Clairwood says “Sekwanele”

[Note – this story was scheduled for inclusion in the first issue of Izwi Labampofu, but was omitted for reasons of space].

It’s not just shackdwellers who suffer from the imperial behaviour of the eThekwini Municipality. It has been happening to residents in South Durban too. At the end of November, the Deputy Mayor Logie Naidoo announced that pockets of residential land would be rezoned for commercial purposes, right next door to peoples’ homes.

The effect of this would be to turn back the clock to the Apartheid era, with poor black residents being placed side by side with polluting businesses, and with toxic waste being produced right next to the places where families eat, and children play. And those families who object, or who get in the way, will be subject to forced removal.

The South Durban Community Alliance (SDCA) and the Clairwood Ratepayers Association have vowed to resist the commands of the city, and have promised a ‘rolling mass action’ to prevent the city from poisoning their residents.
In the words of Rishi Singh, chair of the Clairwood Ratepayers Association, and Des D’Sa of SDCA “the Deputy Mayor appears more concern with accommodating businesses in place of the welfare of the people The process seemed to be reversed. It’s now ‘Money before People’. Is this what our Constitution stands for?”

As with recent evictions elsewhere in the city, there was no democracy involved. The government’s own precinct plan made no mention of any port expansion at any public forum that occurred. In other words, in the ‘consultations’ carried out by the city, they systematically hid their real intentions from the people.

This isn’t new to residents in Clairwood. For years, the area suffered neglect under the apartheid government. The area was once a vibrant and busy suburb, but the residents have been ignored and the needs of rich businessmen have been promoted at their expense since the beginning of apartheid.

Residents hoped that with the new dispensation, and under the banner of Batho Pele ” ( People First ) things would change. They didn’t. While the government was ‘consulting’, a number of illegal businesses started operating without licences, poisoning the residents. There has been a proliferation of Heavy Duty Trucking companies, Scrapyards, Panel beating / Spray boots, Granite Cutting, Waste Recycling, Oil Recycling, and many more. All of these make the neighbourhood unsafe for children.

It has been left to community organisations to fight back, and reclaim the community’s space and dignity from the interests of the rich. This is why the Clairwood Ratepayers Association and the Community of Clairwood has said ‘sekwanele’: “Sixty years of waiting is considered a life sentence to the people of Clairwood.”

The residents of Clairwood have asked for support, both in highlighting the injustices they continue to face under the new government, and in fighting the imposition of Logie Naidoo’s plans. City Manager Mike Sutcliffe recently announced that the marina would be extended at a public expense of millions of rand, so that rich people in yachts would have somewhere to dock. But those who live ashore next to the port itself are treated with contempt.