Since the eThekwini Municipality decided to commit itself to a 'slum clearance programme the City has responded to requests from shack dwellers for information about its plans to the shack settlements with startling authoritarianism and paranoia. For months last year, rumours circulated that the shackdwellers in the Kennedy Road settlement, and other nearby areas in Clare Estate, would be relocated to a R10 billion housing development. Indeed, such rumours were corroborated by the government in English and isiZulu. In that announcement made by Mayor Mlaba at a big media event in November 2005 it was claimed that by the end of 2006, shackdwellers would be moving into their new homes with first priority going to Kennedy Road. No further information came despite promises for extensive consultation. It is now the end of 2006. The shackdwellers have heard not a word.