On the 31st December 2010, Schubart Park residents took to the streets to show their discontent about services that were denied by the municipality of Tshwane. This made headline news of all the radio stations and later during the evening, TV news. It was a well calculated move by the residents as what led to the protest was anticipated because it is the plan of the city of Tshwane to attack the complex during the festive holidays. They underestimated the community in terms of protecting the residence during this period. They took a wild, dangerous and myopic decision to destabilize the residents during this time so as to unsettle them with a view of evicting them during the process.
Schubart Park is a community organisation in the city of Tshwane and an affiliate of the Anti Privatisation Forum. Immigrants in this community comprise about 60% of our community members. As a community and affiliate of the APF we denounce xenophobia in the strongest terms.
SOUTH AFRICA BELONGS TO ALL WHO LIVE IN IT!
‘YOU TOUCH AN IMMIGRANT, YOU TOUCH A COMMUNITY’
APF Johannesburg Region march on Friday 25th June highlights the housing crisis in poor communities
The Anti-Privatisation Forum condemns the way FIFA’s Local Organising Committee (LOC), Stallion Security and the police have brutalised the guards hired to provide security services at World Cup stadiums. Police have opened fire with ’rubber’ bullets to disperse guards who were protesting after Stallion told them that they would not be paid what had been promised to them. The workers had a legitimate grievance and therefore had the right to express their discontent about their remunerations. Whatever the contract the company had with the LOC, it did not indicate that their personnel would be paid as little as the R190 they received. Some were promised as much as R1500 a day and clearly their hopes for employment during the World Cup were abused. After realizing that they had been misled, they did what it is their democratic right to do and protested peacefully. We therefore salute all the workers who were involved in this struggle. The company that hired them, together with the LOC and FIFA should be held responsible for the whole mess and they must be charged for bridging the employees’ contract. Poor people should not be taken for granted by the elites who are only reaping what they sowed.
The Anti-Privatisation Forum and allies will be embarking on a march on the 11th of June to coincide with the opening of the 2010 Soccer World Cup. The march will start at 09h00 from Ben Naude Drive, opposite Fons Luminous Combined School Assembly Area and will proceed along the Rand Show Road/Aerodrome Drive towards Soccer City. The APF urges all community and other civil society organisations who share our concerns and who wish to add their voices, to join us. We have no intention of disrupting the World Cup but simply to voice our discontent/concerns.
The Anti-Privatisation Forum, a social movement with over 30 community affiliates expresses its full support and solidarity with the ongoing national strike by the South African Municipal Workers Union (SAMWU).