Kennedy Road, Durban

Kennedy Road is a shack settlement, in the suburb of Clare Estate in Durban, in the province of KwaZulu-Natal in South Africa. It was founded by a Mr. Mzobe in the late 1970s. The land on which the settlement was founded is steep and runs down between the Municipal Dump and the 6 lane Umgeni Road. At the time of the occupation the suburb of Clare Estate was reserved, under apartheid legislation, for the exclusive use of people of Indian descent.

The initial occupation was covert with shacks hidden in the bush and people being careful not to be seen entering or exiting the bush on the land. But the early 1980s the settlement had attained critical mass and the occupation became overt.

Various attempts to forced people off the land were aresisted and by the late 1980s the City accepted the permanency of the settlement. [Maharaj, B. 2002, 'Segregation, Desegregation and De-racialisation: Racial Politics and the City of Durban', in B. Freund & V. Padayachee (eds), [http://books.google.com/books?id=lhe1AAAAIAAJ "(D)Urban vortex: A South African City in Transition"] , University of Natal Press, Pietermaritzburg.] A development NGO linked to big capital, the Urban Foundation, began the upgrade and installed electricity and toilets and built a hall.

However in 1995, a year after the end of apartheid, the decision to allow the settlement to become permanent was withdrawn. Since then there has been constant pressure for people to accept relocation to the rural periphery of the city. Thus far this pressure has been successfully resisted.

From the mid 1980s the Kennedy Road Development Committee was affiliated to the United Democratic Front. From 1990 it was affiliated to the South African National Civics Organisation (SANCO). On 19 March 2005 around 800 people from Kennedy Road blocked Umgeni Road and held it against the police for 4 hours resulting in 14 arrests. On this day they announced their break with SANCO. In October that year they Kennedy Road Development Committee, together with Committees from 11 other settlements, announced the formation of a city wide movement of shack dwellers known as Abahlali baseMjondolo. [Pithouse, R. 2007, [http://abahlali.org/node/2814 'The University of Abahlali baseMjondolo'] , "www.abahlali.org", 24 October. Retrieved on 24 August 2008.] By the end of 2007 the movement has members in 40 settlements in the cities of Durban, [Pinetown] and Pietermaritzburg and smaller towns like Port Shepstone, Tongaat etc. 14 of these settlements are affiliated to the movement and are know as the autonomous settlements. In the other settlements the movement has branches with a minimum size of 50.

The settlement is now home to approximately 7 000 people. Many marches and other protests have been organized against the City Council by residents of the Kennedy Road settlement and it has often been occupied by the police and the army. S'bu Zikode, the head of the shack dwellers' movement Abahlali baseMjondolo lives in the settlement. It is also home to the famous is'cathimiya choir the Dlamini King Brothers, 3 churches, a resident run creche, a resident run library and a football team.

Bishop Dladla of the Zionist Christian Church lives in the settlement.

The Kennedy Road settlement has been terrorized for years by the racist, violent and often outrightly criminal policing of the notorious Supt. Glen Nayager of the Sydenham Police Station. His activities have extended to having himself filmed while torturing members of the community. [Lynch, S. & Nsibande, Z. 2008, [http://abahlali.org/node/3245 'A list of key incidents of police harassment suffered Abahlali baseMjondolo'] , "www.abahlali.org", 27 January. Retrieved on 24 August 2008.]

References

External links

* Bryant, J. 2008, [http://www.abahlali.org/files/RREPORT_VOL106_BRYANT.pdf 'Towards delivery and dignity: Community struggle from Kennedy Road'] , "Journal of Asian and African Studies", Vol. 43, No. 1, pp. 41-61.