shack dwellers

Thousands of Nelson Mandela Bay residents are being uprooted from the communities they grew up in, moved across town and dumped in areas with no schools, clinics, sanitation or public transport.

Enticed by the lure of a government home, more than 2000 shack dwellers have been relocated to Motherwell’s NU29 area during the past 11 years.

Yet despite promises of a better life, not one of them has moved into a proper house yet.

Instead, they have been abandoned and forgotten by the authorities who promised them a better life.

People all over South Africa have been asking the leaders of Abahlali baseMjondolo as to why the government continues to ignore the demands of the shack dwellers. They have been asking why after all the marches, statements, reports and meetings the Kennedy Road settlement continues to get burnt down through the endless shack fires. They have been referring in particular to the recent Kennedy Road shack fire on Sunday, 4 July 2010 that took four lives, leaving more than three thousand people displaced and homeless.