What is the Price of Education?
A Look at the Inefficacy of School Fee Policy on Kennedy Road

Saren Stiegel
Supervisor Fazel Khan, University of KwaZulu-Natal
School for International Training
South Africa: Reconciliation and Development
Spring 2006

We are so poor, but we don’t know that we are so poor.
There is no access to knowledge...
They don’t know that the policies don’t apply to us. The people in Pretoria are too high to learn about the experience of the informal settlements.
-S’bu Zikode

What we have said is that we understand your economic plight is low but we make an appeal to them to give something to our school fees. Because at

Facing Uncertainty with Unity
Lives and livelihoods of shack dwellers in Motala Farm

Lisa Fry
Advisor: Richard Ballard, UKZN
School for International Training
2006

Acknowledgements

I would like to thank Richard Ballard for advising me during this project. He was instrumental in providing contacts and gave me direction when I got lost in the overwhelming amount of information. I would also like to thank the community of Motala Farm for allowing me to visit, and thanks to all who were surveyed. Special thanks go to Mrs. Shamitha Naidoo, Miss. Lewisa Motha, and Mr. Bekhi Ngcobo; this project would not have been possible without their guidance and insights. A final thank you is to Emily, the intern at Legal Resources, who kept me updated with information about changing court dates.

Internal & External Activism: Working Together at Kennedy Road

by Laura Huss
Spring 2006

I prepared a study to look deeper into the community of Kennedy Road and what is being done by those who live there. Be it the red, spray-painted numbers on the doors of the shacks or the growing numbers of people having to dwell in Kennedy Road, what can often be overlooked is the truth and reality of the situations of the humans, the individuals, who live in these shacks and who are labeled by the numbers and statistics. In an attempt to look into the lives of some of these individuals, it is necessary to see what it is they are doing for themselves to better the lives of their selves and their neighbors. So while the government is not providing houses for its citizens, the communities are raising awareness, and simultaneously furthering their daily needs.

TOWARDS A POOR PEOPLE’S MOVEMENT? A SURVEY OF DURBAN ACTIVISTS’ VIEWS ON STRUGGLE, UNITY, AND THE FUTURE

November 2006

(Download the attachment for the fully footnoted version)

Jessica Harris

Introduction

In 1994, apartheid came to an end with the election of ANC candidate Nelson Mandela to the office of President under the campaign slogan, “A better life for all.” Yet, nearly 13 years after the ANC’s 1994 victory, unemployment in some parts of South Africa is nearly 50 percent, and many thousands are living without housing, electricity, or water. These conditions, combined with the co-option of many of the “old avenues of opposition” (ANC, COSATU, SACP, etc) into the new government, gave rise to a new generation of social movements in South Africa.