Our sadness on UnFreedom Day

For the poor in South Africa, there is no freedom.

Today from 10am till 2pm, the movements will come to QQ Section Informal Settlement for an UnFreedom Day rally. QQ was the victim of a huge shack fire just before Christmas in 2010 so the location is fitting for our Shack Fire Summit.

The Anti-Eviction Campaign, Abahlali baseMjondolo, the Backyarders, the Landless People’s Movement, and other community of people living in poverty throughout South Africa are not going to celebrate Freedom Day. Instead, we are going to mourn it. The 27th of April, to the poor, is a day of mourning.

We live in shacks, in other people’s backyards, in rotting council homes and other urban and rural ghettos. But its not only about where we live or what services we receive. UnFreedom Day is also a call for dignity. Because we are poor, the government treats us as though we are less than human. This is why we are forced to hold UnFreedom Day – to asert our right to dignity.

Today, our focus will be the scourage of urban informal settlements: The shack fire. For the past 17 years of ‘democracy’, our communities have been ravaged each and every year by easily preventable shack fires. The solution to shack fires? Simple: houses and electrification now!

We demand special attention from government for our communities (especially our children) which are victims of shack fires. We also demand statistics from government as to the extent of our victimisation from these fires. We demand a moratorium on the selling of land to rich foreigners from Europe and the US and for that land to be given to us for the building of houses.

For more information, contact:

Mncedisi 0785808646

For directions to QQ section, call:
Mzonke Poni @ 073 2562 036 or 083 4465 081
or Mthobeli Qona @ 076 041 0057