This picture, by the M&G, is from another fire in Kennedy Road earlier in the year.

Well more than a hundred shacks burnt down in the Kennedy Road settlement this morning. This is the 7th fire in the settlement this year.

Abahlali baseMjondolo condemns the eThekwini Municipality’s inhuman 2001 decision to stop electrifying shacks on the grounds that it is too expensive. There is a direct link between this decision and the fires as the fires are caused by candles and paraffin stoves.

Abahlali baseMjondolo condemns the eThekwini Municipality’s regular and violent police attacks on poor communities in which lifesaving community organised connections are removed at gun point. These attacks have often been quickly followed by fires as people are forced to revert to candles and parafin stoves.

Abahlali baseMjondolo affirms its support for all shack dwellers’ organisations fighting for electricity and for other measures to stop the plague of fires across the country.

Abahlali baseMjondolo invites everyone who believes that the poor should not be left to burn to attend the City Wide Shack Fire Summit called by the movement which will be held on Monday 22 September 2008. We need to built a united front against the fires and for the universal right to electricity.

Abahlali baseMjondolo will soon be issuing a full report on the electricity and fire crisis in Durban and invites all organisations to discuss this report in advance of the City Wide Shack Fire Summit.

Eradicate shack fires not shack dwellers!

Pray for us. Support us. Join us in the struggle to stop the plague of fires.

For comment on this morning’s fire please contact:

Mondli Mbiko: 0731936319
Lungi Mgube 0833305392

For pictures of the aftermath click here