This article by Imraan Buccus was published in The Mercury and the Sunday Independent.

A REVOLUTION seems to be building in South Africa.

As inequality and developmental deficits persist, South Africans are standing up and demanding social justice. The “rebellion of the poor” has most often emerged from the informal settlement. But since the beginning of regular protests from informal settlements, protests have also spread to the mines and to university campuses.

But the informal settlements have been more or less constant sites of struggle. There is no doubt that shack-dwellers have often been given the short end of the stick in their attempt to carve out an existence on the fringes of the cities. Despite this, one often hears middle-class citizens talking about how frustrated they are “with these people constantly protesting”. The poor are often spoken about in truly derogatory ways. The middle-class often express prejudices that sound like they come straight from the colonial script.  Continue reading →

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Imraan Buccus - A Revolution is Building