Families city doesn't want

Thirty-one families claiming to have been pushed from pillar to post and branded an embarrassment are begging the eThekwini municipality to give them shelter.

Describing themselves as the "unluckiest people" in Durban, the families were evicted from Siyanda, north of Durban, ahead of the 2010 soccer World Cup to make way for the construction of a road.

They settled in KwaMashu but were evicted last year after being told that their road-side homes would make the "township look bad" during the UN's COP17 climate change conference.

The angry families claim they have been told to vacate their houses by the end of this month.

Since their eviction last year, they have been living in corrugated iron shacks in KwaMashu's K section.

Some families have managed to cram 13 people, including young children, into a two-bedroom shack.

"Red Ants guards accompanied by heavily armed security men destroyed our homes.

"They told us that we were going to embarrass the township and the city during COP17," said Busi Mdlalose, who had lived in Siyanda for three years before the eviction in 2010 and then relocated to KwaMashu.

"We were told that COP17 was about the environment and we were affecting the environment by building houses on a vacant land."

The evicted families claimed that when they asked their councillor, Lucky Mdlalose, for help during the eviction they were told that they must "learn to sustain" themselves.

"All we want is to get a better place to live. We are part of South African society with rights to a decent shelter. Is that too much to ask from our leaders?" said Thuli Shandu.

Shandu, who is blind, shares a room with eight people, including her three young children.

As part of last Friday's Global Day of Action - created by climate-change activists in support of the KwaMashu community - activists from the US, India, Belgium and the UK phoned Mdlalose to argue the shack dwellers' case.

Activists protested outside the South African embassy in London.

"I called [Mdlalose] because no one should have their home stolen from them, especially not by their own government," said Anna Collins, of the UK.

Mdlalose said he was aware of the evictions but denied that they were related to COP17.

"I was informed by the area committee that there were people illegally occupying land and erecting makeshift structures," Mdlalose said.

"Some home owners complained about the mushrooming of shacks near their houses.

"I then held a meeting with these people and we agreed that it was wrong for them to build shacks all over the place.

"We also reached an agreement, because the city is working hard to eradicate shacks. We agreed to find an alternative plot of land where we will relocate them.

"As of now, we haven't identified a plot but we are looking."