Durban court denies eviction notice to shackdwellers

http://www.southafrica.indymedia.org/news/2006/01/9445.php

Durban court denies eviction notice to shackdwellers
by Steph Lane Friday January 06, 2006 at 07:27 PM

This morning in the Durban High court, a judge adjourned a request from University of Kwa-Zulu Natal to evict four households from a shack settlement called Banana City, located within the grounds of the University’s Westville Campus. She ruled that because the University had not filled out all of the proper documents, they were not in order a! nd would have to re-serve the eviction notices to the households, and appear again to the court at a later date.

The judge was especially concerned about the rights of two very young children-an infant and a two-year-old-in one of the households threatened with eviction. “We must protect the interests of these minor children,” she said to the University’s lawyer.

A group of about 20 residents of Banana City and supporters accompanied a legal counsel to lend their opposition to these eviction notices to four long-term tenants at the informal settlement. The University says it wants to expand its student housing on the land where the settlement occupies.

Banana City is an informal settlement established on a hillside more than 50 years ago, before the University’s campus was developed there. Many early residents moved to the area from rural parts of Kwa-Zulu Natal to work as domestic servants in nearby suburbs. Today there are about 2,000 people who call Banana City home, but with only about 150 shacks in the settlement, each one- (or on a rare occasion two-) room household has an average of 10 to 12 people. It is easy to find families with children and grandchildren born in Banana City. Few people who are employed can find more than part time or temporary work.

This is the first time Banana City residents have been served with an eviction notice. For years, the settlement and the University of Kwa-Zulu Natal have had an agreement about the continued use of the site by its residents, says Sibus! iso Xaba, a spokesperson for the Banana City Informal Settlement Area Committee. But residents have never been given a permanent place to live, and services, like access to a communal tap for drinking water or garbage removal, have been terminated. Now residents have to travel long distances to fetch water. Recently, due to the appointment of a new vice chancellor at the University, the agreement with settlement residents has come under scrutiny.

Many residents of Banana City cannot understand the University’s unwillingness to support their settlement. For decades, students have done research based in the community, and some lecturers still use the settlement for current projects. Approximately 300 children from Banana City attend the nearby Hillview primary school. And many people work as domestic servants in homes that surround the University, or take short term con! struction jobs on campus.

But, residents say, the University does not let them access services available to the campus community even though they are on their grounds, and members of the community as well. The childcare center on campus is exorbitantly expensive. The soccer grounds and other sports fields and centers are not open to their children. Residents cannot enter campus by car. Even the use of the University’s health clinic is not available.

So children run free unsupervised after school. There is no community center. The elderly and expectant mothers do not have easy access to health facilities. Residents have to walk from the University gate with large parcels. There are no toilets or nearby water taps.

The University says the municipality must pick up the trash from the informal settlement, but, says a community researcher, “how can a municipal truck get there if no cars are allowed to Banana City?”

The four households served with notices by the University are newer dwellings, along the ridge overlooking the lower portions of Banana City and the 1 to 2 km path to the distant water tap below.

One of the households given a notice belongs to Mrs. M. Sithole. A mother of 4, she lives with seven people in a two-room shack. Three of her children attend Hillview Primary School. Mrs. Sithole has lived for 20 years in Banana City. She had originally built her home in another part o! f the settlement, but it was destroyed in a fire. After staying with her brother-in-law while she looked for building materials, she decided to move her house to a safer, less congested part of the settlement, near the ridge.

Her children don’t have birth certificates because she didn’t have the money to get them made. Because of this, none of them have ID cards, so her eldest child, who is 20, is unable to get a job or vote. Her family survives on her ability to get temporary jobs once or twice a week doing housework in the nearby suburbs, maybe bringing in 70 Rand in total.

Like many other families in Banana City, Mrs. Sithole left her rural home near Greytown because of political conflict. If she had to leave the settlement, she has no idea wher! e she would stay. “It is difficult for us,” she says. “There are seven in my house. Who would let us squat with them?”

Mrs. N. D. Lingani, a grandmother of two with five daughters staying with her in her house, didn’t even know about her eviction notice. A resident of Banana City for 13 years, she stayed with her sister and her family at first, but recently moved into another place when it got too congested there. Mrs. Lingani also came to Durban from Greytown, to look for a job. None of her children are employed. “I’m an old lady surviving with a pension from the government,” she said.

The University contends that these newer shacks have been built by newer tenants in the community. “These are not new people,” says B. Mbolekwa, another community researcher. “These are people who have been residing with others. So they have built these new houses. She needs her own privacy. But they have been here.”

The house of Mr. Majosi, a community leader in Banana City, was also named in the application for eviction. In 1985, his wife moved to the settlement to take a job as a domestic worker. He arrived in 1995. They have four children and seven grandchildren, for a total of 13 people living together in two rooms. Mr. Majosi’s wife remains the only source of employment, and she makes around 800 Rand per month. But with 5 grandchildren in school and school fees of 350 Rand each every year, it is difficult to make ends meet.

Mr. Majosi used to own a small business on campus, where he sold fruits and candy to students who couldn’t afford to spend money on larger lunches. But the University has now forbidden vendors outside established buildings to operate on campus grounds. The only other work he and other peers can find is as a casual laborer on construction jobs on campus, but that only pays 20 to 40 Rand per day.

Most of the residents of Banana City are deemed criminals or untrustworthy, says Mbolekwa. “If [the University] could employ people to clean your place, it would be the responsibility of people here. But the university does not want to support them.” It would be easy, she says, to set up a community center or sponsor students who have finished grade 12, so they could continue their education and move on to better lives and better places.

The University and the municipality seek to relocate the entire settlement to ParkGate, a community 27 kms from Banana City, an unaffordable option for many families whose only work will not cover the cost for transport. Returning home to the rural areas is also not an option. Majosi’s family left their rural home years ago because of conflicts between leaders of neighbouring villages and his own.

“I don’t know where to go,” he says. “That is why I’m fighting.”