http://www.churchtimes.co.uk/content.asp?id=96046
by Pat Ashworth

THE Bishop of Natal, the Rt Revd Rubin Phillip (right), was in Britain last week to raise awareness of the plight of slum-dwellers in Durban at the start of the football World Cup. The South African city is to be cordoned off for the duration of the competition.

Up to 6000 people live in the biggest shack community, Kennedy Road. Hundreds of families in the movement known as Abahlali base­Mjondolo (AbM) share communal taps and lavatories; rubbish is not collected, and fires break out con­stantly. The government repeatedly ignores their requests for more taps, better sanitation, and fire extin­guishers.

“Essentially, the voice of the poor is being criminalised,” Bishop Phillip said. “The moment they speak out about their grievances, it is seen as crime, whereas it’s part of the dem­ocratic process. The government should hear that voice and try to address the problems.”

He suggests that the ANC, once the voice of liberation, has become so institutionalised that it ignores the voices of the poor.

The AbM won one important victory last year, when it succeeded in getting the KZN (Kwa-Zulu Natal) Slums Act declared unconstitutional. The shack-dwellers could not now be forcibly evicted, but their victory had added to the authorities’ feeling aggrieved, the Bishop said.

He was travelling with another campaigner, Graham Philpott. They met, among others, Amnesty Inter­national, Christian Aid, and the Iona Community, and had a meeting with the Archbishop of Canterbury at Lambeth Palace, on Thursday of last week. The Bishop described the meeting as “very productive”.

The South African government was sensitive to the adverse publicity surrounding the shack-dwellers, but was not doing anything about it, the Bishop said. “I asked one of the Min­isters in charge of safety and security to conduct his own investigation into the deaths and arrests, but he has done nothing.”

Bishop Phillip described the re­moval of street traders and street children from the city centre as “appalling and frightening”. He is gaining support in his protests from academics and from some of South Africa’s church leaders.

“The thing to remember is that South Africa is very divided in terms of church leadership,” he said. “Many blindly follow government policy, whereas some of us want to exercise our prophetic voices. The community have said very straightforwardly that they simply want the truth to be told.”