Saturday, 4 February 2023
Babonga ukuthi basaphila, yize ukushona kwabasondelene nabo nomkakhelwane, nobuhlungu ababhekane nabo besinda ngokulambisa bebhekene ngqo nokufa kubashiye nezilonda, kodwa manje izakhamizi ezihlwempu zaseThekwini kumele ziqhubeke ngemuva kwezikhukhula ezimoshe kakhulu.
Glad to be alive but burdened by the deaths of loved ones and neighbours as well as the trauma of their own narrow escape, Durban’s impoverished residents must pick up where the floods left off.
The lauded ANC leader would be disheartened by what is happening in his home town, says one resident. Many no longer vote, disillusioned with false promises and only scraping by.
Sociopolitical conflict persists in the area because mining operations go hand in hand with filthy lucre that divides communities while devastating their natural environment.
A shortage of burial plots and viable land for new cemeteries has been worsened by the pandemic’s death toll, forcing people to buy rural land on which to bury their loved ones.
The socialist commune Abahlali baseMjondolo built from the eKhenana land occupation in Durban has won international admiration and solidarity, but it now faces a new wave of repression.
In a long-abandoned cemetery in the south of Durban, shack dwellers felt they had little reason to vote for councillors who are so absent that they may as well be ghosts.
The Msunduzi Local Municipality has been dysfunctional for years. Many residents doubt that elections will change anything, so they band together and attend to problems themselves.
Sisanda Gumede is but one of the many killed in KwaZulu-Natal because of her sexuality. Relatives, residents, activists and local government say it has to end.
The late Elizabeth Mkame dedicated her life to helping the marginalised and impoverished. She served tirelessly not only during some of the worst times of apartheid, but also in the fraught years since.
Institutions of learning should act decisively against those in their midst who act in a homophobic manner. A teachers’ union has taken up the cause on behalf of a bi-gender educator.
Members of Abahlali baseMjondolo arrested and in some cases held for six months plan to launch a civil suit against the state for unlawful arrest and malicious prosecution.
The shack dwellers’ movement says it feels vindicated that the case against three of its members has been dropped, but warns it remains under siege by the state.
Some residents in areas affected by the July riots have lost their livelihoods, have to travel far to get to the jobs that remain and walk long distances to unaffected shopping centres.
Global demand for timber and a huge increase in deaths means the soaring cost of a decent burial is beyond the reach of many impoverished South Africans.
Places of learning in KwaZulu-Natal were seriously damaged during the recent tumult in the province.
In Madlala, the police and army broke into homes in an operation to retrieve stolen goods. After they left, a woman lay dead in a pool of her blood behind a shack.
Life is tough for the thousands who sleep on the streets of KwaZulu-Natal’s major port city. While some organisations try to help, police and hospitals often don’t treat them as kindly.
Crematoriums, funeral parlours and cemeteries were forced to close, leaving the families of those who died during the unrest to live with their bodies.
What was once a point of contention became a place of help and relief for the residents of a suburb in Durban, proving that humaneness crosses boundaries – real and imagined.
Although companies affected by the riots are working round the clock to get supplies to shops, South Africans are facing long hours in queues to get basic staples to their families.