Police conduct 3am raid, arrest 12 and confiscate petrol bombs and tyres
By Joseph Chirume
21 June 2017 Residents gather to meet on Wednesday morning at Wells Estate after mass evictions. Photo: Joseph ChirumeViolent protests have
continued in Motherwell following mass evictions that began two weeks
ago and restarted on Monday. Hundreds of shacks were demolished in NU29
and NU30 sections this week.
The Nelson Mandela Bay Municipality recently obtained a court order
instructing the office of the sheriff to carry out the evictions.
After shacks were demolished in Ikamvelihle, municipal and other vehicles were attacked and torched.
On Monday, police conducted an early morning raid at 3am and arrested
12 residents of Ehlovini settlement in Wells Estate on charges of
public violence. According to the police 30 tyres, 18 petrol bombs and a
five litre can of petrol were confiscated.
Protesters are demanding houses. Thokozile Soporo, whose shack was
demolished in Ikamvelihle, said she has been on the housing list since
2007.
“I don’t like to live the life of a squatter. It is inhuman and very
humiliating, because the place does not have toilets, water or
electricity. I know of many people who applied for a house after me, but
they are already living in their houses,” she said.
“The municipality should tell us the truth. We know that some of the
house beneficiaries do not qualify to have houses because they are not
poor people but work for government. I will wait for the police to leave
this place, then I will have to rebuild again. I have lost nearly
R5,000 worth of furniture and building material that the police took
away from my shack,” said Soporo.
NU 29 resident Mehlo Jamu, whose shack was also demolished, said, “We
fought and defeated apartheid because the government was very arrogant
and treated its people like animals. What this administration is doing
to its residents is not different to the apartheid administration. I
have lost lots of household goods as a result of this barbaric action. I
will rebuild and fight for this place. This is my home.”
Nolukho Toyo said she was deep asleep when the police kicked her door
in [during the 3am raid on Monday]. “I was sleeping with my 10-year-old
son,” she said. “They also fired rubber bullets while we were in the
shack. In other shacks, the police pointed their guns to children and
old women. I am unemployed so I cannot get the money to pay rent. I will
only leave this place after the municipality has given us a better
place.”
Mayor Athol Trollip said, “It is a problem when people protest about
housing delivery and then turn around and stone vehicles and burn down
municipal infrastructure. Nobody in South Africa has the right to
assault innocent people. That’s criminal, yet people want to be treated
with kids gloves.”
“We have a plan where we are going to build those houses. We cannot
do that if land earmarked for this has been invaded. This is a major
problem in our city. We also have many instances where people invaded
houses whose owners are not there. We need to identify the land and
build the infrastructure to service them. We are planning to provide
12,000 houses with title deeds over the next three years.”
Trollip said the evictions had been done with due legal process.
“Evictions are carried out by the office of the sheriff with the
assistance of the police. If household property is removed, it must be
labelled and taken to a place where the owners can claim it back.”
Police spokesman Captain Andre Beetge said the “evictions being
executed by the Sheriff of the Court in Motherwell, Ikamvelihle and
Wells Estate areas have sparked violence and damages towards innocent
motorists”.
Beetge warned motorists to avoid the N2 road between Bluewater Bay
and the R335 off-ramp as well as the Addo road passing through Wells
Estate.
He said the operation will continue until Friday. A truck torched in the protests. Photo: Joseph Chirume
Published originally on
GroundUp
.
Blikkiesdorp was supposed to be temporary, but residents are stuck there indefinitely
By Trevor Bohatch and Ashraf Hendricks
20 June 2017 Blikkiesdorpis a bleak, treeless settlement near the end
of the runway of Cape Town International Airport. Photo: Ashraf
Hendricks.
Blikkiesdorp, also known as “Tin Can Town”, is found tucked
away and out of sight in Delft, about a 25km drive from Cape Town’s city
centre. It was meant to be a TRA, the City’s abbreviation for Temporary
Relocation Area, but it has been housing residents for ten years. It
consists of 1,600 to 2,000 households living in tin shacks.
“This is not a place for human beings,” says Jane Roberts, who has
been in Blikkiesdorp for eight years. Before, Roberts was one of the
Symphony Way pavement dwellers and lived for two and half years on the
street. “The road was a good place to stay,” she says. Jane Roberts has lived in Blikkiesdorp for eight years, even
though it is supposed to be a temporary place. Photo: Ashraf Hendricks
Her home in Blikkiesdorp is tiny. A double bed takes up most of the
space. She says she lives in constant fear of gangsters and break-ins.
“You can’t go out. You can’t leave your house,” says Roberts. “People
want to get out of here. They don’t want to live here. They say they
don’t care where they are going to live, so long as they can get out of
Blikkiesdorp.”
“After eight years it’s not temporary, it’s permanent,” says Roberts. Maureen Philanders wonders where her children and grandchildren will grow up. Photo: Ashraf Hendricks
Maureen Philanders previously stayed at a shelter in Cape Town, but
had to leave after three months. She relocated to Blikkiesdorp and
thought that she would be here for only three years. She has been here
for six years. She says her health is not good. “I’m so worried, because
I think, where are the grandchildren and the children going to grow
up?” Philanders asks. She lives with five children; one is her own
child.
“You are not safe [here] in your own shack,” she says. Philander said she’d even considered moving into the Belhar graveyard. Estrolitha van Ballen says crime is high and the police don’t pick the phone when you call them. Photo: Ashraf Hendricks
Blikkiesdorp has no nearby hospital or police station. According to
Estrolitha van Ballen, who has lived in Blikkiesdorp for seven years,
the police and ambulance take a long time to arrive. “You phone the
police, but they never pick up,” she says. “The crime is so high. During
the night you can’t sleep. You must be alert.
We asked the City of Cape Town what plans it has for the residents of
Blikkiesdorp, and if there’s a date for when they’ll be
moved. Councillor Siyabulela Mamkeli, the City’s Mayoral Committee
Member for Area Central, responded: “Any concrete proposals and
information would be taken to the communities of Blikkiesdorp, Malawi
Camp and Freedom Park first and at the appropriate time. We will follow
our normal engagement processes.”
Published originally on
GroundUp
.
Celebrations and demonstrations held around the country on 16 June
By Ashraf Hendricks, Bernard Chiguvare and Ihsaan Haffejee
19 June 2017 Commemorations were held on Youth Day, Friday 16 June at
the Hector Pieterson memorial in Soweto. People gathered to pay their
respects on the 41st anniversary of the Soweto uprising. Photo: Ihsaan
HaffejeeYouth sang protest songs and danced during a youth day event
in Khayelitsha, Cape Town. About 100 primary and high school youth
gathered at Site B Hall to commemorate the 1976 Soweto uprising. They
also discussed the difficulties that the youth face today. Photo: Ashraf
HendricksIn Mitchells Plain, Cape Town, about 70 youth from Tafelsig,
demonstrated against high crime rates and child abuse. The march
through the suburb was organised by the Eyes of Matroosberg Committee
and the Mitchells Plain Crisis Forum. Photo: Bernard ChiguvareGrade one pupils from Soweto stand ready with white roses
which they placed at the Hector Pieterson memorial in Soweto. Photo:
Ihsaan Haffejee
Published originally on
GroundUp
.
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original article.
International investors are still rattled by President Jacob Zuma’s sacking of respected Finance Minister Nhlanhla Nene. Reuters/Sumaya Hisham
South Africa has narrowly survived a downgrade of the rating of its government bonds. The reprieve, however, is temporary because government has been warned by the Big Three rating agencies – Fitch, Moody’s and Standard & Poor’s – to pull up its socks.
South Africa’s current rating – just about investment grade, heading south fast – puts it more or less on par with countries such as Italy and Spain. And even with a downward trajectory through speculative grade it is still several notches away from outright “junk” or “CCC”.
But a downgrade to sub-investment grade would slow inward investment and the economic fallout could become a self-fulfilling prophecy: as outflows increase, the economy slows.
Such meta-narratives are especially powerful during periods of global turbulence as is currently being experienced, with volatile commodity prices, the oil rout, the slowdown in China and speculative investors moving large amounts of short-term capital very quickly around the world.
Why sovereign debt matters
When governments need to raise money they may decide to do so by borrowing on international financial markets. Such loans, or sovereign bonds, are each assigned a rating by a credit ratings agency. The rating estimates the likelihood of a government’s creditors being repaid against a range of factors. These include hard economic data, political analysis, reputation and sentiment.
The yield of the bond can be roughly understood as the interest rate on a loan. The lower the credit rating, the higher the risk of a default and the higher the yield payable to investors for taking on that risk.
It’s important to note that sovereign bonds are just another asset class investors can consider in a universe of investable assets. A downgrade is not desirable as it may slow down institutional investment and make the economy more vulnerable to speculative activity. But some investors may very well have an appetite for risky sovereign debt if it means they can make a lot of money.
In fact, high-end brokerages such as Charles Schwab advise investors on investing in high-yield, sub-investment grade emerging market debt. This sort of speculative sentiment is exactly what drove the “Africa Rising” narrative. It also drove the introduction of ratings for previously unrated sub-Saharan sovereigns, as investors sought new sources of alpha in the low-growth fallout of the financial crisis in Europe.
Despite this, countries need to borrow to plug the gap between projected tax revenue and budgeted expenditure. However, as debt has to be repaid at some point in the future, any debt raised should be used to finance investment such as infrastructure, which expands an economy’s capacity and therefore potential for growth and increased tax revenue. In addition, the interest government pays on its debt is of paramount importance.
What there’s to like, not to like about South Africa
Rating agencies have cited maintaining investor confidence as one of the critical factors towards preventing a future downgrade for South Africa. So it’s important to know what investors were thinking about South Africa in the run up to the ratings, and what they’re thinking now.
The first point to make is that local institutional investors and financial institutions are also influenced by the global context. The political and economic developments of all countries are viewed proportionately to other markets. For example, in the case of South Africa, Investec Asset Management evaluates the country relative to other emerging markets. It recently did so in relation to Brazil in particular.
Investec’s house view on the two countries is informed by two insights. The first is that South Africa and Brazil have political headwinds that are governance risks to long-term economic development, and may present watershed moments. The other is that the strength of institutions in these countries is often overlooked. An example of this is the South African Constitutional Court’s ruling on President Jacob Zuma’s spending on his private home in Nkandla.
Publicly available international perceptions also matter. An example is the World Economic Forum competitiveness ranking. South Africa is ranked 49th out of 140 countries and only second to China among the Brazil, Russia, India, China, South Africa group.
Investors also like the country’s sound fundamentals. These include a sophisticated financial markets sector, and respect for property rights and the rule of law. And despite US government complaints about infrastructure gaps and the inaccessibility of officials, it still regards South Africa as an important gateway to the rest of the continent.
However, inequality, unemployment, power shortages, policy incoherence around black economic empowerment and labour relations remain risk factors. The UK government, for example, singles out corruption, fronting around empowerment deals and dubious tender processes.
International investors are also still rattled about President Zuma’s unexpected decision late last year to replace his respected finance minister, only to reverse the decision a few days later.
Another bugbear is Zuma’s weakened position and how succession within the ruling African National Congress will play out, particularly the realisation that Cyril Ramaphosa, currently the deputy, may not have enough power to become president.
The competition between Zuma and Finance Minister Pravin Gordhan is also being watched closely, as Gordhan is seen as a business champion.
Overall South Africa, right now, is viewed as a terribly difficult place to do business, with overweening bureaucracy, a collapsing education system, poor policy and militant labour groups. Kenya and Nigeria are increasingly seen as more favourable destinations.
As one investment advisor in London pithily described South Africa:
Lots of potential, not worth the hassle.
South Africa is thus particularly vulnerable with its relatively liquid portfolio flows and sophisticated financial markets. In addition, the rand, with its high interest rate, is a particular favourite commodity currency for speculators in the carry trade. And indeed, both Moody’s and Standard & Poor’s have worried aloud about the combination of low growth, high debt and political risk in the current global environment.
But some healthy scepticism and perspective is also in order. Yes, South Africa’s parliament is out of order, but there have been fisticuffs in South Korea too.
And there is no such thing as “idiosyncratic emerging market risk” – a patently hypocritical concept. South Africa has had its recent share of protests, but the 2011 London riots were intense, with three days of violence during which 450 arrests were made. Nor are emerging markets essentially “corrupt”. Take Italy, for example. And rent-seeking patronage networks and what the Chinese call guanxi – networks of influence – are a feature of politics everywhere.
Economic policy priorities
The sooner South Africans realise they have frittered away the Mandela dividend in a cutthroat global economy, the better. But this realisation does not have to come at the expense of equal negotiating power in trade and investment. By growing the economy inclusively with a focus on human development, the business environment also becomes more sustainable. Investors know this too.
Economic policy requires a shift away from the short-termism of a gross domestic product evangelism that is subject to the vagaries of hot money in a panicked and turbulent global economy. If this continues to be the case, economic development will only ever elicit a Pavlovian response from rating action to rating action.
People describe their desperation for a place to call home
By Barbara Maregele
19 June 2017 People living in shacks in backyards have been occupying vacant land in Khayelitsha. Photo: Barbara Maregele
At least six Khayelitsha residents are expected to appear in
court on Monday after violent clashes broke out between police and the
group reoccupying vacant land in the area at the weekend.
Those who were arrested are due to appear on public violence charges
in the Khayelitsha Magistrates’ Court, SAPS spokesperson Noloyiso
Rwexana told GroundUp on Sunday afternoon.
The group were among dozens of families who have begun building
shacks on an open field near the court. The occupiers, most of whom rent
space in the backyards of people with houses, began living in a large
blue and white tent on the open land last week.
This is the second occupation on this property in just over a month. Hundreds of backyarders in Town Two began their occupation on 15 May,
demarcating hundreds of sites on vacant pieces of land in Khayelitsha.
The land next to the Khayelitsha Magistrates’ Court is one of the sites.
The other two sites are in Makhaya and Kuyasa.
On 22 May, GroundUp visited the area where some of the erected structures were being demolished. The occupation was one of the biggest in the city in recent years.
Tensions in the community intensified yet again on Thursday evening
after several families began erecting shacks on the property. Residents
say that since Friday, the City of Cape Town’s Anti-Land Invasion Unit
(ALIU) had returned three times to demolish their structures. This led
to the arrests of at least six people.
When GroundUp first visited the area on Thursday, the ALIU had
instructed residents to remove their tent from the property. About 40
people including an elderly woman and three young children were seen
living on the open land. A woman, who asked not to be named, told
GroundUp that she was desperate to find a place to live with her
six-month-old nephew. “We are homeless. All of our things were taken
away the last time, so even the baby has no clothes or food. We are
willing to fight for a home,” she said.
Resident, Philela Gilwa, said the group’s decision to reoccupy the
land is because of their frustrations with lack of housing in the area.
“We decided to erect a tent after all of our building materials were
taken. There are various stakeholders involved here, but we are just
tired of being disrespected and our pleas falling on deaf ears,” he
said.
“These are all backyarders who don’t have anywhere else to go who
have been sleeping [on the land]. [On Thursday] we had a standoff with
the ALIU. They are intimidating us,” he said.
Another resident, Ncebisi Fanishe, said he was among the group that
first occupied the vacant land about a month ago. He moved to
Khayelitsha in 2004 and due to financial difficulties could not afford
to buy his own home. “I was living in a backyard in Site C when I heard
about the [occupation]. I’m here to build my house because I’m tired of
waiting,” he said.
On Sunday, tensions flared again as the ALIU assisted by police
removed the group off the land. By the evening no one was occupying the
land anymore, and there was barely any sign that an occupation had taken
place. But this is unlikely to be the end of the current spate of
occupations in Khayelitsha.
Published originally on
GroundUp
.
Economic policy requires a shift away from the short-termism of a gross domestic product evangelism that is subject to the vagaries of hot money in a panicked and turbulent global economy. If this continues to be the case, economic development will only ever elicit a Pavlovian response from rating action to rating action.