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New Rating System: The City of Johannesburg must get its house in order!

Tuesday 13th January 2009 by Dale
Coalition Against Water Privatisation CAWP
New Rating System: The City of Johannesburg must get its house in order!
The Coalition against Water Privatisation is not surprised to hear reports about the City of Johannesburg’s poor new rating system. Many of our organisations previously made submissions and raised concerns about the new system when it was first introduced in July last year. But, as always, the City went ahead without listening to the concerns of ordinary people and implemented (...)

NORTHERN FREE STATE COMMUNITY TO MARCH TOMORROW OVER WATER ISSUES

Tuesday 18th September 2007 by natalie
Tomorrow (Wednesday 12th Sept), the community of Rammolutsi in the Northern Free State, under the banner of the RRCC - an APF affiliate and member of CAWP - will march (from 09h00) on the local offices of the Moqhaka Municipality over a range of water issues. The Mayor of the Municipality, Mabetu Mokgosi has promised to receive the community’s memorandum and to respond
The issues raised include:
· Dirty, salty, smelly water delivered from the municipality to the entire community of (...)

UPDATE ON SITUATION FROM YESTERDAY’S SERVICE DELIVERY PROTESTS IN THE VAAL & GREATER SOWETO

Tuesday 18th September 2007 by natalie
The funeral of comrade Oupa Mpute (LPM Protea South branch secretary) who was killed in a hit-and-run accident by a delivery van in Protea South will take place on Sunday in Mapetla. The APF calls for police to immediately track down the person responsible for comrade Oupa’s tragic death.
Of 19 community members arrested in Protea South and Kliptown, 10 have been released without charge. The remaining 9 have been charged with public violence and released on R500 bail each which has been (...)

Protests by range of communities across the Vaal and Greater Soweto attacked by police

Tuesday 18th September 2007 by natalie
Community member in Protea South knocked down by car in road and killed instantly
8 arrested in Kliptown and 6 in Protea South. Scores shot at and chased into their homes. Journalists being harassed
In Vaal, heavily armed police everywhere firing randomly and are conducting house-to-house searches for community leaders who remain in ‘hiding’
From very early this morning, a range of poor communities - which include Boiketlong, Kanana, Dunusa and Sonderwater in the Vaal as well as (...)

THE STRUGGLE FOR HOUSING IN KLIPTOWN CONTINUES

Tuesday 18th September 2007 by natalie
The community of Kliptown (under the banner of the Kliptown Crisis Committee and the Anti-Privatisation Forum) will be marching to the Eldorado Municipal Offices tomorrow - 14th August 2007 - starting at the Kliptown Community Center at 09h00 to deliver their petition and memorandum to the municipal offices. This follows their memorandum that was delivered to the Johannesburg Deputy Director of Housing Mr. Thulani Ndaba on 21st July 2007, accompanied by a demand for a concrete answer within (...)

Johannesburg Region of the APF Housing March

Friday 14th September 2007 by natalie
The APF Johannesburg Region will be marching tomorrow - Saturday 2nd June - to Premier Mbazima Shilowa’s Office and to the Provincial Housing Department to deliver community memoranda regarding the housing crisis in Gauteng. The marchers will assemble at the Beyers Naude Library Gardens from 09h00 and the march will commence at 10h30. This event comes in the wake of an APF march on the ongoing housing crisis in poor communities that took place in September 2006 to the Provincial Housing (...)

GIWUSA statement on Strike

Friday 14th September 2007 by natalie
Thousands of members of the General Industries Workers Union of South Africa (GIWUSA) working in the chemical, glass, pharmaceutical, petroleum and fast moving consumer goods industries, have decided to go on strike from the 16th July 2007 in support of their wage demands.
Over the past months workers organised under GIWUSA and those of 3 other trade unions have been negotiating wages and other conditions of employment with employers under the auspices of the National Bargaining Council for (...)

Struggle for land & housing continua

Monday 18th September 2006 by silumko
March for the demand of land & housing for the poor and the right to resist evictions in our communities
The Anti Privatisation Forum together with the Landless People Movement Protea South Branch will be marching to the Gauteng Legislature Office in Simmonds Street, Gauteng Department of Housing in Sauer Street and to Braampark Offices on the 20th September 2006 to deliver a memorandum on the poor service delivery of houses by the government and the recent increase in the number of (...)

Statement on Intimidation Convictions in Phiri

Thursday 3rd June 2004
PRESS RELEASE
(THURSDAY 3rd JUNE 2004)
TEN MONTHS AFTER BEING CHARGED WITH ‘INTIMIDATION’ FOR BEING PART OF COMMUNITY RESISTANCE TO PRE-PAID WATER METERS, TWO APF ACTIVISTS IN PHIRI, SOWETO CONVICTED AND GIVEN R10 000 FINES EACH (SUSPENDED FOR 5 YEARS)!
THE APF IS OUTRAGED AT THIS BLATANTLY UNJUST, CYNICAL, POLITICALLY-MOTIVATED AND HYPOCRITICAL ‘CONVICTION’ AND WILL BE FILING AN IMMEDIATE APPEAL
This morning in the Protea Magistrate’s Court (...)

ANC members engage in another round of violent and criminal acts of thuggery and political intolerance against APF in run-up to elections

Tuesday 13th April 2004 by APF
Yesterday morning (Monday 12th April) a gang of about 60 ANC members (all wearing ANC t-shirts) attacked, assaulted and stole equipment from a small group of APF members who were engaged in political outreach activities in the community of Kanana (in the Vaal region). These APF members, all of who belong to the APF affiliate in the area - the Kanana Community Development Forum (KCDF) - were moving through the community on the back of a truck loud-hailing and distributing posters/pamphlets (...)

SAMANCOR Retrenched Workers Picket

December 2003 by APF
SAMANCOR Retrenched Workers’ Crisis Committee (SRWCC) to picket in Johannesburg on Monday (15th Dec.) from 12h00 to 14h00 at SAMANCOR Head Office, Provincial Labour Dept. and Provincial Environmental Affairs Dept. Over 100 retrenched (steel manufacturer) Samancor workers who are organised under the umbrella of the Anti-Privatisation Forum will be staging simultaneous pickets on Monday (15th Dec.) at Samancor Head Office (Marshall Street, JHB) as well as the Provincial Departments of Labour (...)

’Hammer Week’ for Phiri Community Activists

November 2003 by APF
A bombardment of litigation against community activists is scheduled for this week beginning 3 November. In what is being dubbed ’Hammer Week’ by the legal team representing the accused, 16 (sixteen) residents of Soweto will be 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 this year against Johannesburg Water’s installation of prepaid water meters. Despite (...)

Declaration of the Coalition Against Water Privatisation

November 2003 by APF
MANIFESTO!
One of the most celebrated achievements of South Africa’s transition to democracy is the Bill of Rights enshrined in the Constitution. The Bill of Rights provides that, everyone has the right to have access to sufficient water. The privatisation of water violates that constitutional (and human) right in every way imaginable. As the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (to which the South African is signatory) explicitly acknowledges, water is a public (...)

Appeal for solidarity

Tuesday 9th September 2003
South African and International comrades, Greetings from the Anti-Privatisation Forum. As we hope all of you are now aware, there is presently a crucially important struggle against pre-paid water meters in the community of Phiri, Soweto that is being waged by the community with the active support of the APF and its affiliate in Soweto, the Soweto Electricity Crisis Committee
UPDATE ON STRUGGLE
The APF has, in its last two public statements on the struggle, indicated that Johannesburg Water (...)

Johannesburg water has declared war on the poor!

Sunday 7th September 2003 by APF
PHIRI COMMUNITY IN SOWETO TO RESIST JOHANNESBURG WATER’S PRE-PAID METERS (OPERATION GCIN’AMANZI) DESPITE ARRESTS AND INTERDICT RESIDENTS TO GATHER TOMORROW MORNING (Monday 8th Sept.) FROM 7am IN PHIRI - Corner Matilili & Eloff Streets (Directions: Take Old Potch Road towards Bara Hospital. Turn left onto Mabalane Street and proceed to Eloff Street. Turn right on Eloff and proceed to Matitili Street)
JOHANNESBURG WATER’S WAR AGAINST THE PHIRI COMMUNITY AND THOSE ORGANISATIONS THAT SUPPORT (...)

Johannesburg water’s operation Gcin’amanzi in Soweto is a fraud!

Tuesday 2nd September 2003 by APF
Johannesburg Water Company (JOWCO) has embarked on a programme of installing pre-paid water meters throughout Soweto in what they are calling Operation Gcin’amanzi. JOWCO is claiming that they have consulted with Soweto residents widely and that this operation is designed to enhance and extend the people of Soweto’s right to affordable, quality water, They claim that the poor will benefit by being able to “own” their water consumption. They claim that the free ‘lifeline’ (...)

The ANC Government’s GEAR Policy Is Denying Our Right To Free, Quality Education!

Wednesday 13th August 2003 by APF
APF TO HOLD PUBLIC MEETING IN JOHANNESBURG AS PART OF ONGOING EDUCATION RIGHTS CAMPAIGN PUBLIC MEETING FOR EDUCATION RIGHTS WHERE?: JOHANNESBURG CITY HALL (MAYIVUKE HALL) WHEN?: FRIDAY, 15TH AUGUST @ 13H00 ** THERE WILL BE SPEAKERS FROM VARIOUS POOR COMMUNITIES, FROM THE DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION AS WELL AS EDUCATION RIGHTS ACTIVISTS. THERE WILL BE TIME FOR QUESTIONS & DISCUSSION **
The state of education after 1994
We have won the right to free quality education as written into the (...)

APF Chairperson assaulted by POPCRU members outside Regional COSATU Congress in Johannesburg

Monday 28th July 2003 by APF
On Saturday (26th July), the Chairperson of the APF John Appolis (and former CEPPWAWU official), was assaulted by a large number of POPCRU members while he was distributing pamphlets outside a Regional COSATU Congress that was being held at the Johannesburg City Hall. According to some of the workers who were inside the City Hall at the time, the Regional Deputy Chair of COSATU announced from the podium that "there are reactionaries outside", the obvious intent of such a pronouncement being (...)

Down With The Growth & Developement Summit (GDS) False Consensus Can Never Replace Mass, Working Class Struggle!

Thursday 5th June 2003 by APF
Down With The Growth & Developement Summit (GDS) False Consensus Can Never Replace Mass, Working Class Struggle!
THE APF WILL HOLD A PICKET AT GALLAGHER ESTATE - MIDRAND (VENUE FOR THE GDS) DURING THE PROCEEDINGS OF THE GDS - SATURDAY, 7TH JUNE
The Realities of South African Society
When the ANC government introduced the capitalist GEAR macro-economic framework in 1996, they promised that it would result in economic growth and investment that would ’deliver a better life for all’. Instead, (...)

HANDS OFF THE CEPPWAWU WITS REGION! DEFEND WORKERS’ CONTROL AND DEMOCRACY IN CEPPWAWU!

Monday 19th May 2003 by APF
APF TO MARCH ON CEPPWAWU HEAD OFFICE
THE APF WILL BE MARCHING FROM JOHANNESBURG LIBRARY GARDENS TO THE CEPPWAWU HEAD OFFICE (CNR Frederick & Eloff Streets) ON WEDNESDAY (21ST MAY). MARCHERS WILL GATHER FROM 9AM
Workers’ control and democracy are under serious threat in the Chemical, Energy, Paper, Printing, Wood and Allied Workers’ Union (CEPPWAWU). Since the beginning of May, all of the CEPPWAWU Wits Region Office Bearer’s - John Appolis, Dan Nkotsoe, Vuyani Tayika and Nomboniso Ndlwana - (...)

Celebrate Thirty Years Of Class Struggle Since The Durban Strikes APF

Thursday 1st May 2003 by APF
Where does May Day Come From?
MAY DAY has militant traditions in the workers’ movement internationally. On 1st May 1868, over one million US workers went on strike to demand an 8-hour working day. They won their demand. On 1st May 1890 hundreds of thousands of workers around the world took to the streets demanding an 8-hour working day. International Workers’ Day (May Day) was born.
The Durban Strikes of 1973
Thirty years ago in South Africa, in early 1973, workers in Durban went on a (...)

The Privatisation / Corporation ’CHICKENS’ Are Coming Home To Roost

Thursday 3rd April 2003 by APF
RATES HIKE FOR BASIC SERVICES & ONGOING METROBUS STRIKE IN JOHANNESBURG A DIRECT RESULT OF ANC GOVERNMENT’S ANTI-PEOPLE POLICIES
ARE THE VOICES OF THE POOR AND THE WORKERS BEING HEARD?
Since its formation in 2000, the APF has been constantly vilified and attacked by ANC politicians, big business and most of the mainstream media for actively opposing the ANC government’s policies of privatisation and corporatisation.
Despite overwhelming evidence to the contrary, South Africans been told (...)

Anti-Terrorism Bill will make us all "terrorists"!

April 2003 by APF
The ANC government has just introduced a new, ‘Anti-Terrorism Bill’ (ATB) in Parliament. If it is passed into law, it will effectively turn the struggles of workers and poor against the capitalist policies of the ANC into ‘terrorist’ acts. The APF and other social movements could become prohibited ‘terrorist’ organisations with all of our members being treated as ‘terrorists’.
The ATB is modelled on similar legislation that has been passed in the United States, Canada, Britain and (...)

Break-In By 800 People On Human Rights Day

April 2003 by APF
The march/rally that was held in Bophelong on Human Rights Day - 21st of March 2003 - was a real success. The rally was attended by more than 800 people. The main idea of the rally was to raise political awareness among the community of Bophelong and for all the VAAL affiliates of the APF. We mobilised through door to door campaigning and by distributing pamphlets to every corner of Bophelong.
The march commenced from Sofela-khona squatter camp to Bophelong Community Hall, where we planned (...)

Building International Solidarity

April 2003 by APF
Our struggle cannot be won only in one country. We have to unite with the working class in other countries. The APF believes in building international solidarity. In the past few months there have been many ways in which the APF has connected with comrades in other countries.
WSSD march in Johannesburg
The march from Alexander to Sandton on August 31 2002 during the World Summit on Sustainable Development had an international character. It happened during an international meeting with the (...)

Social Movements Indaba tracks back

April 2003 by APF
The most significant political event of last year was the march by South Africa’s social movements from Alexandra to the World Summit on Sustainable Development headquarters in Sandton. The Anti Privatisation Forum joined the Landless People’s Movement, Cape Town’s Anti Eviction Campaign (AEC), the Concerned Citizens Forum (CCF) from Durban, and groups of international and environmental movements and NGOs under the banner of Social Movements United. Lasting for just the day-long spectacle, (...)

Basic Needs For All! Human Rights Are Not Privileges!

Tuesday 18th March 2003 by APF
As part of the Stop Forced Removals & Evictions! Stop Privatisation! People’s Rights Campaign (in conjunction with the LPM, AEC, CCF & LAMOSA), the APF will be holding three mass activities on Friday (21st March - Human Rights Day) as follows:
ORANGE FARM - Press Conference (10:30am) at the Caltex Garage (Extension 1 - Driezek) to be followed by a march (11am) to the Council Offices in Orange Farm
GERMISTON - March from Germiston Railway Station (11am) to the Ekhurleni Metro Council Offices (...)

7000 Kwa-Masiza Hostel residents in Sebokeng live in fear of eviction tomorrow

Sunday 5th January 2003 by APF
7000 Kwa-Masiza Hostel residents in Sebokeng are preparing for the possibility of eviction tomorrow as negotiation with property owners is expected to be met with armed police clearing the way for the hated Red Ants.
The properties, held by private company Vicva Investment Trading Twenty Company Pty. Ltd. (VITCC), are partially owned by three local ANC councillors. The community faced a brutal eviction last September 11th 2002, which, according to residents, is still pending in court.
Ever (...)

ANC Council targets the poor and foreigners in drive for "world class" city!

Thursday 12th December 2002 by APF
The APF Inner City Anti-Eviction Campaign, alongside residents of the inner city, will hold a march on Saturday 14th December (from 9am) from Alec Gorshel Park in Hillbrow (between Joel & Barnato roads) to the office of the MEC for Housing in downtown Johannesburg.
Last night at the Johannesburg City Hall, ANC Mayor of Johannesburg, Amos Masondo, along with members of his Executive Council, held a so-called "meeting with the people" to propagate plans for making Johannesburg a "world class (...)

Johannesburg Inner City Anti Eviction Campaign march, Saturday 14 December

Thursday 12th December 2002 by APF
On the morning of 20 November, residents of Armadale Place were roughly awakened by the ’red-ants’, the sheriff’s demolition and furniture removal mob in cases of forced removals that the government insists on calling more respectably ’evictions’. Doors were banged shortly before being smashed open and residents were given less than five minutes to get dressed and out of their flats. The residents were completely helpless as they faced gun barrels during this operation. They tried to (...)

Inner city residents prepared to fend off the red ants

Wednesday 11th December 2002 by APF
This morning, the Johannesburg High Court denied the appeal by residents of Milton Court and Junel Court against the eviction order issued against them. The residents of Milton Court at 97 Pritchard st. and Junel Court, 63 Nugget st., are now readying to meet the sheriff of the court and its minions in red overalls from Wozani Security.
The city authorities have chosen to press ahead with the forced removal of inner city residents who are too poor to blot the horizon of (...)

All charges against 93 members of Soldiers Forum dropped

Tuesday 10th December 2002 by APF
This morning, in the Johannesburg Magistrate’s Court, all charges against the ninety-three (93) members of APF affiliate, the Soldiers Forum (SF), were finally dropped. This is a resounding victory against the South African state’s continuing, and opportunistic, attempts to repress legitimate political dissent and to criminalize the actions of those who are struggling for socio-economic justice.
When the SF members were arrested in mid-August for simply trying to make their way to a protest (...)

Johannesburg inner city residents prepared for eviction

Monday 9th December 2002 by APF
The residents of Junel Court and Milton Court in the Johannesburg inner city face eviction this evening. A court application to contest the constitutionality of the eviction order has been made; and whether the red ants who are expected to converge on 63 Nugget st. and 97 Pritchard st. this evening, 9 December, at 17h00.
Who will respect the rule of law is really neither here nor there. When 2000 residents were evicted from Armadale Place, the police and their Wozani Security minions burst (...)