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non-anarchist press
Saturday June 05, 2010 00:30 by Landless People’s Movement - LPM
Five More People have Been Arrested in Protea South Last night, Thursday 3 June, the police went from door to door with an informer in the shacks of Protea South, Soweto. They arrested five members of the Landless People’s Movement (LPM). Three of the people that they arrested are children of Maureen Mnisi, chairperson of the LPM in Gauteng. The other two are her neighbours. Friday, 04 June 2010 Landless People’s Movement Press Statement The Attack on the Landless People’s Movement ContinuesFive More People have Been Arrested in Protea South
Since the current wave of repression began when the LPM was
attacked in Protea
South
The police have promised that they will make more arrests soon. They said
that the five people arrested last night will be charged with burning the
electricity transformer in Protea South. The transformer was burnt
down on 23 May. On that night the
wealthier residents of Protea South living in
private bonded houses armed themselves and went around beating shack
dwellers who had connected
themselves to
electricity and forcibly
disconnecting them from electricity. They shot two people and one person
died. They also tried to burn down Maureen Mnisi’s house. Her house was
saved when LPM members defended it by erecting a burning barricade and
throwing stones at the mob from the Homeowner’s Association. Some members
of the community burnt down the electricity box to show the wealthier
residents of Protea South that if they want to deny electricity to the
poor then it will be denied to everyone. This is tactic of disconnecting
the rich if they disconnect the poor (or ask the state to do it) has been
used in
Siyanda,
Pemary Ridge and Motala Heights in Durban.
But the people that were arrested last night did not burn down the
transformer in Protea South. They were busy defending Maureen Mnisi’s
home. They did burn tyres there but to keep warm as they protected
Maureen’s home. These arrests are clearly a strategy to make Maureen feel
very strong pain so that her commitment to the struggle can be undermined.
It is the most dirty tactic to punish a militant by arresting her children
and her neighbours.
No one has been arrested for the attacks on LPM in Protea South. In
eTwatwa the police stood by as the shacks of two LPM leaders were burnt
down. Later they arrested one person but then they quickly released that
person again. The police officer who shot dead the LPM militant in eTwatwa
has not been arrested.
Liza Cossa, the chairperson of the LPM in Protea South, was told by the
police that they are targeting Maureen Mnisi. She is now expecting that
anything can happen. There is a
long
history of pressure on Maureen. In early
2009 the Homeowner’s Association signed a petition against her saying that
she must be removed from the area because she was defending people from
outside the country. Of course it is true that LPM defends all people from
evictions – South Africa belongs to all who live in it and we make no
apology for this. The LPM are well aware that the local ANC councillor,
Mapule Khumalo, is behind this. She has put Maureen under pressure to stop
shack dwellers from appropriating electricity but Maureen has refused.
Khumalo was twice seen with the people from the Homeowners’ Association
after they tried to burn down Maureen’s home.
It is the same in eTwatwa where the ANC councillor, Cllr Baleka, is behind
the attacks there.
With the exception of the *Daily Sun* the media has ignored these attacks
on the LPM. The Daily Sun did cover the electricity war in Protea South
but they only interviewed the Homeowner’s Association. They didn’t even
speak to the LPM. Maureen phoned them to complain and a journalist called
Issac promised to get back to her but he never did. This newspaper did the
same thing when they covered the attack on Abahlali baseMjondolo in the
Kennedy Road settlement in Durban in
September last year. This newspaper is treating shack dwellers as
criminals and making propaganda for the rich and for the councillors.
As the LPM we want to send a clear message to the media that they have a
duty to tell the truth about what is happening in our country. What is
happening to us must not be swept under the carpet just so that the
government can look good while the world is watching South Africa for the
World Cup. The duty of the media to tell the truth remains while the World
Cup is on. The media must come to Protea South and to eTwatwa and hear our
story.
We are calling for urgent legal support. We need lawyers for the LPM
members who are in jail. We need to take up cases against the Homeowners
Association and the police to get justice for the two people who have been
killed. We need money to pay bail.
This statement and its call for urgent solidarity with the LPM is
supported by the Poor People’s Alliance which is made up of Abahlali
baseMjondolo,
the Western Cape Anti-Eviction Campaign, the
Landless
People’s Movement and the
Rural Network. It is clear to
all the organisations in the alliance that there is no democracy in South
Africa. Every time that there is an election the poor are promised land,
housing, water, electricity, toilets, education and jobs. After the
elections we are denied these things. If we ask for the promises that have been
made to us to be kept we are beaten, arrested and jailed. If we occupy land and appropriate water and electricity we are
beaten, arrested and jailed. Sometimes we are tortured. Sometimes we are
even killed.
We are calling on everyone who is visiting South Africa for the World Cup
to visit us and to see how we have to live and to hear how we are
oppressed. Visit us in the shacks, on the farms, in the transit camps and
in the jails of this country.
For more information and comment please contact:
Maureen Mnisi, Chairperson of the LPM in Gauteng: 082 337 4514
For information and comment on the wider assault on the organised poor in
South Africa please contact:
|
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