30 September 2009

Press release on Kennedy Road

The Association for Rural Advancement is deeply concerned about the
reports on the violence and destruction that has taken place in the
Kennedy Road informal settlement in Durban.

For people in KwaZulu-Natal the memories of the violent destruction of
communities in the 1987 to 1994 period are all to fresh for this news
not to cause utter dismay. In South Africa we are also increasingly
conscious of the precariousness of our new found stability as local
communities begin to express their resentment at inadequate service
delivery and at the increasing inequality in society (the reality of
which is rubbed in poor peoples faces with every act of conspicuous
consumption by the rich and the elite). In this province the fractures
of pre-democracy times could so easily be reopened and this must not be
allowed to happen.

We call on the state to immediately institute a judicial commission of
enquiry to uncover the roots of this mayhem and to identify how its
causes can be eliminated. If the state in unwilling to do so the
churches and other religious bodies should consider setting up an
independent enquiry well resourced with legal and other expertise.

We must not go down this road to destruction again.

John Aitchison

Director

Association for Rural Advancement