S’bu Zikode: Kennedy Road shack fire, a double attack

Another Shack fire after eThekwini Municipality disconnected electricity in Kennedy Road

Abahlali baseKennedy a bigger branch of Abahlali baseMjondolo has again and again been forced to accept the unacceptable. Last night at about 22:00 Saturday 16 February 2008 Kennedy Road settlement was on fire, fifteen shacks were bunt down. About 25 people including women and children were displaced and left homelesss. It was fortunate that at least within 25 minutes the fire department was at the scene.The cause of fire is said to be the paraffin stove that exploded. The fire victims have worked so hard and for so long to have what they have had. It is known that there is no one who is going to return their belongings of their sweat.The shack fires have become one of those common minor incidents that do not matter, it does not attract the interest of most media nor does it attract the sympathy of those in high authority. There are no efforts of any kind that the eThekwini municipality is prepared to explore in order to address the carnage of shack fires.Shack fires can be avoided in a caring city like Durban as so much money and energy is used to impress those who do not live in Durban and to attract foreign investment.

The shack fire comes after the Durban Electricity Department, members of the heavily armed South African Police Services and private security forces invaded Kennedy Road Shack settlment disconnecting all the electricity from peoples homes. No notice was given, no permission was granted and they claimed to have the right to trespass to people’s home without their concerns. This shows how much power they have, being the law unto themselves.It is well known that the electrity shotage is a national concern. Why must the poor be blamed and forced to pay the price while the big corporations are running their businesses day and night, making profit while the shack dwellers use it just to light and to cook? The shack dwellers themselves often get blamed for childrens who die in the shacks through fires and rat bites for failing to keep the settlements clean. These dirty accusation do not make any sense when there are dirty policies like the KZN Slums Act and the policy that prohibit all informal settlement to access electricty in Durban Metropolitan area.These policies are a killer, these policies must be scrapped by all means possible.

We have been attacked consistently to pay the price of speaking the truth to power, some of us have suffered a lot of injustice in the hands of the SAPS like in Sydenham police station, some of us have been beaten for speaking the truth to power in a form of protests, so many of us have been arrested for the same truth, some of us have been forced to lie to the police, while some of us have been arrested to disunite our Movement. Most of us have had electricity cut off and forced to live in darkness while the streets and the graves of Durban are in light 24 hours a day.Thus both the electricity disconnection and shack fires have been considered by Abahlali baseKennedy as an ultimate capital punishment. We do not know as to when this conviction will last. Our ancestors suffered the same punishment under old laws of the past which made us poor. The same punishment must be resisted by all means possible. Such lifelong living in the threat of fire, rats and unjustice in the name of the caring city must be dealt with by all means necessary. Electricity is not a luxury but a basic human right, a right to live and right that must be protected by all means possible. Even rural arears are now provided with electricity, but the city like Durban sees the electricity as something for few special minority that can afford high rent.

A mass meeting was held in Kennedy Road on Thursday 14 February 2008 to discuss a collective solution to the national crisis of electricity that has now become a settlementised Kennedy Road crisis in isolation to the rest of the country. All Abahlali settlements will fight to oppose all forms of oppressive policies that are a threat to future stability in our country. A legal opinion has been seeked from our legal experts around the country so that the city will see itself having to answer before the court of law. It has not been easy having to deal with both the no light scenario and the shack fire at the same time.

I believe that the comrades of Abahlali, the Abahlali friends, progressive and democratic NGO’s, Unionists, intellectuals, progressive leaders and Human Right Organisations will not be silenced, when peace and justice is at the brink of catastrophe.

S’bu Zikode
Abahlali baseMjondolo Movement SA.
7:33 p.m., Sunday 17 February 2008