http://antieviction.org.za/2011/11/09/our-book-helps-bury-our-own/#more-4855

Symphony Way Pavement Dwellers Statement
9 November 2011

Our book helps bury our own

Funds raised through our community’s efforts to sell our book, No Land! No House! No Vote! Voices from Symphony Way, is making it possible for Doreen Lewis to bury her son who died tragically days ago.

Last week, one of our own youth, 24 year old Leroy Van Wyk, passed away. He was taken to the local Delft Clinic with a severe ‘headache’. His symptoms were scoffed at and he was sent away with some pain tablets. (As poor people, Delft Clinic often refuses to take our health seriously and usually sends us away with Panado or Paracetamol even though we have much more serious illnesses).

A few days later, Leroy was rushed back to the Clinic where he passed away. We still do not know what is the real cause of death.

As often happens in our communities, family members who are unemployed often are unable to pay the exorbitant costs of funerals. Doreen Lewis, an unemployed single mother who has been very active in our struggle from day one, barely has a cent in her name.

However, after convening a mass meeting of the community, we unanimously voted to use the profit we as authors have made so far from Cape Town sales of our anthology, to pay for the funeral of Leroy. To us, this collective need was so much more important than our individual needs. We are pretty certain that if it were not for this book, we would not have been able to bury our son.

We feel that this gesture indicates our resolve as a community to stay united in our fight for housing and dignity for our community and for the whole of Blikkiesdorp.

The funeral will be on Friday the 11th of November 2011 at 9am. The body will be at Doreen’s home in Blikkiesdorp (#16 in M-Block). We will be at the church at 10am and the graveyard at 11am .

For more information contact:

Jerome @ 0731438886
Willy @ 0731443619