Barometer of Resistance: South Africa

Three young assassins shot at Alice Ngubane and her family at night in their shack in Orange Farm. Alice Ngubane was a worker at the Matiwane Combined School (a private school in Orange Farm) until last year when the director of the school unfairly dismissed her and three fellow workers. This was part of an attack on the Anti-Privatisation Forum and its affiliates in Orange Farm.

The South African Commercial, Catering and Allied Workers Union called a national strike of its members in Shoprite Checkers and its subsidiaries. The dispute arose from a deadlock between union and management on the conditions of employment of non-fulltime workers, which Shoprite Checkers was trying to undermine.

The Landless People’s Movement (LPM) Gauteng held a press briefing to announce its plans to take forward the LPM’s national “No Land! No Vote!” campaign with a march to President Thabo Mbeki’s offices at the Union Buildings in Pretoria, and a boycott of the election registration process.

About eighty members of the Samancor Retrenched Workers Crisis Committe held a picket at the Supreme Court in support of the Vaal community’s demand for the land claim.

Hundreds of LPM Gauteng members, together with a delegation of LPM Mpumalanga and LPM North-West comrades, marched to the Union Buildings in Pretoria to deliver a memorandum to President Thabo Mbeki detailing the movement’s reasons for launching the “No Land! No Vote!” campaign. The campaign targeted ten years of failed land reform, and ongoing land loss through urban forced removals and rural farm evictions.

About 4 000 members of Jubilee South Africa, Khulumani, social movements and NGOs joined the march to the banks and mining companies demanding reparations. The march coincided with the launch of the reparations’ court cases in the United States of America.

Max Ntanyana of the Western Cape Anti-Evictions Campaign (WCAEC) was released after over three weeks in Pollsmoor on a charge of pointing a firearm (at a person who works for a bank/housing company). The magistrate did not set new bail conditions but simply extended the old bail on condition that Max appear again on 13 November for the case. Max and four others also face another case soon for ‘public violence’ – during a struggle against an eviction.

The WCAEC in Cape Town organised a march to the offices of MEC of Police in the Western Cape, Leonard Ramatlakane (who is also a member of South African Communist Party, the SACP). The march was against police brutality.

A court case against Phiri and Soweto community activists was scheduled for the week beginning 3 November, in what is being dubbed ’Hammer Week’ by the legal team representing the accused. Sixteen (16) residents of Soweto were placed on trial in separate cases for fighting for the basic provision of water services. Each of the seven cases refers to the uprising in Phiri, Soweto, in early September 2003.

LPM members in various informal settlements around Gauteng protested against the election registration process.

Six residents of Illitha Park were arrested by Khayelitsha police on charges of trespassing. The six residents came out in opposition to police brutality, and were arrested as police broke down the doors of several houses in Sinagogo Crescent, Illitha Park.

The Treatment Action Campaign (TAC), as part of the World Aids Day action, organised various activities such as marches, workshops and community awareness programmes, distribution of pamphlets, night vigils and so on. All these events were highlighting the need for affordable treatment of all those who are suffering from HIV/AIDS.

South African Transport and Allied Workers’ Union (SATAWU) members at the Equity Aviation Services, a ramp and baggage handling company at some of South Africa’s major airports, went on one of the longest strikes in the airports. The strikers were demanding an 8% wage increase and a 40-hour working week and protesting against privatisation of airports.

The Concerned Learners Committee of Bophelong Community led a march for free education in the community. The march coincided with the opening of the schools. The demands were free education, a nutritious feeding scheme in all schools in the area, textbooks, laboratory equipment, an end to corporal punishment and for learners and educators to take education seriously.

About 45 members of the Samancor Retrenched Workers Crisis Committee held a picket at the Samancor factory in the Vaal.

Five hundred NUMSA members went on a strike at Gastrow wheels company in Uitenhage. The strike was about the retrenchment of 150 workers in the company.

The South African Medical Association (SAMA) led doctors on a march to the Opening of Parliament in Cape Town. The Treatment Action Campaign supported the demands of public sector health-care workers for better working conditions, including an end to post freezes, better remuneration and greater availability of medicines and diagnostics in clinics and hospitals. The TAC noted with concern media reports that the Minister of Health had threatened disciplinary action against doctors who participated in that march. The TAC said that any health-care workers who have action taken against them for participating in march had the full support of the TAC.

The SAPS and City Police gassed members of the community in a settlement in Khayelitsha, who fought to stop the demolition of one hundred and fifty shacks. In defense, the council claimed the shacks were empty. The community settlement was started in November by backyard dwellers from various Khayelitsha suburbs.