Abahlali baseMjondolo Press Release
Sunday, 1 May 2011
Shack Fire Takes a Life in eMmaus
At 04h00am this morning a candle was accidentally knocked over in a shack in New eMmaus in Pinetown. Mr. Zulu (33), the owner of the shack, was burnt to death as the fire destroyed his shack.
The fire brigade and the police were called but by the time they came the damage was already done and Mr. Zulu was already dead. Yesterday in a separate incident the Jadhu Place shack settlement in Clare Estate was on fire as well. There has been a wave of shack fires across the country since Easter. A number of people have burnt to death. Winter is here and the poor are burning once again.
When we first started to organise ourselves as Abahlali baseMjondolo the politicians would always say that shack fires are the result of drunkenness. Now they always say that shack fires are the result of 'illegal electricity connections'. They are always trying to blame us for the fires whereas they are the ones that have failed to ensure that we have access to electricity. Everyone knows that when self organised connections are done safely they protect us from fires. But when we connect ourselves in a safe and carefully disciplined manner we are called criminals.
Most Abahlali settlements have connected themselves to electricity. But the new eMmaus shack settlement has feared to electrify themselves as they have been always told that self electrification is the cause of the shack fires. Today the “politicians save lightening” forcing us to use the candles and paraffin stoves which are the cause of the shack fires which took an innocent life of another human being this morning.
For the past few months, the community of New eMmaus have been in a struggle of survival, where they were facing illegal eviction by “Mahogany Ridge Property”. These community members have been living in this area on a new land occupation for the past eight months. Mr. Zulu is from one of the families that have been facing illegal evictions.
On our UnFreedom Day event on 27 April 2011 Abahlali baseMjondolo Western Cape had a Shack fire summit while Abahlali BaseMjondolo KwaZulu-Natal had an UnFreedom Day Rally. These two events were part of our “No Land, No House, and No Vote" campaign. The following day ABM WC lighted candles in the memory of all those who lost their lives in the shack fires and today Mr. Zulu is one of them who has lost his life in a shack fire leaving three children without their father.
The reason behind our "No land, No house, No vote" campaign is the very same incidents that took place today. How can we vote when we keep losing our loved ones? How can we vote when our Parents, Brothers, Sisters, Children and Comrades die in such a state that you hardly recognize them and where you only have to pick up bones? Today we have a lot of orphans which are caused by the shack fires. It is a shame that electricity that is not even needed by us but our human lives, is something that we still have to struggle for in a democracy. In fact it is a disgrace.
For 17 years of “democracy” we’ve been given empty promises, that we will get proper houses with basic needs of electricity, water, sanitation. Of course nothing gets said about our human getting dignity. For 17 years we’ve been urged to vote but yet we still live in shacks. We do not only live in shacks. We also die in shacks and when we die in our shacks the government blames us for our deaths. How can one kill oneself? It is painful that we are seen to be struggling for basic services ahead of dignity.
As we are still losing people’s lives, as we still have so many shack fires. We still stand on our "No Land, No House, No Vote and No Dignity therefore No Vote!" policy.
Frantz Fanon said that non-viable society is a society that must be replaced. This society might be viable for some people but it is not viable for us. We live like pigs in the mud and can burn to death on any night. Our attempts to organise ourselves and to take the services needed by our lives for ourselves are criminalised. It is therefore our duty to replace this society with a society that recognises the value and dignity of every human being. It is the duty of everyone that recognises the equal humanity of all people to join us in this struggle.
For more information please contact Khanyi on 071 2183007 or the Abahlali office on 031 3046420.