“We want to have our own piece of land so that we can do something for ourselves like growing gardens or sheep farming” By Zoë Postman On Friday morning about 100 people, mostly farm workers from various provinces, marched from Pieter Roos Park to the Constitutional Court in Braamfontein to demand better living and working conditions for farm workers. The group also called...

Durban mayor Zandile Gumede and her cronies present accumulating private wealth from the public purse as “radical economic transformation”. But corruption charges against the mayor could bring positive change for shack dwellers, street traders and flat dwellers – those most opposed to her. By Greg Ardé The arrest of Zandile Gumede, the mayor of the eThekwini Municipality, has shifted national attention...

Two decades later, District Six claimants still have no idea when they’re going to receive restitution By Kristine Liao The Minister of Rural Development and Land Reform has promised, once again, to deliver a finalised District Six redevelopment plan in three months. The Minister, Maite Nkoana-Mashabane was ordered last year to provide a plan by February this year. She missed this original three-month...

North West High Court rejects bid to declare Minister of Mineral Resources in breach of statutory duties By Wilmien Wicomb In February the North West High Court rejected the application from the Mining Forum of South Africa, representing the Bapo-Ba-Mogale community, to declare the minister responsible for mineral resources in breach of his statutory obligation to hold Lonmin to account for not complying with...

By Ra’eesa Pather On a vast piece of land known as Mabcinde in Masiphumelele township, Cape Town, water laps at the bases of the homes people have built for themselves. Long reeds rise from the damp ground and a canal – littered with plastic bags and glass bottles – snakes through the settlement. “We are drowning here,” says 31-year-old Khulansande Ghanyanza. In...

“The court will see who is lying and who is telling the truth” By Zoë Postman Land occupiers from Tswelopele Extension 8 in Tembisa, East of Johannesburg, are applying for an interdict at the North Gauteng High Court in Pretoria to prevent the Ekurhuleni Metropolitan Police Department (EMPD) from evicting them. The 118 households want their demolished homes rebuilt and to be compensated...

Court found Johannesburg Metro police violated homeless people’s constitutional rights to dignity and privacy  By Ohene Yaw Ampofo-Anti In a landmark judgment, the Supreme Court of Appeal has ordered the City of Johannesburg to compensate 27 homeless people for unlawfully confiscating and destroying their property. The homeless applicants lived on a traffic island under the R31 Highway Bridge in the Johannesburg Central Business District....

By Dennis Webster It was dusk at the Bryanston Country Club. Members carried their putters off the practice greens. Walking past a busy cash bar, they joined the crowd gathering in the club’s Grosvenor Room. The occasion – organised by residents’ associations from the northern suburbs of Melrose and Ferndale on 7 March – was well attended. Dozens of mostly white residents...

Reclaim the City opposes interdict granted to Growthpoint Properties  By Tariro Washinyira Activist groups Reclaim the City (RTC) and #UniteBehind have opposed an interdict granted in December to Growthpoint Properties. RTC claims that Growthpoint misled the court when it made its application for an urgent interdict and it used a private security company to suppress the organisation’s right to protest. About 30 RTC members...

This bill does not include the people, says Land Access Movement By Mary-Anne Gontsana The National Assembly has approved the Traditional and Khoi-San Leadership Bill (TKLB) much to the disappointment of several rural organisations. The bill, approved yesterday in Parliament, has been supported by the ANC and the UDM, but opposed by the DA, EFF and COPE. According to Stop The Bantustan Bill coalition,...