Daily News: Shack dwellers threaten mass action

http://www.dailynews.co.za/index.php?fArticleId=3896231

Shack dwellers threaten mass action

June 22, 2007 Edition 1

Bongani Mthembu

Shack dwellers have threatened to organise massive disruptive protests in major cities if the KwaZulu-Natal government implements the legislation that seeks to eliminate slums in KwaZulu-Natal.

The Elimination and Prevention of Re-emergence of Slums Bill was approved by the provincial government yesterday. The government believes that the legislation will prevent the proliferation of slums in urban areas.

While the government promises to find alternative housing for nearly 500 000 people who live in informal settlements during the process of eliminating slums, Abahlali Basemjondolo, an organisation representing shack dwellers, believes the Act is an attempt to evict people from land they live on and buildings they live in.

Fight

Speaking to the Daily News yesterday, Abahali Basemjondolo chairman, S’bu Zikode vowed to fight the government in court and in the streets if it implemented the act.

“We will fight this Bill in the courts. We will fight this Bill in the streets. We will not be driven out of our cities as if we were rubbish,” he said.

Addressing members of parliament yesterday, Minister of Local Government Mike Mabuyakhulu said the aim of the act was not to evict people from where they live the way the apartheid government did.

He said the act seeks to deal with shack lords who rented shacks. “These unscrupulous people practice what is called ‘shack farming’, where they own a number of informal settlements and charge people exorbitant rents,” he said.

He added that the Act would also help speed up the process of improving the lives of people through the provision of decent housing.