http://www.themercury.co.za/index.php?fArticleId=4943041
Shack-dwellers ask Minto to revive protest era
April 20, 2009 Edition 2
Mercury reporter
A former anti-apartheid activist, New Zealander John Minto, has been approached by the Durban-based shack-dwellers’ organisation, Abahlali baseMjondolo to help shack-dwellers in South Africa by talking to the government on their behalf, according to the SABC news website.
Minto attended Abahlali’s meeting in Durban at the weekend.
The organisation invited Minto to witness the plight of shack-dwellers and use his international clout to assist them in getting proper houses.
Abahlali chairman Sbu Zikode said Minto had been asked to use tactics that were used by New Zealanders to put pressure on the apartheid regime to abandon the system.
Minto had been roped in to intervene since the government “had a tendency to engage better with international dignitaries”, Zikode said.
Minto has said he wants to see first-hand what the experience of South African shack-dwellers is after 15 years of democracy. He said many people in New Zealand were disappointed with South Africa because during apartheid the quest was for freedom, but in post-apartheid only a few had enriched themselves.
About the request by Abahlali to use apartheid era tactics in helping their cause, Minto said he would have to consult his fellow countrymen.
Meanwhile, the KwaZulu-Natal Housing Department said it respected Minto for the role he played in the demise of apartheid, but his comments had limitations.
Spokesman Lennox Mabaso said it would have been impossible for the government to eradicate the damage that took 350 years to create.
He also criticised Minto’s comments, saying it was premature for him to make comments about housing progress having only been in the country for less than a week.
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