http://www.themercury.co.za/index.php?fArticleId=3569217

Shack dwellers win court order against municipality

November 30, 2006 Edition 1

Noloyiso Mchunu

RESIDENTS of Motala Farm settlement near Pinetown were granted an interdict by the Durban High Court yesterday preventing eThekwini Municipality from demolishing their shacks – but the order came too late for about 20 families whose homes were destroyed between September and October.

The residents brought an application this month to stop the municipality from tearing down their homes as part of its slum clearance project, which began in 2001.

The municipality said in court papers that families in Motala were being moved to Nazareth Island, another settlement 15km away, where houses had been built to accommodate them.

Residents said the new houses were nothing more than glorified shacks.

“There is no water, the toilets do not flush, there is no electricity and there are other people who claim that those houses belong to them,” said resident Derrick Fenner. He said the majority of people living in Motala had part-time jobs in neighbouring Westmead and needed to be close to work.

Fenner said some of the people whose shacks were destroyed were sleeping in the open because they had nowhere else to go.

noloyiso.mchunu@inl.co.za