http://www.dailynews.co.za/index.php?fArticleId=3905354

Poor disrupt conference

June 27, 2007 Edition 1

Sharlene Packree

AN academic conference to address world poverty was marred yesterday when a group of angry protesters demonstrated over their exclusion from the meeting.

Disgruntled fishermen, street traders and shack dwellers stormed Durban’s Elangeni Hotel and converged outside the hotel’s main conference room, demanding that they be included in the programme.

Their screams and ululating were heard by the hundreds of delegates inside the hall who were attending the Poverty Challenge 2007 conference.

The protest began just as deputy mayor Logie Naidoo began his speech to welcome delegates to the city. The angry group, wearing blue T-shirts, also demanded that Naidoo leave the conference and listen to their concerns.

Community activist Ashwin Desai, who was a speaker at the conference, then addressed the group and called for representatives to come forward.

Hotel management called the police to control the rowdy crowd, who toyi-toyied while international tourists checked into the hotel.

Louise Motha, a shack dweller [from Abahlali], said she was angry that “rich academics” were having discussions on the issues that affected the poor.

Motha said that the poor should have been given a chance to speak at the conference and “not be discarded like rubbish”.

“Traders cannot trade. Fishermen cannot fish. People live without water and electricity. How can people live like this? There are poor people everywhere and we need our voices to be heard,” she said.

Desmond D’sa, from the Durban South Combined Alliance, said the poor were being pushed out of the city to make more space for the rich.

Philani Zuma, spokesman for the Abahlali Basemjondolo – a group that represents informal settlements – said the city’s poor were the “experts of poverty” and should have been included in the conference.

The conference organisers will meet some of the protesters today to discuss their concerns.