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File image: An informal settlement in South Africa.
Civil society organisation, Abahlali baseMjondolo, says there are no basic services and the unemployment rate is high in informal settlements.
This comes as its members are gearing up to mark Unfreedom Day on April 27, contrary to the rest of the country that will celebrate Freedom Day.
The socialist shack dwellers’ movement says it will host Unfreedom Marches around the country, to highlight the plight of people who live in informal settlements three decades after democracy.
The Organisation’s General-Secretary Thapelo Mohapi says, “We the people who are living in shack settlements have not received any services whatsoever from government.”
“There are no basic services in the informal settlements, there are more poor people in the informal settlements, the unemployment rate is high in the informal settlements. We are banks for votes, we’re only important when elections come.”
Mohapi adds: “We are washed away by floods, we are burned alive by fire, in the shack settlements. It’s a very inhumane condition, so we can never fool ourselves, and escort a few men and women who are political elites, who claim that we are all free, when we are not.”
PODCAST | Interview with Abahlali baseMjondolo on SA fm’s The Morning Brief on informal settlements:
