A Shack Fire in the Foreman Road shack settlement in Clare Estate, Durban has Claimed Two Lives

Sunday, 9 November 2014

Abahlali baseMjondolo Press Statement

A Shack Fire in the Foreman Road shack settlement in Clare Estate, Durban has Claimed Two Lives

Yesterday we had a very successful march, together with our Congolese comrades, against the politic of death. Early this morning two residents of the Foreman Road shack settlement lost their lives in a huge fire. We are the people that can be freely murdered without consequence. We are also the people that are left to live like pigs in the mud and to die in shack fires.

For almost ten years we have been struggling to force the state to take shack fires seriously. We have won many victories over the years but we remain the people that are left to burn. Every time there is a fire the politicians and the police rush to blame us for the fire. They never blame the conditions in which we are forced to live. They never meet with us to work out a way to improve these conditions. We will not rest until we have forced this society to recognise and respect our humanity. Continue reading →

Memorandum of Demands Delivered to the Minister of Human settlement in the Province of KwaZulu-Natal, MR Ravi Pillay – 8 November 2014

Memorandum of Demands Delivered to the Minister of Human settlement in the Province of KwaZulu-Natal, MR Ravi Pillay.

Saturday, 08 November 2014 12:00 PM

We, the citizens, men and women of the Republic of South Africa are members of Abahlali baseMjondolo Movement SA in kwaZulu-Natal, Durban, are democrats committed to the flourishing of this country and the world. We speak for ourselves and direct our own struggle. We have been mobilized by our own suffering and our hope for a better future here and abroad. It is time to take seriously the fact that, land is a serious problem in our country and that land was stolen from our ancestors and that, this has impoverished us. That housing in the city is a mess that has not just terrorized our communities but made us homeless here in South Africa. Housing corruption has become a weapon of mass destruction to those of us who are killed for the right to the city and the right to housing. Continue reading →