A big devil in the shacks
The politics of fire
Matt Birkinshaw (2008-09-17)
http://www.pambazuka.org/en/category/comment/50572

On average in South Africa over the last five years there are ten shack fires a day with someone dying in a shack fire every other day. Shack fires are not acts of God. They are the result of political choices, often at municipal level.

Shack settlements are a poor people’s solution to a lack of affordable housing, especially in cities. In eThekwini municipality, a third of the population, and around half of the African population live in shacks. This is around 920,000 people. 16.4 per cent or about one in six of all South African households live in shacks. The number of South African households living in shacks is increasing at more than double the rate of population growth and is now nearly two million.

Click here to read this thesis in an attachment in word (with better layout etc)

Rights, democracy, social movements: Abahlali baseMjondolo: a living politics

Matt Birkinshaw

This dissertation is submitted in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of MA in Understanding and Securing Human Rights of the University of London

Contents

Page

Abstract 1

Chapter One The “zim zims” 3

Chapter Two Rainbow Nation 19