We Demand that the Manase Report be Released
by Thinabantu Khanyile & Bandile Mdlalose
Everybody knows that in Durban housing development does not really operate to meet the needs of the people. In reality it has three main objectives. One is to remove the poor from the city to the human dumping grounds. The second is to make poor people dependent on the state and thereby the ruling party. The third is to enrich people that are loyal to the ruling party. Everybody knows that corruption is rampant in housing from the top to the bottom. Low-cost housing has made some people millionaires. Everybody also knows that housing and other services are going to party members. This, along with repression and co-option, is one of the main ways that the ruling party tries to break independent organiszation. For instance if there is a fire they often try to prevent people from rebuilding on their own and then replace the people’s shacks with government shacks (amatins) which are only given to party members.