Mitchell's Plain land occupation

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On 14 May 2011 the Mitchells Plain Backyarders' Association [1] occupied two pieces of land in Kapteinsklip and Swartklip in Mitchells Plain. About 5,000 people participated in the occupation. [2]

Mitchells Plain Place in Western Cape, South Africa

Mitchells Plain is a suburb about 32 km (20 mi) from the city of Cape Town. It is one of South Africa's largest suburbs. It is located on the Cape Flats on the False Bay coast between Muizenberg and Khayelitsha. Conceived of as a "model suburb" by the apartheid government, it was built during the 1970s to provide housing for Coloured victims of forced removal due to the implementation of the Group Areas Act. The suburb was reportedly named after Mitchell Baker but this is unconfirmed, and is one of a number of possible explanations.

Occupation (protest) form of protest

As an act of protest, occupation is a strategy often used by social movements and other forms of collective social action in order to take and hold public and symbolic spaces, buildings, critical infrastructure such as entrances to train stations, shopping centers, university buildings, squares, and parks. Opposed to a military occupation which attempts to subdue a conquered country, a protest occupation is a means to resist the status quo and advocate a change in public policy. Occupation attempts to use space as an instrument in order to achieve political and economic change, and to construct counter-spaces in which protesters express their desire to participate in the production and re-imagination of urban space. Often, this is connected to the right to the city, which is the right to inhabit and be in the city as well as to redefine the city in ways that challenge the demands of capitalist accumulation. That is to make public spaces more valuable to the citizens in contrast to favoring the interests of corporate and financial capital.

Contents

Outcomes

There was a violent clash between occupiers and the police. [3] [4] Fourteen people were arrested. [5] Following the occupation there were a number of protest in defense of the occupation. [6] [7] An eviction order was served on the occupiers and they were denied leave to appeal. One of the occupiers Faiza Meyer was quoted as saying "I have been living on [this] land for four months, so what if we have this beautiful Constitution, it means nothing." [8] The anti-land invasion unit destroyed the occupation. It was reported that the Anti-Land Invasion Unit acted with considerable violence that resulted in breaking Christen De Jager's leg. [9]

Police Law enforcement body

The police are a constituted body of persons empowered by a state to enforce the law, to protect the lives, liberty and possessions of citizens, and to prevent crime and civil disorder. Their powers include the power of arrest and the legitimized use of force. The term is most commonly associated with the police forces of a sovereign state that are authorized to exercise the police power of that state within a defined legal or territorial area of responsibility. Police forces are often defined as being separate from the military and other organizations involved in the defense of the state against foreign aggressors; however, gendarmerie are military units charged with civil policing. Police forces are usually public sector services, funded through taxes.

In 2009, the Anti-Land Invasion Unit was created by the City of Cape Town in an effort to stop people from illegally attempting to occupy land. In 2011 the City stated that the unit demolished about 300 shacks each month. The Anti-Land Invasions Unit is the biggest unit in the City's law enforcement operation.

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Notes and references

  1. ↑ Mitchell's Plain Backyarder's Association
  2. ↑ Mitchells Plain land invasion case postponed till July Archived 2013-09-21 at the Wayback Machine , The New Age, 2011
  3. ↑ Mitchell’s Plain land grab clashes escalate, Caryn Dolley and Aziz Hartley, IOL, 2011
  4. ↑ Bricks, bullets fly in land grab, Natasha Prince, Cape Argus , 2011
  5. ↑ Mitchells Plain land invasion case postponed till July Archived 2013-09-21 at the Wayback Machine , The New Age, 2011
  6. ↑ Give us decent housing!, Rusana Philander, The New Age, 2011
  7. ↑ Media: Show of strength outside court, Shanti Aboobaker, Leila Samodien and Lauren Isaacs, Cape Times , 2011
  8. ↑ Tafelsig land invaders leave to appeal application dismissed, Crystal Orderson, SABC, 2011
  9. ↑ Backyarders Injured in Anti-Land Invasion Demolition, by Fadela Slamdien, West Cape News, 7 June 2011.


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