Struggle for Shelter
Script
30’
02’30 V/O
In a poor suburb of South Africa an angry crowd shouts abuse at council officials. They are removing the possessions of a family to be evicted from council property. The evicted man grieves as he watches men walk away with his belongings. Tensions run high and police watch on nervously.
03.02
First speaker:
You have poor people, indignant people, impoverished people, people who haven’t got food on their plates…now you are going to take away the roofs from their heads. And where do you expect these people to go? You are just compounding their indignity. When you move in with the security guards and dogs and guns…Now if this is not fascist brutality, what is fascist brutality.
03.34
Second speaker:
Those evictions that took place, they were evictions that have to take place, because at all costs, we are definitely not going to allow people to invade our homes, and we are definitely not going to allow our homes to be used for shambeens, drug-lords, and evil brothels – we are definitely not going to do it.
04.03
Radio Excerpt (Downtown Durban)
04.19 V/O
Many properties in Durban lie abandoned. It would save many families from being homeless if they were allowed to live in abandoned properties. They could help maintain properties, which are falling into disrepair. The problem remains that the Durban council is paranoid that empty properties become exploited by the wrong sort of people. But should this attitude exclude the needy.
04.55
Evictee (male)
On the ninth of February they came to evict us, and we were the first people that were evicted out of our flats.
05.00
Evictee (female)
When we saw them we were too shocked …there were so many people just coming to evict one family.
05.05
Evictee (male)
We were inside, so my neighbour was on the outside here. He told them: “Excuse me, don’t spray tear gas here, they have a small baby there.” They didn’t want to listen to him. So about seven to eight guys rushed him into the house… with a gun and everything.
05.19
Evictee (female)
I can distinctly remember the three of them, they are still in my dreams…because they were absolutely violent. They took out every single thing…not even a cup, not even a plug was on the wall to say that this was our home. Whatever they found that was valuable to them they stole. They stole my money, my jewellery…I’ve got nothing left of my jewellery that I keep in a little box for safe keeping. I tell you, they did what they felt like.
05.45
Man grieving.
05.53
Mayor
I make no bones about it, the people who use their dwellings for shambeens and drugs, and to destroy the family community around them, I want them evicted. By hook and by crook I’ll push them out as fast and hard as I can and I did that.
06.08
Man in red shirt
Well I mean, the kinds of people that we know that they are trying to evict are certainly not those kinds of people. And even if those labels were applied to people, we would argue that that should follow due process, that these people should go to the courts, that there is some committee that could hear the complaints.
06.24
Mayor
What we have we have evidence and proof, and every case gets put on a table and everyone says “What do we do?” the system is taken by all communities.
06.37
Woman in black shirt
The council are a lot of bloody liars…we don’t know where they get all this information from. They are decent, responsible people; they have children that they care for, and that is why they have come and lived in this area. They can’t afford to pay high rentals, and today, if you’ve got a family of four, you can’t even get an outbuilding to rent. There are no drug runners as far as I’m concerned in these families.
07.10
V/O
The fact remains that the poor who struggle to make enough money to exist are he ones that become victims.
07.24
Councilor
We have two types of evictions…one is when people do not pay our rentals and build up huge arrears. That’s the first category. The second category is when people illegally apply for council accommodation, linked with unseemly behavior. These four families in question were taken purely for illegal occupation and the other issues were incidental to the whole process.
07.49
Woman in black shirt
From my point of view I don’t think they are illegal. I think they have the right to a home.
07.54
Councilor
They occupied these dwellings well after 5th June 1996, and consequently did not qualify for authorization.
08.02
Evictee
Why should they say we are illegal when we went to pay out the arrears and things like that… they never told us we were illegal at that time. The reason I came to stay in …with my uncle is because my uncle is unwell and suffers from seizures any time of the day. His neighbors are proof of how many times he falls and hurts himself in his legs and hands, even his head… the neighbors actually help carry him and bring him up. So since he knows I am alone he approached me and told me he cannot manage because he has to go and live in Phoenix and them there were the families where he can stay at home and have somebody to look after him. I cannot remember what happened that day when they came for the eviction.
08.45
Evictee uncle
They brought gas and they said “Get out – you mustn’t stay here”…they were chasing us out!
08.54
Woman in black shirt
The fact that they are living in family member’s homes…they are not really illegal. They are living there with the legal tenants with their permission, and with permission from the council as well. Now suddenly they come and tell them that they are illegal.
09.18
Evictee
We stayed in the shack here for exactly two years, …and the roofs were leaking, our bed got wet and then all of us, the five of us in the family slept in one bed. We had no toilet facilities, no running water, and no electricity. The toilet facilities and the water we needed the most because of my child’s medical situation. The only reason I had to move my family here was because of the snakes. We had a lot of snakes…at one stage we had the snakes actually crawl onto the beds.
09.50
Councilor
They were told clearly when social workers were investigating the case when they were living in those squatters, that they have to apply for a medical priority and that does not give them the right to illegally invade…they invaded our accommodation. So, by this family illegally invading our house, they basically breached council policy, and we cannot accept that.
10.15
I came to this house, this house is empty, for over two months. I decided the situation as we were living was in fact unhealthy for my children and for my wife…no toilet, no lights, and no water. I decided this house was empty, I came here, I take this house, thinking that there was water and a toilet.
10.39
Councilor
We do appreciate that there may have been a sick child there, but that particular dwelling was allocated to another family, who wanted to move in the same week that this family occupied. So what this invasion did is deprive another family who were waiting on our waiting list for fifteen years, to move into their own accommodation.
11.00
Woman in black shirt
That is just an excuse the council is using. If you look at the Bersonard family, they have an application to Metro Council, which is fifteen years old. If you look at the Jankipasard family, they have an application, which is twelve years old. They also are entitled to housing. How can you say that people on the waiting list should have houses when people who have applications and are on the waiting list are now being evicted.
11.23
Man in red shirt
I think it’s here in this area where the government’s policy of not wanting to assume responsibility for the poorest of the poor, is starting to bear fruit, in a sense. They are starting to stigmatize the poor as criminal elements, where in fact, the way the housing policy is received by these people is criminal.
11.48
Woman in black shirt
By the time they got to the Shamla house the whole community was wide awake because it was midday and everybody was already aware of what was happening there because it was flashing in the news and all of that. People were ready waiting out there.
12.03
Old woman (Indian)
Well, I was just out of hospital, under orders not to move out of my bed…but I realized there was going to be a lot of trouble and there was.
12.16
Man in blue shirt
We had negotiated with the sheriff to give us two hours of time to let our man in court get the urgent interdict to prevent the evictions, and overturn the three that they had already affected.
12.26
Woman in white shirt
He said he will give us a break for twenty minutes and then we will see what happens.
12.32
Man in blue shirt
The sheriff seemed amenable, he said he would call his superiors. He then called Mr. Sopuul, the manager of housing, and Mr. Sopuul told him in no uncertain terms that he had a job to do and he must fulfil his orders.
12.44
Councilor
What these people were calling for was a moratorium on evictions, and as an official, I carry out policy and I implement policy, and I am not going to change policy if the presentations are made in the eleventh hour…I thought it was too late.
12.57
Evictee (old woman – Indian)
So then one day, we are sitting here, chained up sitting on the stairs, and they just came and threw us off the stairs and started firing.
13.06
Evictee (man)
“Move out that stuff!” you know in that aggressive way. Hell broke loose. That was when I got hit with a bullet here on my forehead. A man’s furniture, his assets were trampled while he wasn’t even there. We are humans. We live here. We are not animals. In respect of our incomes and whatever, these are the flats. For the low-income people. In fact these flats were supposed to be given to us a long time ago. Now, we are getting hurt, we don’t know why. We are not criminals. Why must the protection services come with guns… they are coming for a war here. Are you looking at criminals? I don’t think so. We live together here. We love one another. That’s why …those ladies took it upon their own…that they stand there.
14.20
Witness
The Indian women…very very strong, very, very strong.
14.25
Teenager.
I feel very happy what they did to us. We are no longer in an apartheid country, we are in democratic country. They have to protect us. They are bled, we are bled…I think it was a good thing they did.
14.42
Woman in white shirt
When it comes to a problem we can’t throw each other away, we are all so many of a people now. We’ve got to understand one another, take care of people, because in this area, the unemployment is so bad that we don’t even have food for tomorrow. That is how we are living.
15.01
Man in white shirt
Could it be that in fact these are decent people…that part of the city council’s housing policy, is to remove a few people every few months, put in some new people, and in that way say to the public: “We are creating housing”. The other story that we have to believe otherwise is that these communities are involved in a vast conspiracy of storytelling. We will settle this in the courts hopefully. Whatever evidence we have tried to present to the city council, they come back with the same names: Criminal, Drug Lord, shambeen, and we believe that we have truth and honesty and justice on our side.
15.38
Mayor
If the cases are won, there will be chaos throughout the country. Everybody who sees an empty home wants to invade it.
15.44
Female councilor
We fear for anarchy in this country if the magistrates rule in favor of them.
15.50
Old woman (Indian)
This is absolutely absurd, it is nonsensical…there is no question of anarchy. What is happening in Chatsworth, and we hope it happens in every impoverished community throughout South Africa, is the realization of the people of their rights. If democracy is clearly and resoundingly implemented then people will stand up for their rights and they will not allow themselves to be trampled by officials. Or by politicians. Here the politicians are part of the persecutors.
16.29
Man in white shirt
I think at the level of housing policy, if Trevor Bonham took a good look at society, we are already in chaos and anarchy. There are people, whole families, sleeping on pavements. More and more families live in a city with less and less housing. I think that rather than this whole case creating anarchy that pronounces that people should stay in the houses, I think it is Trevor Bonham’s city council’ policy that has created anarchy. A sense of fear in the communities…a feeling that: “who could knock on your door and get rid of you?” The resources would be better spent if they started to develop a set of housing policies that starts to look after the truly disadvantaged of the society rather than putting people on the streets.
17.34
Women around the outdoor tap discovering that there is no running water.
17.40
Woman in black shirt
Actually they are cutting off people’s water…they are cutting it off completely. Twenty of our tenants had their water cut off. The council has not found any solution to the issue, but now we are burdened with another issue – that is people’s water being cut off. Christina here had her water cut off completely, she has a family of about nine…she is also a sick woman, and now she has to do without water in the heat like this. The council is not being just to our people. They use evictions, they use cutting off of electricity, and now they are cutting off water, which is a basic need. They say that if people do not pay their accounts, which they have no money to pay, they will cut of their water. They are not even investigating people’s situations.
18.22
Cockerel crowing
18.24
Woman who has had her water supply cut off (Christina)
Every day, four o’clock, early in the morning before the children go to school at nine, I call them and my sister and my small son, to pick up water.
18.36
Female councilor.
What we are saying, is that people should pay for services that we are giving to them.
18.41
Woman in black shirt
We are actually now planning to take Christina’s case as a test case to a high court, because we feel it is a legitimate case. She needs water, she is a sick woman and has kids in her house. And she has not got the money to pay because she is not even getting a state grant.
19.00
Laughter and celebrations over reconnected water.
19.20
Indian woman speaking to public
The only way we will be able…first of all you’ve got to know what your rights are. We have a bill of rights; you have a right to a house; you have a right to water; you have a right to these basic amenities.
19.35
Mayor
It is very hard…They are telling people to block evictions, stand in the way, don’t allow them to do this, we will fight them, take them to court. So the people actually are being fired up…they are being revved up into saying that “these are the enemies; these are the people who are still living in the apartheid days are coming to remove you. So actually they are trying to ride on the backs and popularize themselves by using these people. This is one of the oldest tricks in the book and one of the easiest things to do, and I will say it is one of the lowest things to do.
20.07
Woman in black shirt
You know I must tell you that is utter nonsense as far as I am concerned.
20.12
Unknown speaker
The CCG came here, to chuttle, to campaign for the ANC in the national election.
20.21
Indian woman
When we said: “How can we vote for your former oppressors?” they said to us: “We are not concerned about our former oppressors, we are concerned about our present oppressors.”
20.33
Woman in black shirt
They went back with one though in mind, and that was that people are suffering and that is why we cannot blame them for voting for the wrong party.
20.41
Indian woman
We had a meeting with the council before the council took a resolution that it wouldn’t talk to us at all. Now the only response they made in that meeting was that if these people can’t afford to pay their rents, then they must be relocated. This was the policy of the Nationalist government…to relocate, relocate, and relocate. They picked up populations, huge communities…relocated them, uprooted them and never rooted them again. This was what we were hearing from council – that if they couldn’t pay the rent, then they could be relocated.
21.22
Man in suit
Generally it is painful to evict people anywhere in South Africa. But the reality is that the law is being broken. If people do not pay rents…it happens everywhere in the world.
21.41
Mayor
Our real objective is for all council houses, we want to give them ownership.
21.50
Female councilor
And most of the people are getting their houses free of charge.
21.54
Mayor
So that’s a Christmas gift, it’s the gift of a lifetime.
21.58
Female tenant
I don’t think that I will agree to buy the flat because they must do the whole flat up. The walls are cracked through, the water runs inside here. Water comes through the pipes in the back. I pay my rent…right through I pay my rent. I don’t owe the council not even a cent. So council is trying to do something for us, we are dying slowly in this place. We are dying slowly.
22.29
Female Councilor
When it comes to the upgrading of their units, unfortunately we don’t have funding for that.
22.37
Woman in black shirt.
It’s no excuse for the rich council to be making, when they have 1.5 billion rand in a reserve bank.
22.53
Female Councilor
We have to pay the transfer cost of about 600 rand to transfer the units into their names. Over and above that they have to pay their entire arrears.
23.03
Indian woman in bright dress
We can’t pay and yet they will increase the rent every six months where are we going to get the increase when we can’t pay what we pay?
23.10
Female councilor
For those people who really cannot afford to make ends meet, once they have been given all sorts of assistance, as a last resort they will have to be relocated to starter homes, that is the Greenfield developments.
23.27
Indian woman in bright dress
We came as young girls to this place, now we are old, then when we have no food to eat, we go asking for bread: give bread for us or give bread for my children or for my niece or nephew. But we want our house…we are not giving it to anybody else. As far as I am concerned the city council can go to hell. They can never ever throw me out. I can…chop them for it.
23.48
Cheers and applause from crowd
23.50
Woman in black dress
In the apartheid days, these flats were known as low cost housing, as starter homes. And they were given to people who lived below the poverty line. How can you now suddenly after thirty-six years ask people to move out of the starter homes, into starter homes that are being prepared now? I don’t understand – there is a big confusion going on. I thought people should be moving into better homes. You are pushing them back into poverty.
24.17
Mayor
I accept that kind of criticism, but we always say to them they give us no alternative. They have a comfortable alternative , so what I am saying is they are flying a kite.
24.32
Woman in black shirt
We have made some suggestions to them. I think that they should start adopting those suggestions. We suggested that they decrease the rental – they charge us only the rent and not all the other charges like maintenance and administration costs and all of that.
24.44
Man in red shirt.
We literally have people who can’t pay, because they are unemployed. Ironically, many of these people are unemployed they are victims of particular macro-economic policy that ensured that clothing workers I their tens of thousands were thrown out. Surely the answer would be to create more and more housing for indigenous people in this town. But the city council is doing the opposite. They are getting rid of housing. They are getting rid of rental stock. They are getting rid of people who are indigenous onto the street.
25.10
Female evictee
We go to the courthouse today but they most probably won’t meet the date that we get our results. Are we legalized to stay or will we have to be evicted? I pray very very hard that God be on our side. I am asking the Judge: “Please, wherever you are, please consider our children.” I am shaking till I here whether it is good news or bad news. But I am hoping for good news because I cannot go on the streets. The disaster, the life that we lived in the shack was tormenting.
26.02
Woman in black dress, now in a blue jacket.
There is a shortage of judges in this court over here. I don’t know whether the judge is scared or what, but it seems like he is not pitching up. We have just been told that they are finding difficulties in getting a judge to actually sit on this case.
26.16
Female evictee
I am very happy…I have got more chance to stay. I don’t have that fear until the judge comes and says that I am prepared to fight the case. I am very very happy.
26.27
Man in red shirt now in beige, inciting crowd
There were five magistrates in the building, our lawyer tells us. But none of the magistrates wanted to sit on the case. If we were rich people that came to court, there would have been a magistrate here.
26.38
Chanting from crowd
26.43
Lawyer
There is no justice…it’s a frustrating process. The people here are victims of not only poverty, not only of human rights abuses and violation by the council, they’ve now fallen victim to the slow turnings of the court system. It’s a long struggle, and the sweetest victories are the ones that are the hardest fought.
27.22
Original Indian woman
The constitution grants our people certain basic human rights. A right to a house is one of the rights.
27.33
Man in suit.
Constitutional rights are also limited. Limited by the availability of funds and resources.
27.42
Original Indian woman
We are continually being told that the government can do as much as it has resources to do it with. Whether we don’t have enough resources for the poor people; whether we are living in the kind of country in which the resources are reserved for the wealthy and the well to do. Whether our commitment is to the middle class and no commitment at all to the poor people…it’s a very sorry state of affairs. One can only cry for it, and using having faith in words: “We must cry the beloved country, and cry and cry and cry.” And those of us who can shout, and stand up and shout, regardless of how many years we have spent in this life, we must get up and shout.
28.34
Credits.