Film: `A Place in the City' -- A world class city for whom? World Cup tourists and the rich, or the poor majority?

5 July 2010, 14:16
Two people died and 2000 people were left homeless when up to 500 shacks
burnt down at the Kennedy Road informal settlement in Durban, police
said on Monday.

Colonel Jay Naicker said it was unclear how the fire started on Sunday,
but it was thought to have been caused by an overturned paraffin stove
or an illegal electrical connection.

The fire department was investigating, he said.

The fire was the fifth at the informal settlement this year, the shack
dwellers' association Abahlali basemjondolo said in a statement, adding
that 200 shacks were destroyed in a fire there in April.

It said the only reason for the fires was the lack of electricity, which
was a failure by the municipality to provide services.

Abahlali said it held a protest in March during which it raised its
concerns, but had yet to receive a response from the government.

Anglican Archbishop Thabo Makgoba also urged the province and
municipality to responding to residents' housing needs and their other
long-standing concerns.

On Monday, the African National Congress conveyed its condolences to the
families of those who died. - Sapa

Directed by Rehad Desai

Durban International Film Fest

6pm Sun Coast , 23^rd July – Director will be present for Q and A

The Battle for Johannesburg captures the changing face of a city that’s preparing to host the 2010 FIFA World Cup. It’s a tale of property developers vying for sections of the crumbling city with renewed excitement, of a city council determined to create a world class city and ultimately of how this affects the hundreds of thousands of people who have made the city slums their home. There is money to be spent, even more to be made and conflicting interests are at stake. As whole areas around stadiums get a brush up and the middle classes, black and white, begin to move back in, beneath the scramble for property and space is a human story of survival. The eyes of the world are on South Africa. The film raises universal questions such as does urban development have to mean gentrification and is it possible to create a world class city for all?  

Rehad Desai

Uhuru Productions/Tri - Continental Film Festival

Tel  +27 (0)11  334 6138/

 or 011 334 6148/6394

Fax  086 658  7731

10 July 2010

Via cellphone text message

The death toll continues to rise in Kennedy.  

Today at midday two more people became victims to the violence in the settlement during an argument over building site disputes and the unfair distribution of rebuilding materials in the wake of the fire.  The KRDC, in exile, condemns and mourns the killing of fellow victims by other victims. There is a clear absence of responsible, inclusive and democratic leadership in the settlement. These killings are a result of the failure of the ANC leadership that was imposed on the settlement by Willies Mchunu and Nigel Gumde after the violent expulsion of the KRDC. After the fire, and the deep political corruption in the rebuilding process, most community members can tell who is fooling who.

When is the unnecessary bloodshed and killing of the poor by the poor going to stop? When will the residents of the settlement be able to, once again, rule themselves for themselves? When will the settlement, again, be run on the understanding that everyone, independent of political affiliation or origin, has the same rights? When will the poor be able to unite against attempts to weaken us from above by dividing us from above? Until full political freedom is restored to the Kennedy Road settlement these question will remain unanswered and division, violence and counter-violence will continue.

Peace to the shacks, struggle against the power of the rich.

For more information contact:

Nozuko Hulushe (from the internal Kennedy Road AbM Branch): 082 259 5492

Mzwake Mdlalose (from the exiled KRDC): 072 132 8458