Crossmoor shackdwellers march on city demanding housing, water, and toilets

About 500 people from the Chatsworth community of Crossmoor marched on city hall today in demand of housing, water and sanitation. The community is insisting that the city provides immediate access to water and toilets for the more than 300 families that have been living for nearly 12 months without either.


The memorandum outlining the plight of the shack dwellers was meant for the eyes of City Manager Mike Sutcliffe. Yet Sutcliffe was nowhere to be found.

Visven Reddy and Paris Singh, both Chatsworth councilors, came forward to accept the memorandum, but the community refused to hand it over to either of them. Both councilors, they insisted, had been contacted numerous times and knew the issues well, yet had done nothing to rectify the situation.



The lively crowd resolved to wait for someone who would take their demands seriously. Finally eThekwini's Housing Department Head, Couglan Pather, arrived to accept the memorandum.

After a heated discussion, Falakhe "Fundise" Mhlongo told Pather that the community will give the city seven days to respond to their demands. If after seven days there is still no water and no toilets, they will connect their own water and make the streets their toilets.

They cannot wait any longer, he insisted.



Part of the Crossmoor settlement has a case in court after the city tried to forcibly evict them, leaving many homeless for months. Another portion of residents came to the land in Crossmoor after being forced out of the nearby Bottlebrush settlement while it was being upgraded.

Udaka

Gcina Shange rocks it in a durban shack settlement. Our latest endeavour as From The Well productions. Udaka means 'mud' and the song talks about coming from the shacks....

Blocking the G8- Ten days in Germany

Just returned from the protests in Germany against the G8. We successfully blockaded a few of the major roads, caused some good mayhem, and were able to form links with autonomous movements all across Europe. An amazing experience. I will write a full reflection in the next few days with a few more pictures from the event. Seeing the millions of cracks, or 'the million bee stings' John Holloway was calling it, was inspiring, even if in some ways the politics of the North that found most expression here might not have real resonance with the South, I think some of our everyday practices are more alike than we think.