Outside the ICC Again : IMC-SA

Hundreds of protestors from indigent communities around Durban and KwaZulu-Natal at large, picketed outside the International Convention Centre, Durban, the venue of the KwaZulu-Natal land and housing summit from mid-morning until past lunch time this Monday. The demonstrators came from a diverse milieu – there were the shack dwellers of the Abahlali BaseMjondolo demanding democratisation and land and housing in the city, then the flat-dwellers of Wentworth with their more modest call for upgrades to their abodes, present were also the recently radicalized Unit 9 Chatsworth land invaders, and the balance consisted of the indigent under-housed citizens from throughout the province.

At stake – the future location of their homes or future homes; where their children would one day go to school; their future employment possibilities, delivery of basic services – so in a sound bite … “their livelihoods”. And it was being discussed at this summit, without their input, less still their approval being sought. Their leaders or representatives had never been invited as the land and housing summit was dominated by government officials, elite NGOs, and corporate goons. However, even their token presence, i.e. the picketing outside the ICC, was so unwelcome that over a hundred policemen maneuvered the protesters to a relatively, hidden and inconspicuous part of the greater ICC environs. In fact city manager Sutcliffe, despite his humilation in the high court in February this year, once again issued an illegal diktat banning the march. But this time the police accepted the protestors refusal to have their basic rights denied by Sutcliffe's notorious authoritarianism. As Mnikelo Ndanankulu said, "The police, they have now learnt to respect bahlali". The picketers were not demoralized in the least, as they toyi-toyied, and chanted protest songs while dorning blood red T-shirts with the slogan “Talk to us … not about us”.

The arrogance of the government officials in Durban is legendary and today was a day like any other as KZN MEC for Mike Maphai refused to take the protesting communities’ memorandum of their demands. If fact, he was reported to have told a delegate sent by the protestors that “… we can’t build match boxes next to 3 million rand houses”. The delegate knew immediately what the MEC was referring to, and it concerns the Abahlali BaseMjondolo’s demands for low cost houses to be built in the middle class neighbourhoods of Sydenham, Reservoir Hills and Clare Estate where they have lived for many years, work, send their children to school and so on.

This protest comes ahead of a small one held last Monday at City Hall where Abahlali demanded that the Durban city officials in the housing department be more forthcoming in releasing information as per our constitution. The demands are yet to be acted upon.

When the protestors' allocated time was over, they gathered their banners and boarded their hired taxis for the journey home. At least just for a brief moment the delegates at the summit, in their suits and pampered surroundings where rattled by the presence for people they usually only see doing their ironing or as a bleep on the computer screen somewhere on the income distribution graph.