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Mercury: Eight killed as fires raze settlements

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http://www.iol.co.za/index.php?set_id=1&click_id=3045&art_id=vn20080804052925829C145416

Eight killed as fires raze settlements

August 04 2008 at 07:31AM

By Gugu Mbonambi

Eight people, including several children, died and dozens were left homeless after fires swept through two shack settlements in Durban at the weekend.

Ward 31 councillor Gloria Borman said five people, who had been locked in a shack and were unable to get out, were burnt beyond recognition.

Three others, including two children, died in a neighbouring shack.

“Having to lose eight people in a community is very traumatic and this was one of the worst shack fires I have ever witnessed,” said Borman.

“Seeing those charred bodies lying there was an awful experience,” she said.

The eThekwini fire department’s divisional commander, Dennis Govender, believed the fire was started in a shack when a candle fell over while the occupants were asleep.

“Four boys and a pregnant girl were discovered in one shack by firefighters after extinguishing the raging fire. The security gate was locked and the children were unable to escape,” said Govender.

Emergency relief was provided by the city’s disaster management team and the displaced were taken to a community hall.

“The municipality will assist with material so that those who lost their homes can rebuild their shacks, as we are still busy with a housing development plan in Cato Crest,” said Borman.

ANC eThekwini chairman John Mchunu was at the Cato Crest community hall yesterday to provide mattresses and Red Cross-donated food to the displaced people.

“We will be talking to the bereaved families and will assist with the funeral arrangements,” said Mchunu.

In another fire, 22 people were left homeless when 16 shacks were razed at the Kennedy Road informal settlement on Friday.

S’bu Zikode, the president of the shack dwellers’ movement Abahlali baseMjondolo, said no fatalities were reported.

The movement planned to have an emergency meeting with the municipality to help those affected.

An unattended paraffin stove is thought to have caused the fire.

“The situation is getting out of hand… shacks cannot just keep burning like this. I would like to issue a strong warning throughout the province that shack dwellers need to be careful when using candles and paraffin stoves,” said Zikode.

“Alcohol also plays a significant role when shacks are burnt because most of the fires take place during weekends when people are drunk,” he said.

o This article was originally published on page 4 of The Mercury on August 04, 2008

Sunday Tribune: Rats plague community

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http://www.sundaytribune.co.za/index.php?fArticleId=4540242

Front Page
Rats plague community

August 03, 2008 Edition 3

Rat poison was put down at the Kennedy Road informal settlement this week by health authorities, but residents are not expecting the rat plague to end.

Residents say the eThekwini health department had used poison previously but nothing had changed, and rats were now bigger and meaner.

The settlement was in the news recently after two-month-old Wandile Cikwayo’s hand was gnawed by a rat. He is in a critical condition in Addington Hospital. Earlier this year a 4-month-old baby was bitten on the head by a rat. He later died from his wounds as his parents did not have money to take him to hospital and were waiting for the Clare Estate Clinic to open on the Monday.

Sick

Wandile Cikwayo’s mother, Nonhlanhla, is upset as her baby is “very sick in hospital”.

“His hand is swollen and looks green. He cries all the time and vomits even though he is not taking in anything,” said a distraught Cikwayo.

She said that she was not sleeping in her own room as she feared the same rat would attack her. “They (the municipality) were putting down poison for the rats but on the same day I saw a rat. Nothing is going to change.”

Dr Ayo Olowolagba, head of the council’s Communicable Disease Control unit, said they were looking at long-term sustainable solutions to eradicating the rat plague as it posed serious health risks.

“Placing the rat poison is a once-off thing. We are going to do a large-scale clean-up as informal settlements are notorious for conditions in which rats breed,” said Olowolagba.

Olowolagba said various departments of the municipality were involved in dealing with the problem.

“The housing department, vector control department, Durban Solid Waste, community mobilisation, we are all working together.”

S’bu Zikode, president of the shack dwellers movement (Abahlali baseMjondolo Movement), said the rat infestation was not an isolated issue. He said if the core issues were not dealt with “there will continue to be shack fires, rats and spreading of diseases”.

Rubbish

Zikode said large piles of refuse were scattered throughout the camp as Durban Solid Waste collects rubbish only along the main road.

“People use the refuse bags that are provided. The problem is, no one collects the dirt. This area is steep and it would be impossible for residents to carry their filled refuse bags such a distance,” said Zikode.

He said, “People have this misconception that because we live in shacks we are dirty, lazy and need education. Build the necessary infrastructure, and if the problems persist then blame us.”

An issue he raised was that there were only 12 toilets for 9 000 residents. The other 106 toilets that were built earlier were last drained in 2005 and are now locked.

Zikode said the toilets are locked for health reasons as children play around them.

“People have resorted to using the bushes, or building homemade toilets that are really just a shallow hole surrounded by planks,” he said.

Couglan Pather, head of the housing department, said they were looking at the feasibility of building on a portion of the site at Kennedy Road.

“We cannot build on the entire site and some people would have to be relocated. We are also looking at another site close to Kennedy Road but are awaiting approval from the provincial Department of Environmental Affairs and the Department of Water and Forestry,” said Pather.

Councillor Yacoob Baig agreed that there is a large-scale health problem at the settlement. He said possible reasons could be the close proximity of the settlement to the landfill site as well as litter that is always lying around.

“We have embarked on a campaign with the health department to deal with the problem,” said Baig.

Olowolagba said since there was no access for vehicles to the informal settlement, collecting rubbish would be a problem.

“We are looking at contracting members of the community to collect and transport rubbish to accessible points where DSW can collect it.”

Zikode said they had raised these health concerns with council for many years but have had no response.

“Only now that a baby has died and another is in a serious condition is something being done. We are being denied our basic human rights,” said Zikode.

Neeri Govender, Public Relations Officer of Durban Solid Waste, said the mismanagement of waste was one of the causes of rat infestation.

She appealed to individuals to take responsibility for their environment and use the resources provided to dispose their waste.

“In the short term DSW is looking at a major clean up. In the long term we are looking at strategies to ensure that rubbish piles are not scattered throughout the settlement and the same health issues do not arise after the clean up.”

Solidarity: Sunday Tribune – Berea park families to ‘move by Easter’

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As in New Orleans, as in Pietermartizburg a flood, it seems that any sort will do, becomes the excuse to expel the poor from the city (this time via a spell in tents in a bourgeois park.)

http://www.sundaytribune.co.za/index.php?fArticleId=4225627

Sunday Tribune
Front Page
Berea park families to ‘move by Easter’

January 27, 2008 Edition 1

Chris Makhaye

BUSISIWE Masikane is one of more than 85 people who have been living in a tent in a park on Berea’s Ridge Road.

In the early hours of December 11 last year a pipe burst in her neighbourhood in Hope Street informal settlement near Mayville, damaging several dozen shacks, furniture and other basics items.

Masikane’s shack was close to the pipe and she lost everything, including her double bed, clothes, dishes and cutlery.

The 58-year-old woman, who suffers from arthritis, said she had been living in the informal settlement for the past 35 years and had never been allocated a low-cost house. She now lives in a tent with her sickly daughter and granddaughters. There are separate tents for men and women and children. Lighting is provided by a small generator donated by a religious group.

“We depend on food handouts we get from a Muslim mosque. They come with meals every evening at six,” Masikane said.

After spending more than five weeks, including the hot and rainy festive season, in the tent, Masikane is distressed.

“This is not a place to live like human beings. We don’t have a bathroom.

“The tent is hot and when it rains the place is full of mud,” she said.

Nathi Manzi, spokesman for the tent dwellers, said they were promised by the council that they would be moved within three months. “Many people here lost all their belongings. It was not our fault that the pipe burst, yet nobody is helping us with anything,” he said.

Bongisile Gasa also lost everything on December 11.

“My baby has a horrible rash because of the heat. There are flies all over and we are not safe from disease,” she said, adding that they should be compensated by the municipality for the loss they had suffered.

It is not only the tent dwellers who are concerned about their conditions.

Residents of the area are uneasy and feel that their presence will bring about an increase in crime.

Marc Lurie said the park on Ridge Road was a perfect place for children to play soccer, run and have fun.

“This (the tent dwellers) will have the effect of increasing crime in the area, as it attracts undesirables. Most importantly, it will start to drive down the value of properties in the area.

“It is bad enough that there have been eight bond rate increases in a row.

“But now we have the introduction of a new factor on the Berea to help suppress property price growth – tents and squatters,” said Lurie.

Sam Kikine, an eThekwini councillor, said there were arrangements for the tent people to be allocated houses in Mount Moriah, north of Durban.

“The plan was for them to live in the tents for only a while until other arrangements had been made. They will definitely not be there by the Easter period,” said Kikine.

Head of Housing in the eThekwini Municipality, Couglan Pather, said houses were being built at Mount Moriah to accommodate more than 16 families.

“The families will be relocated between four to five weeks from now,” said Pather.

Click here for pictures by Zainul Aberdeen from The Weekly Gazette
(Zain is one of the journalists to have been unlawfully detained, intimidated and had a camera confiscated by Supt. Glen Nayager).

Mercury: Shack Demolitions Halted

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http://www.themercury.co.za/index.php?fArticleId=4222239
The Mercury

Shack demolitions halted

January 25, 2008 Edition 1

Tania Broughton

WHILE two little boys played in the rain in the ruins of a neighbour’s home, lawyers acting for shack dwellers from Reservoir Hills were in the Durban High Court securing an interim interdict preventing the council demolishing any more homes.

The urgent court action against the eThekwini Municipality by six Annette Drive settlement residents came after officials from the city’s land invasion unit destroyed three shacks there earlier this month and another yesterday.

Residents claimed the demolishers warned they would be back this week to tear down more shacks.

In an affidavit before Judge Sharmaine Balton yesterday, one of the residents, Musa Jaca, who is also the local chairman of the shack dwellers’ movement Abahlali baseMjondolo, said people had settled on the vacant lot in 1972 after being evicted from Newlands East and, before that, Cato Manor.

He said the shacks were made of wood and iron sheets and any other odd pieces of useful rubble.

Explaining the history of the evictions, Jaca said in August last year about 18 families, including himself, had added on to their existing dwellings or built new shacks because their homes had become too cramped.

In November, members of the land invasion unit had arrived at the settlement “and wandered around looking at the shacks”.

They had then used spray paint to mark some with an X. They had not communicated with the community at all that day.

On January 17, the officials had come back and “used saws to break down and demolish” three of the marked shacks.

Left destitute

“They did not explain why they were demolishing the shacks and did not offer any assistance or alternative accommodation to the families affected, all of whom had young children. One was a household headed by a woman.

“They have now been left destitute.”

Jaca said he and others had then contacted their lawyer, Mahendra Chetty, of Durban’s Legal Resources Centre, who had written to the municipal manager contending that the demolitions were illegal and asking for an explanation.

There had been no response.

This week the officials had come back to the settlement, threatening more demolitions.

According to correspondence, Chetty again wrote to the municipal manager, advising that an interdict would be sought yesterday. But before lawyers could get to court, another shack was demolished and the officials said they would be back this week.

The shack dwellers claim the demolitions are illegal, arguing that any evictions have to be done through the Prevention of Illegal Evictions and Unlawful Occupation of Land Act (commonly known as PIE) and that requires a high court order to be served on the occupants.

“In the absence of an application for eviction being granted, the council has no right to demolish our shacks which would effectively mean evicting us from our properties.”

The council opposed yesterday’s court action, citing a new provincial law, the KZN Elimination and Prevention of Re-Emergence of Slums Act which, it says, entitles officials to demolish shacks erected after October 2007.

The matter will be back in court on February 21.

—————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————-

Letter to the Editor

(Reservoir Hills local paper)

Viva The Reder Red Shirts

Red Greetings to the editor.

Firstly I want to chart a bit abaut the famous Ret Shirts in the Durbun area. Especially since the formation of the Shack Dwellers Movement in KZN in early 2005 the red shirts get more popular. It is like as if nobody ever wore them whereas the SACP, COSATU, SATAWU etc have and still where Red t shirts and these trade unions sometimes use the same strategy used by this social movement like mobilising and protesting or so. Then come to clarify why its reder on a Shack Dwellers point of view we all still remember about what happed in Shanon drive in Reservour Hills when shacks were demolished and people left homeless including school kids and women. So resently the Land Invasion unit visited another area, also in Reservoir Hills, Annet Drive and demolished peoples shacks without a court order and alternative accomodation resulting to hemelessnes of people also includes women and school kids also but because of the help of the Reder Shirts (Abahlali Basemjondolo Movement South Africa) led by Honourable Sbusiso Innocent Zikode and the Legal Resource Centere an Non Gorvenmental Organisation based in Diakonia Centere directed by Honourable Mahendra Chetty fully helped the Annet Drive demolition victims from start up to the end by taking the matter to the Durbun High Court and the judge issued an urgent court interdict agaist the carring on of demolishes in Annet Drive by municipality and the Judges dicision was greeted by hullulization as there were abaut 40 to 50 Grannies in the court from deferent branches of Abahli movement and and revolutional songs as there was a uncountable number of yuoth as ather combrades were sitting on the floor of court as it was in packed Red all over and people passing by the court asked is Zumaz case back soon. The responce said no Zikodez yung lions. May the mighty God bless all peoples efforts who helped the helpless of Annert Drive

A Happy Annet Drive resident
Reservoir Hills KwaZulu-Natal

Solidarity: Des D’sa Under Attack

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http://www.dailynews.co.za/index.php?fArticleId=4215707

Arsonists target anti-drug activists
Crime campaigner injured in petrol bombing

January 21, 2008 Edition 3

Sharlene Packree

Desmond D’Sa’s burn scars will forever remind him of the forces opposed to Wentworth’s anti-drug and crime campaign.

On Friday, D’Sa’s Austerville flat was targeted by petrol bomb-wielding arsonists.

In a desperate bid to put out the flames that threatened the lives of his wife and two daughters, D’Sa suffered burns to his hands and face.

Yesterday, the smell of petrol still lingered in the air as D’Sa inspected his home.

The latest attack is the third on the home of an anti-drug campaigner in the area and D’Sa fears that drug lords are using intimidation to get his organisation to back down.

The Wentworth development forum believes that their vocal campaigns against the high crime rate and drug abuse in the community has impacted significantly on drug sales in the area and is seen as a threat to the livelihoods of drug merchants.

Wentworth police spokesman Sgt Balan Reddy confirmed that three cases of arson were being investigated.

The sale of drugs in the community has been a serious concern for many years.

In 2004, President Thabo Mbeki visited the area as part of his election campaign and community members told him prostitution and drug abuse were rife.

D’Sa is well-known for his strong views on drugs, crime and environmental pollution in the south Durban basin.

While he was injured in the arson attack, D’Sa said he would not succumb to the intimidation of drug dealers.

He told the Daily News: “We have started a foot patrol where we monitor the kids at school. We are making sure that these kids have no access to drugs. They are going to school to learn and not peddle drugs.”

Another activist, Cynthia Billings, was also a victim of an arson attack.

Billings said a petrol bomb was thrown into her flat and the resulting fire damaged her furniture and other appliances.

Police opened a case of arson, but no arrests were made.

“These drug lords know they can’t sell their drugs when we are around. This obviously affects their business, so they want to shut us up,” she said.

Billings said D’Sa and other activists who spoke out about these social issues were seen as a major threat to criminals and drug peddlers.

“They see us as a threat and they think they can stop us continuing our work. But we won’t stop fighting to clean up the area,” she added.

D’Sa said some residents knew the identities of the arsonists, but were too scared to speak out for fear of reprisals.

“People are living in fear here. Some are too scared to speak out, while others are harbouring these criminals, who buy them food and clothing,” he said. D’sa said drug dealers marked out specific areas and used teenagers to sell the drugs and carry out arson attacks.

“We are saddled with big drug dealers who are linked to other criminal elements. They need to be dealt with,” he said. “But, we are not scared of them.” The Sheffer family have also been victims of intimidation by gangs in the area.

Two weeks ago, two men smashed seven windows in their flat while the family was asleep.

The gang also tried to set the place alight, but were unsuccessful.

Wesley Sheffer said: “It’s not easy to live in fear. There is no help from the police, who keep losing dockets and fail to investigate the attacks,” he said.

Sheffer and his family have even resorted to living at a relative’s home after fears that the gang might return.

Local councillor Aubrey Snyman said D’Sa is being targeted because of his strong views on social issues.

http://www.dailynews.co.za/index.php?fArticleId=4211891

Arsonists Attack Activist’s Flat

January 18, 2008 Edition 3

SHARLENE PACKREE and TROY MARTENS

Community activists in Wentworth have vowed to stand up against intimidation after three separate arson attacks on their homes in less than a month.

In the latest incident, South Durban Community Environmental Alliance chairman Desmond D’sa’s home in Austerville was set alight in an arson attack this morning. This has been confirmed by the Wentworth police.

D’sa told the Daily News he was startled by a loud bang just after midnight and he rushed to the kitchen.

“When I looked on the floor, I saw a plastic bottle with a cloth sticking out of the top. It looked like the cloth had been soaked in petrol,” said D’sa.

He sustained burns to his arms and face while trying to put out the blaze. Firefighters extinguished the fire, which damaged his front door and kitchen appliances.

D’sa has been a vociferous opponent of drugs and crime in the community, and his views against environmental pollution in the south Durban basin area are well known.

Cynthia Billings, who lives in the flat next to D’sa, described how her flat was torched in December and that police were investigating a case of arson.

D’sa said a third community activist’s house was set alight earlier this month. He said he would not be intimidated and would continue to fight for the rights of the poor in the community.

Local councillor Aubrey Snyman visited D’sa’s home this morning and was vocal about the anti-social behaviour in the community.