AbM Statement on the Cornubia Development

Sunday, 24 August 2008
Abahlali baseMjondolo eThekwini Press Release

Why are Shack Dwellers Excluded from the Discussions About the Cornubia Development?

Nothing for Us, Without Us!

There has been much discussion about the Cornubia housing development in the press. The City and the political parties have had their say. Tongaat-Hulett, the company that owns the land, have had their say. The technical experts have had their say. Shack dwellers’ organisations have not had their say. We who live with the rats in the mud and the fires have not had our say. We who were publicly promised houses in this development in November 2005 have not had our say. We who have been beaten and arrested while defending our right to speak for ourselves, defending our communities from eviction, and defending our right to decent housing in the city have not had our say.

When ever we have asked the eThekwini Municipality to fulfil the promise to house the poor they have told us that they want to build houses but that land, not money, is the problem. They have always told us that there is nothing that they can do because there is no land left in the city. But everyone can see that there is lots of land. The real problem is not that there is no land. The real problem is that the land is privately owned and that most of the land is owned by one big company – Tongaat-Hulett.

The Freedom Charter said that South Africa belongs to all who live in it. The Freedom Charter said that the land should be shared. These were clear goals of the peoples’ struggles against apartheid. We are still committed to these goals.

It is clear that building democratic cities where everyone has a proper space and real hope for a better life will require the end of the private ownership over huge lands. Some of our members believe that God made the land as a gift for everyone and that is a sin for one company to own so much land. We all agree that there can be no justice in this city, no safety and no hope for a better life for the poor while one company owns so much land. Everybody in the city needs to be matured and to face this reality.

The Kennedy Road Development Committee (KRDC) first demanded the expropriation of Tongaat-Hulett land to house the poor on 13 May 2005 when the KRDC organised a mass march to bury Councillor Yakoob Baig. After Abahlali baseMjondolo was formed on 6 October 2005 this demand was placed at the centre of our struggle. We made this demand because Tongaat-Hulett is the largest land owner in Durban. We also made this demand because it was never right for Tongaat-Hulett to own that land and because many generations suffered on their plantations. We also made this demand because Tongaat-Hulett has continued to separate the rich from the poor after apartheid by building a separate gated world for the rich on the old sugar cane fields. In 1994 that land should have gone for housing for the poor. That would have been real democracy.

The Cornubia development was first announced in November 2005. That was just before the 2006 local government elections and just after the world’s media reported that the eThekwini Municipality had illegally banned our march on Obed Mlaba from the Foreman Road settlement and then sent in the police to shoot at us when we marched in defiance of the ban. The Mayor clearly stated that the announcement was due to pressure from Abahlali baseMjondolo. He said in the New York Times that we were being used by agitators and that we would not still be here in 2007. We are still here. We are still agitated by the conditions that we live in. Now that the 2009 elections are coming Cornubia is back on the agenda.

The debate goes on but it excludes us. Who are the ‘stakeholders’ in the discussions about Cornubia? Just the landowner, the government and the technical people! Where do the poor fit? We find that if we talk about history we are seen to be launching an offensive. We are not supposed to talk about history but we have to reclaim what is our own, what has come out of our efforts. This announcement is the fruit of our struggle and the struggles of all the communities across South Africa that have been rejecting forced removals to rural human dumping grounds since 2005.

We want to say some things very clearly:

1. We welcome the statements by government that they are considering meeting our demand that they expropriate land from Tongaat-Hulett. We also suggest that they issue a moratorium on any sale or development of Tongaat-Hulett land until everyone in the city has been housed. That would show that that they are serious about justice for the poor because there will not be justice for the poor until the social value of land is put before the commercial value of land.

2. We welcome the fact that government is now talking about integrated developments where the rich and the poor can live together in the city instead of building more of the notorious rural human dumping grounds like Parkgate and Delft.

3. However if shack dwellers are not included in the planning of this project it will fail like the N2 Gateway Project failed in Cape Town. Top down planning has been completely rejected by shack dwellers all over South Africa. Those days are over. We reject top down control of our struggles by NGOs and we reject top down planning of housing development by government. Everybody thinks. We are poor, not stupid. Planning must not just be a technical talk that excludes the people. Democracy is not just about voting. Democratic planning is the way forward.

4. The government is talking about building low-cost housing at Cornubia but shack dwellers need no-cost housing. We cannot afford low-cost housing. No bank will give us a bond. There must be negotiations resulting in a public commitment to build a fixed number of no-cost houses. We must all remember that the N2 Gateway Project in Cape Town began as a project for the poor. But it was quickly taken over by politicians and companies who saw an opportunity to exploit the development for their own profit. Bank bonded houses were built for the rich instead of no-cost houses for the poor. In the end the poor were driven out of the project that was started in their name and the whole project failed.

5. This project must not be used as an excuse to claim that shack settlements are now ‘temporary’ and that they will soon be ‘eradicated’ because Cornubia is being built. The settlements are established communities and in most settlements most residents want upgrades and not relocations. We must all remember that most shack dwellers will not be able to fit in Cornubia. Cornubia can be a solution for some but not for all.

6. This project must not be used as an excuse to continue to deny collective and secure rights to the land for long established communities. The legal ownership of the land that has been occupied by communities must be transferred to those communities so that the fear of eviction can be permanently put to rest.

7. This project must not be used as an excuse to continue to deny life saving basic services to shack settlements. Each settlement needs these services immediately. They include water, toilets, electricity, fire extinguishers, refuse removal, homework areas and access roads for emergency vehicles.

8. This project must not be used to make promises to people that cannot be kept, to divide the poor or to keep everyone waiting and not struggling. Before the end of the year there must be exact and public clarity on how many no-cost houses will be built, how they will be allocated and who they will be allocated to.

9. The allocation of the no-cost houses in Cornubia must not be corrupt or driven by party political interests. The houses must go to those who need them most. There must be no discrimination against people born in other countries.

10. The City must upgrade all settlements where they are. The no-cost houses in Cornubia must be for those who genuinely can’t be accommodated in upgrades. Cornubia must not be used as an excuse to evict people from areas where they have lived for a long time and where they want to stay. No one must be forced to go there at gunpoint like we have been forced to go to Parkgate at gun point. People must choose to go there.

11. The City needs to provide one house for each family not one house for each shack.

12. The government must accept that shack dwellers and other poor people have a right to organise and to represent themselves independently of party politics. All democratic membership controlled shack dwellers’ movements must be fully included in all planning for shack dwellers. Each community must be fully included in all planning for that community.

For comment on the Cornubia project contact:

S’bu Zikode: 083 547 0474
Mnikelo Ndabankulu: 079 745 0653
Fanuel Nsingo: 076 742 3397
Zodwa Nsibande: 0828302707

For comment on the crisis caused by top down planning across South Africa contact:

Mzonke Poni, Abahlali baseMjondolo, Cape Town: 073 256 2036
Ashraf Cassiem, Western Cape Anti-Eviction Campaign, Cape Town: 076 186 1408
Mzwanele Zulu, Joe Slovo Task Team, Cape Town: 0763852369
Maureen Mnisi, Landless Peoples’ Movement, Johannesburg: 082 337 4514