Just days before the UN Climate Change Conference in Durban South Africa (COP17) residents of KwaMashu Above (an area north of Durban) had their houses destroyed and all their possessions and food stolen from them in an unlawful eviction. There were told by local officials that they were making the place look untidy for visiting dignitaries and so were being moved on. The next night, as members of this community crouched in the rain under plastic bags in the spaces where their houses used to stand, Mwempi Caka caught a chill and died soon after. While UN delegates slept in their plush hotels, this community of grandmothers, mothers, daughters and sons slept each night on the floors of the kind neighbours that surrounded the empty land where their own houses once stood. These are their voices.
For more information and to support Abahlali baseMjondolo (Shack Dwellers) movement visit: http://www.abahlali.org