1 December 2012
Abahlali baseMjondolo Press Statement

Protest at Government Failure to Assist Shack Dwellers After the Storm

The huge storm that hit Durban last night has left several communities reeling. People's homes have been flooded and some have been washed away.

As always shack dwellers we are more vulnerable to these disasters than most other people. For years we have been trying to engage the eThekwini Municipality around both their failure to take adequate measures to protect shack dwellers from disasters like fire and floods and to offer proper support to shack dwellers after disasters. But the municipality only gives its time for the people for political issues and not ever for issues of development.

Update: The Arnett Drive settlement in Reservoir Hills and the Richmond Farm transit camp were also flooded and in KwaMashu sewer systems and a big pipe burst causing serious damage. People are protesting in a number of places in KwaMashu.

Monday, 28 November 2011
Abahlali baseMjondolo Press Release

Floods, destruction and despair in the shacks

Abahlali welcomes the world in our country, our province and in our city. We also welcome progressive delegates to our homes, our settlements and our flooded shacks.

Anti-Eviction Campaign Press Release
Thursday 16 July, 2009

More than ten Cape Flats informal settlements hardest hit by last week's floods did not receive any emergency assistance at all from the City of Cape Town or the Provincial Government. This include Tambo Square, Barcelona, New Rest and Gxa Gxa Square in the Gugulethu area. In addition to this, the city continues to ignore the plight of vulnerable backyard dwellers whose homes have been flooded.

Many AEC communities as well as communities other poor settlements are now in dire straights as a result of recent floods. In Khayelitsha, spurred on by massive floods in their communities, many Abahlali baseMjondolo settlements have closed down Landsdowne Road in protest against the government's refusal to provide the poor with land or housing.

Floods Rock the City

Joint AbM and AEC Press Statement
24 September 2008

Gugulethu -- About 50 residents from Thambo Square informal settlement have been displaced from their homes to a local community hall as a result of flooding in their shacks (Cape Town's heavy rain this winter has left a lot of people homeless in the City.

The devastated group early this morning marched to the office of their local Department of Social Development seeking immediate relief or intervention such as building material for their shacks, plastic to put over their roof, blankets and a temporary sleeping place. However all they were able to get from Social Development was an unpleasing response. People were told that the ANC government had nothing to do with their situation and they must go to DA. When trying to question the unpleasing response by government, instead of receiving a proper report, the police were called to intimidate and threaten the residents. Residents then went back to their flooded homes in Thambo Square informal settlement.