Kennedy Road is an informal settlement in

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(eThekwini), in the province of

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in South Africa. Formed in the late 1970s or early 1980s, the settlement was mentioned by the

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(ANC) after the end of

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but amenities were not improved. The site is mostly not connected to sanitation or electricity. Dissatisfaction with local councillors led to 2005 protests including a road blockade, out of which the shack dwellers movement

Abahlali baseMjondolo Abahlali baseMjondolo (AbM, , in English: "the residents of the shacks") is a socialist shack dwellers' movement in South Africa which primarily campaigns for land, housing and dignity, to democratise society from below and against xenophobia. ...

(AbM) formed. In 2009, an AbM meeting was attacked resulting in two deaths and a court case. More recently, the municipality has improved facilities and promised to relocate inhabitants.

History

The Kennedy Road informal settlement is located on a steep hillside between a large rubbish dump and the Clare Estate, a suburb of

(eThekwini). Reports state that the site has been occupied since the late 1970s or early 1980s. Various attempts to force people off the land were met with resistance; by the late 1980s, the city had accepted the permanency of the settlement. After the end of

, the

(ANC) mentioned Kennedy Road by name as it pledged to improve informal settlements across the country. In the

1999 South African general election General elections were held in South Africa on 2 June 1999. The result was a landslide victory for the governing African National Congress (ANC), which gained fourteen seats. Incumbent president Nelson Mandela declined to seek re-election as pr ...

, inhabitants voted for the ANC. Most residents worked in the informal economy as cleaners or construction labourers. By the mid-2000s, there was a crumbling community hall and a self-managed creche, but the city had stopped emptying the latrines and only five were working on the entire site. The lack of decent roads meant that rubbish was rarely collected by the municipality and there were only five taps with running water. Around 40 percent of the site was connected to electricity, often illegally, which led to frequent shack fires. By 2005, the Kennedy Road Development Committee (KRDC) was pressuring local councillors to improve living conditions and believed it had secured a promise from the director of housing of eThekwini Municipality of extra land. Aoibheann O'Sullivan, an Irish film-maker, produced the 16-minute documentary ''Kennedy Road and the Councillor'' that same year. It juxtaposed claims made by local councillor Yacoob Baig with responses from residents of Kennedy Road.

2005 road blockade

When Kennedy Road inhabitants saw that the land they had been promised was in fact being developed, they became angry. On 19 March 2005, around 800 people from the settlement blocked Umgeni Road and held it against the police for four hours, resulting in 14 arrests. Over a thousand people marched to the police station in

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to demand the release of the "Kennedy Road 14". After 10 days, the arrestees were all released and permission was sought for a legal protest march, which occurred two weeks later on 13 May 2005. Over 3,000 people from Kennedy Road and other informal settlements marched to demand better amenities; this second march led to visits from city officials but no actual improvements. By September the latrines had been emptied but no new land was provided. Out of these protests, a city-wide movement of shack dwellers was formed known as

(AbM). As of 2009, the settlement was home to approximately 7,000 people and S'bu Zikode, elected leader of AbM, lived in the settlement. The Dlamini King Brothers, an isicathamiya choir, also lived there until the 2009 attacks displaced them.

September 2009 attack

On 26 September 2009, it was reported that a group of about 40 people wielding guns and knives attacked an Abahlali baseMjondolo youth meeting. The attackers demolished residents' homes and two people were killed in the resulting violence. The attacks continued through Tuesday 28 September 2009. It was reported by independent local and international academics as well as members of the AbM that the attackers were affiliated with the local branch of the ANC and that the attack was sanctioned by the local police. The attacks garnered national and international condemnation. The Centre on Housing Rights and Evictions (COHRE) in Geneva issued a statement that expressed "grave concern about reports of organized intimidation and threats to members of advocacy group, Abahlali baseMjondolo". The police then arrested 12 members of AbM and put them on trial for offences ranging from murder to public violence, whilst Zikode and other AbM leaders went into hiding. The trial later collapsed. The Socio-Economic Rights Institute of South Africa said that the "charges were based on evidence which now appears almost certainly to have been manufactured". Sociologist Marie Huchzermeyer has argued that the attack on Abahlali baseMjondolo at the Kennedy Road settlement was linked to the movement's successful challenge to the so-called ' Slums Act' in the Constitutional Court.Marie Huchzermeyer, (2011
''Cities with ‘Slums’: From Informal Settlement Eradication to a Right To The City In Africa'' University of Cape Town Press, Cape Town

Recent events

In 2020, as part of its response to the

COVID-19 pandemic in South Africa The COVID-19 pandemic in South Africa was part of the pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). On 5 March 2020, Minister of Health Zweli Mkhize had confirme ...

, eThekwini Municipality planned to relocate inhabitants of Kennedy Road to alleviate overcrowding. In 2021, the municipality claimed it had been unable to aid recent victims of shack fires because workers had been attacked. It assessed that 483 shacks had been destroyed, displacing 781 people, including 135 children. Survivors of the fire told how difficult it was for them having lost possessions such as identification papers and birth certificates.

References

External links

* Bryant, J. 2008
'Towards delivery and dignity: Community struggle from Kennedy Road'
, ''Journal of Asian and African Studies'', Vol. 43, No. 1, pp. 41–61.
The Work of Violence:a timeline of armed attacks at Kennedy Road
Kerry Chance, ''School of Development Studies Research Report'', July 2010
Report on the Attack on Abahlali baseMjondolo in the Kennedy Road settlement
by Malavika Vartak, ''Development Planning Unit of University College London'', 2009 {{Authority control Housing in South Africa Suburbs of Durban Shanty towns in South Africa Squats in South Africa Slums in South Africa Housing protests Abahlali baseMjondolo