Bulldozer Stopped in Foreman Road

15:31
Bulldozer Stopped in Foreman Road

The bulldozer has been stopped. The Legal Resources Centre is on the way. If any further attempt is made to knock down any of the fully or partially rebuilt shacks before this is resolved legally the entrance roads into the settlement will be barricaded. People will defend their right to their homes, to this land and to the city.

Foreman Road residents note with concern that the article in this afternoon’s Daily News, which is below, (1) fails to consult any residents of Foreman Road while only consulting the police, the Housing Department and the Councillor and that (2) according to this article Yakoob Baig, a councillor who shack dwellers have rejected since 2005, and the Housing Department will decide whether people will be allowed to stay at Foreman Road or moved to one of the notorious temporary relocation areas.

It is up to the residents of Foreman Road to decide the future of the community not Yakoob Baig the liar or Cogi Pather the evictor.

Foreman Road is our home. We are urbanites. We live and work and school here. We will not be moved. If the City will not give us building materials we will rebuild the settlement ourselves. This land is ours.

We repeat: Nothing for us without us. We repeat: Talk to us, not for us.

People in Foreman Road are very angry at the moment.

We ask for electricity and taps and fire hydrants to stop the fires and they do nothing. When we push them they say that it is not policy to give shack dwellers electricity and fire hydrants. But when our shacks burn they are there super quickly with bulldozers. They can move when they want to. They can move when they think the can exploit a disaster to reruralize the people.

Sekwanele!

Contact Mnikelo Ndabankulu on or George Bonono on 0782245441

http://www.dailynews.co.za/index.php?fArticleId=4590435

Fire leaves thousands homeless

September 15, 2008 Edition 1

SLINDILE MALULEKA

One person died, more than 3 000 people have been left homeless and more than 800 informal dwellings have burned down in the Foreman Road informal settlement in Clare Hills, Durban, after a fire on Saturday morning.

Residents claimed that the fire was started by a candle which was left to burn while the occupants of a shack slept.

The fire spread rapidly from one shack to another and resulted in the death of Thembelani Khweshube, 30.

Supt Muzi Mngomezulu, provincial communications officer for the South African Police Service, said an inquest docket had been opened.

The area’s ward councillor, Yacoob Baig, said a decision would be taken in a meeting with the municipal housing department on whether to house the displaced residents at the site of the fire or to propose temporary housing elsewhere.

Koglan Pather, head of the city housing department, said council would ensure there was adequate shelter, ablution facilities and water.

“We have put up six tents and have ordered three more. We have also put in four chemical portable toilets and are awaiting six more,” said Pather. He said there was also clean water on site.

“This is until a more permanent solution can be found,” he said.

NGOs have offered to lend a hand in supplying food parcels, hot meals and blankets.

Trevor Stevens, divisional commander of eThekwini Fire and Emergency Services, said the fire was extensive and five hose lines and two water tankers were used to extinguish the blaze.

13.36
City is attempting to turn Foreman Road into a transit camp – resident’s are resisting

The City has, as they always do these days, seized the opportunity of the disastrous Foreman Road fire, to send in the bulldozers and turn the Foreman Road settlement into one of their notorious transit camps. There has been no consultation at all and residents are, right now, organising to resist.

The transit camps can take 3 months or longer to build while residents, especially if supported with building materials, can rebuild a whole settlement in a week. Transit camps are clearly just a ruse to render a long standing occupation ‘temporary’ and thus weaken people’s hold on the land and make them much more vulnerable to forced removal.

This is the same strategy that was used in Ash Road after the flood and in Jadhu Place after the fire. It was also used after the floods in New Orleans in America. Kennedy Road successfully resisted it after the recent fires. All over Durban and KZN and around the world disasters are being exploited to drive the poor out of the cities.

Mnikelo Ndabankulu is on the scene: 0797450653

Abahlali baseMjondolo demands that all municipalities upgrade the settlements where they are. The movement opposes all forced removals and evictions. The movement opposes the exploitation of disasters by the government to further its notorious apartheid style ‘slum eradication’ agenda. Shack settlements must be supported not eradicated. Slum clearance is just another attempt to drive the poor out of the cities.