Category Archives: Lizeka Maduna

The Steep Price Of Being Family To Abahlali’s Most Famous Activist

The Steep Price Of Being Family To Abahlali’s Most Famous Activist

S’bu Zikode, the founding president of the radical shack dwellers movement Abahlali baseMjondolo has had to be in hiding numerous times after threats were made against him for his fight for landless peoples and shack dwellers. His wife Sindi Mkhize spoke to the Daily Vox about the constant need for her husband to leave his family and go to a place of safety. Mkhize says her husband has been in grave danger for months now.

It all began in 2009 when people came looking for him in our home at Kennedy Road, but he wasn’t around at that time. I was victimised with my kids but we managed to escape, which I believe if we hadn’t we could have died. They were so brutal but fortunately my kids were still very young at the time, they couldn’t understand anything. Continue reading

The People Of Blinkbonnie Can Finally Call eNkanini Home

by Lizeka Mdaduna, The Daily Vox

Kids are running around playing, it’s the school holidays. Elderly women are sitting outside in the sun; they say inside their houses it’s chilly. Enkanini, which translates to ‘place of strong-willed’ in Blinkbonnie Road, Durban, has become their only home.

“We have settled here, this is now our homes and a community,” says a 58-year-old Noncedile Diko.

After months of restlessness and continuous court disputes over land with the municipality, the people of Blinkbonnie Road, a strip of land in Bonela have finally found ‘peace’. Diko, whose house was demolished several times says she in at peace now that she finally has a place to call home.  Continue reading

After A Devastating Fire, Teargas And Rubber Bullets At Foreman Road

The Daily Vox

Lizeka Maduna

On Thursday, police in Durban used teargas and rubber bullets to disperse an angry crowd of Foreman Road residents, who picketed in the streets after eThekwini mayor Zandile Gumede failed to arrive for a meeting with the community.

Residents of the Foreman Road informal settlement in Durban were promised building materials and the chance to plan a way forward with the mayor after a devastating fire razed about 800 homes, killing a family of three, over the weekend. When the community learned the mayor had cancelled her visit to the area on Thursday, they blockaded Clare Road in Clare Estate in anger. Residents used the burnt corrugated iron from their shacks, dustbins and rubbish to block the road.     Continue reading

Daily Vox: #BabyJayden Funeral: “We Are Under A Dark Cloud Today”

The Daily Vox

Residents of Foreman Road informal settlement in Durban gathered on Saturday for the funeral of Jayden Khoza, the two-week-old baby who died during housing protests in the settlement on Monday. Khoza’s parents allege that the child died after inhaling tear gas fired by police during the protest.

Siphelele Sivunga a spokesperson for Abahlali baseMjondolo, the Durban-based group fighting for housing and basic services, “As the Foreman Road family we are under a dark cloud. Jayden was in a struggle because his people were in a struggle”.  Continue reading