ANC and DA discover common ground

by Jared Sacks, Mail & Guardian

The ANC and the Democratic Alliance always bicker over the cause of land occupations and who promotes them for political gain. Yet looking at their actions more deeply, it becomes clear how similar the two parties really are.

Cape Town: During the first two weeks of August, thousands of backyard dwellers living in dire conditions occupied vacant land near the Marikana settlement in Philippi East. Over the following days, the City of Cape Town’s Anti-Land Invasion Unit (ALIU), with the support of hundreds of labourers and police officers, made illegal attempts to evict all the occupiers.

City of Cape Town makes up law to justify eviction of the poor

by Jared Sacks, Daily Maverick

The City of Cape Town has been caught red-handed using a fraudulent legal pretext to justify the eviction of shack dwellers who had occupied a vacant piece of City-owned land, by citing a non-existent law they claim is called the “Protection of the Possession of Property Act”. After speaking with legal experts in the field of property and evictions, I was told that not only was the eviction of the 'Marikana' shack dwellers in Cape Town’s Philippi East illegal according to the PIE Act, but city officials had also lied about the living conditions of the shack dwellers.

Marikana Land Occupation Evicted on Workers' Day: Reports from ENCA & the Daily Maverick

There are also various statements, reports etc on the Abahlali baseMjondolo website.

'Marikana' UnFreedom Day land occupation ends in violent Workers’ Day eviction

I found myself among a community of homeless and backyard-dwellers on Sunday through connections with the shackdwellers’ movement Abahlali baseMjondolo, which held its controversial UnFreedom Day rally on 27 April in the settlement of Sweet Home Farm in Philippi, Cape Town. What follows is a personal account of the beginnings of the 'Marikana' land occupation. By JARED SACKS. The Daily Maverick

Zowi Zulu berates the police after they threw her and her new born child out of their shack

Two Articles on Public Housing in Durban: Enrichment, Violence, Exclusion & Resistance

The Uganda Transit Camp, Isipingo, Durban

Uganda Transit Camp, Durban: A report from the frontlines of the struggle for democracy

Just two decades after the dawn of democracy, an old horror is revisiting the new South Africa. Transit camps are back, and they are back with a vengeance, writes JARED SACKS, Daily Maverick

Close to midnight and you can still hear babies wailing, couples quarrelling and house music blaring through the razor-thin zinc sheets that the eThekwini Municipality calls “walls” in Uganda Transit Camp near Isipingo, Durban. Getting a decent night’s sleep is a struggle in and of itself. And yet, that’s only the beginning.

Shack fires: A devil in the detail of development

According to the City of Cape Town, within the boundaries of the municipality alone, there are more than 100 deaths from shack fires every year. JARED SACKS examines the root causes of the problem and the city’s failure to address it. The Daily Maverick

On New Year’s morning a devastating fire broke out in BM Section shack settlement leaving about 4,000 people homeless and at least five dead.

Residents claim it took almost two hours for fire trucks to arrive, despite the Khayelitsha fire station being only a kilometre away. By then, hundreds of shacks were already ablaze and the single truck that responded to the emergency failed to get close enough to the fire to make a difference. It soon ran out of water and had to leave to find more. Eventually, more fire trucks came and, with the help of hundreds of residents using buckets to draw water from local taps, they were able to slow down the rapidly spreading inferno.

Designing a city from the bottom up: Jared Sacks and Nobanzi Dlodlo

Cape winelands: Why the farmworkers defied Cosatu

Driving through the Hex River Valley after Wednesday’s chaotic protests feels like entering a ghost town. Yet when one manages to find residents and speak to them, it becomes crystal clear that the farm workers are planning to hold out for their wage demands – and that few of them know anything of the well-publicised promises that they would be back at work this week. By JARED SACKS, The Daily Maverick

Entering the Hex River Valley on Thursday morning was a surreal experience. Following Cosatu's well publicised statement on Wednesday, I had expected that most farmworkers would already be in the fields trying to recuperate their lost wages over the past two weeks.

Marikana prequel: NUM and the murders that started it all

by Jared Sacks, The Daily Maverick

Because the Marikana Massacre marked a turning point in the history of our country, I went to the small mining town in the North West. I wanted to know what truly happened and what it meant for the future of our so-called democracy. I hoped my trip would enable me to answer some of the burning questions left obfuscated by media, government and civil society campaigns alike.

Report on protest in the Sweet Home shack settlement in Cape Town

by Jared Sacks, Mail & Guardian

Over much of this past winter, communities in shack settlements across Cape Town took to the streets in some of South Africa's most active civil-disobedience protests since 1994.

The protests gave rise to a great deal of commentary and finger-pointing. I was disturbed by the double standard of the political rhetoric of politicians and some nongovernmental organisations in the way they expected the protesters to react in response to the violence the state and police subjects them to on a daily basis.

On the Politics of Protest in Cape Town

by Jared Sacks, The Amandla Blog (There is now a shorter version of this article on the Mail & Guardian site)

A few weeks ago the City of Cape Town was rocked by a spate of road blockades and other significant protests. Certain liberal NGOs have joined the DA in condemning the protests claiming that they are violent and motivated by political party agendas.

To be sure, this is nothing new. Protests in the form of marches, the burning of tyres, and road blockades, have been happening every week throughout the City for years. The significant majority go completely unreported in the mainstream media and unnoticed by government officials.

People's land, housing and jobs summit

by Jared Sacks, Pambazuka

For months, communities from all over Cape Town have been planning a three-day People's Land, Housing and Jobs Summit at one of Cape Town's huge open pieces of unused land. This summit is set to take place this weekend from 27 until the 29 January.

Yet, even though community representatives sent in their notification of intention to gather on the Rondebosch Common and have complied with all legislation governing the right to march, the City of Cape Town is attempting to ban the march and summit altogether.

The climate change revolution will not be funded

by Jared Sacks, Pambazuka

‘Tell no lies. Claim no easy victories!’ - Amilcar Cabral

Over the past few weeks, world leaders, technocrats, and NGOs descended upon Durban for the 17th Conference of Parties (dubbed the Conference of Polluters by its critics). After 17 years of meetings to address climate change, the lack of action from world leaders clearly shows that the biggest polluting nations not only lack the political will to address the issue, but also seem to be actively carrying out the anti-environmental agenda of the largest corporations on this planet.

Why are some 'occupiers' more equal than others?

by Jared Sacks, Mail & Guardian

About 200 Cape Town residents participated in the call for a "World Revolution Day" on October 15, inspired by the growing worldwide Occupy movement. We arrived at the Company Gardens next to Parliament in typical Capetonian fashion: mostly late, disjointed, and with a huge array of goals and personal agendas for the first day.

Two deaths, dozens of injuries and counting...An investigation into politically motivated violence against the LPM in Gauteng

An investigation into politically motivated violence in eTwatwa (Gauteng) and other Landless People's Movement affiliated settlements during May 2010. A report prepared by Jared Sacks at the request of the Gauteng Landless People's Movement, July 2010.

Reports of political violence in South Africa are on the upsurge. There has been a clear increase in aggressive attempts to undermine social movement activities in the past few years. As a result of the violence, social movements activists, migrants and ethnic minorities have often been forced into exile from their communities.

The following report investigates allegations of politically-sanctioned and coordinated attacks on the Landless Peoples Movement in the informal settlement area of eTwatwa in the Municipality of Ekurhuleni in Gauteng. These attacks have resulted in the forced removal of numerous residents who have, as a direct consequence of the attacks, been forced from their homes and, often, into hiding. This report focuses on the historical context behind the attacks as well as how the attacks have affected the relevant communities.

Two deaths, dozens of injuries and counting... Investigation into politically motivated violence in eTwatwa (Gauteng) and other Landless People's Movement affiliated settlements during May 2010

Gauteng Landless Peoples Movement Report by Mia_Charlene_W_8856