Wasting the Nation.indd - Groundwork

Chapter 6: Down at the dumpsfighting for all of us, no one wants to live next to a smelly dump” [quoted in Erionet al 2008]. It didn’t look like that in Kennedy Road where the approach mandatedby the World Bank contrasted with that of the environmental activists. “We invitethem to the presentation here in the hall so that we can be together. They didn’t come.They have their meetings in places we can’t go to. They don’t invite us but they alwaysrepresent us,” said Zikode [quoted in Patel 2008]. Abahlali now insists that others“speak to us, not for us”.Lindsey Strachan, the DSW manager who drove the project, held an open meetingwith the community. On his own account, he told them 45 jobs would be created andthree bursaries offered for children from affected communities to study engineering.People in the community understood that there were to be 50 bursaries for youngpeople and that ‘affected communities’ referred to Kennedy Road. This fitted very wellwith the manner in which Kennedy Road was responding to the formalising processon the landfill generally. They recognised, says Zikode, that they needed to acquirethe skills, to “have what it takes”, to insert people into strategic positions to ensurethat the community would benefit from developments on the site. They were alsopromised cheap or free electricity and 5 to 10% of the profits were to be ploughed intocommunity upliftment.But the promises were broken. Strachan moved on and his successors at DSW toldZikode they knew nothing of them. After construction, the project created just sixjobs – all highly skilled. Three bursaries have been awarded, but not to people fromKennedy Road who heard nothing of the awards until after the fact. And City Manager,Mike Sutcliffe, now says that the ‘community’ that will benefit from the profits is theDurban community, not just the Kennedy Road community. “We were used,” saysZikode. “They even offered us free busses to protest in favour of this project … todamage those who oppose this project … Where was the whole Durban communitywhen they made us fight for this dump?”The open confrontation with City authorities, sparked by the broken promise onland for settlement, has had major consequences. Abahlali is now organised in shacksettlements across Durban with the participation of some 30,000 people. With respectfor all people as its core value, it has insisted on a practice of democracy that recogniseseach person as having an equal right to speak and be heard. The clash marked the endof participation as pretence, as a ritual of democratic inclusion, acted out as much byKDRC as by the politicians, while the City managed the real business of economic- 148 - groundWork - Wasting the Nation