Category Archives: floods

Practical Support for Members Affected by the Floods

Saturday, 4 May 2019
Abahlali baseMjondolo Press Statement

Practical Support for Members Affected by the Floods

The recent floods in Durban hit the poor the hardest. Many people lost their homes, or had their homes and possessions badly damaged. Some people lost their lives.

To be poor in South Africa means that you must constantly live with fire, floods and armed and violent evictions and disconnections. You can never really relax. There is constant worry and stress. There is no holiday in the shacks. Continue reading →

Our lives count for nothing as we are left to die in the shacks

27 July 2016

Abahlali baseMjondolo Press Statement

Our lives count for nothing as we are left to die in the shacks

Rain is usually considered as a blessing. It is often considered as a gift from the Almighty and amaDlozi. During the drought we were all waiting for the rain to come. But the storms in Durban hit impoverished people, and especially shack dwellers, very hard. Peoples’ possessions and homes were damaged and destroyed. Lives were lost.

Our lives do not count as human lives to this society. It is sad and shameful that we are living the life that we are living. Continue reading →

Kennedy Road Burns Once Again

Sunday, 03 November 2013

Abahlali baseMjondolo Press Statement

Kennedy Road Burns Once Again

On Tuesday the Isipingo Transit Camp was flooded once again. It is built on a flood plain and there is no drainage and so there are regular floods. The residents took to the streets and organised a road blockade in protest at the living conditions that have been forced on them against their will.

Our movement has rejected transit camps from the first moment that that they appeared and we have constantly called for them to abolished and for all people that have been forced into these inhuman places to be provided with decent housing as a matter of urgency. The municipality has now announced that they will not build any more transit camps and they have promised to house people in transit camps. Their decision to stop building transit camps is a victory that comes directly from our struggle. We welcome this victory but we do not see clear plans to provide decent housing to the 10 000 people who have been sentenced to the transit camps. Therefore our struggle against the transit camps continues and it will continue until every person forced into a transit camp has access to decent housing.

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Daily News: Isipingo residents sick of squalor

http://www.iol.co.za/dailynews/news/isipingo-residents-sick-of-squalor-1.1600216#.UnY5WvnI3UU

by Aphiwe Ngwenya

Durban – Residents of the Isipingo transit camp say they are fed up with empty promises by municipal officials that they would be relocated to housing projects elsewhere in the city.

As the heavy rains continued to flood their homes this week, residents protested on the main road, burning tyres.

The camp is built in a flood plain and with little in the way of a drainage system, flooding is frequent occurrence.

Stagnant water lies in pools around the camp, a breeding ground for mosquitoes. Here and there rocks, planks and bricks have been placed to create stepping stones around the camp.

Unemployed mother-of-three, Meshi Kesram, 36, said her home had been flooded numerous times in the five years she had been at the transit camp. On the worst occasion the flood water was over one metre high.

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Road Blockade in Isipingo Yesterday

Wednesday, 30 October 2013

Abahlali baseMjondolo Press Statement

Road Blockade in Isipingo Yesterday

The Isipingo transit camp was badly flooded during the recent rains. It is built in a dangerous area and there is no drainage. It is not fit for human habitation.

Yesterday a road blockade was organised in protest at:

–       The flood and the inhuman conditions in the transit camp

–       The failure to honour to the promise, made more than a week ago, to start moving people out of the transit camp within a week

–       The attempt to silence us with lies on one hand and repression on the other hand

One person was arrested on the blockade but she was later released without being charged.

Continue reading →