothing to be heard at all
"My friends," he said, "We’ve reached our goal
The threat is under firm control
As long as peace and order reign
I’ll be damned if I can see a reason to explain
Why the fear and the fire and the guns remain"

Mzonke Poni to appear in the Somerset West Court between 9-10am tomorrow

The Arrest & Police Assault of Mzonke Poni - update no. 3, 7:47 p.m. 1 June 2009

We have now been able to confirm the following:

1. Mzonke has, probably as a result of the fantastic national and international solidarity, been able to receive medial attention.

2. The woman who was arrested, with her child, along with Mzonke was subject to intimidation at the hands of the police and threatened to never return to the occupation and then released without being charged. We cannot yet give her name.

3. Mzonke has been charged with public violence. This is the standard charge used against activists in South Africa. It just means that someone - a ward councillor, a mayor, a city manager, an MEC, a police officer - thinks that you don't know your place. When AbM in Durban was confronting severe state repression from March 2005 until November 2007 more than a hundred people were arrested on this charge. None of them had done any violence to any person or even any damage to property. In each case they were held, somtimes assaulted, and then made to appear in court numerous times and then the charges were dropped just before the trial date. There was not case in which an arrest on a chrage of public violence led to a trial.

4. The police spokesperson says that he "cannot confirm what acts of violence Poni is alleged to have committed" but he did conform that the "arrest relates to illegal land invasion." Trespass is a minor civil offence. It is not a criminal offence and it is certainly not the same thing as public violence. However the state's actions towards the Macassar Land Occupation since 19 May 2009 include all kinds of criminal acts including demolishing shacks without an order of the court, demolishing shacks in contempt of court, theft of building materials, assault, public violence and wrongful arrest.

5. The police spokesperson says that he doesn't "have a mandate to talk about the relationship of this arrest to the court interdict against the City of Cape Town." However it seems that there is a very high likelihood that Mzonke was arrested and assaultd precisely to punish him for daring to demand that the City of Cape Town cease its ongoingly criminal response to the Macassar Village Land Occupation.

6. According to the police spokesperson Mzonke will appear in the Somerset West Court between 9 and 10 a.m. tomorrow. According the Abahlali baseMjondolo and the Poor People's Alliance he will be greeted as a hero when he steps into the dock.

Mzonke's comrade Khanyiso now has Mzonke's phone and Khanyiso can be contacted on Mzonke's number (073 256 2036). He will be able to give updates on the stituation and to comment.

People are encouarged to send letters of protest to Cape Town Mayor Dan Plato at mayor.mayor@capetown.gov.za with copies to Abahlali baseMjondolo of the Western Cape at abmwesterncape@abhlali.org

pictures of Macassar Protest for 1st June 2009