KZN Slum Elimination Bill: A Step Back

Living in an informal settlement implies a constant struggle against forces working to eliminate one’s unauthorised and hazardous home. The most pervasive force is the constant threat of fire. It is an almost routine experience, one which residents collectively share in horror, but also with mutual assistance in the urgent rebuilding of shacks. Twelve days into the new year the Kennedy Road settlement in Durban lost 12 shacks.

Another force that shack dwellers have come to deal with routinely is violent eviction by the municipality. Here too, the response from the informal settlement residents is increasingly collective, with solidarity reaching beyond individual settlements. The experience of violence and destruction of homes has fuelled grassroots mobilisation, in particular the formation and expansion of Abahlali baseMjondolo, a Durban-based shack dwellers’ movement. In response to this mobilisation, the authorities appear to have devised a further routine, the ad hoc arrest of community leaders.