Climate change in the shacks

Bandile Mdlalose

Bandile is general secretary of Abhalali baseMjondolo, a shack-dwellers movement representing tens of thousands of people in South Africa. She's taking part in our speaker tour, Africa demands climate justice, which runs from 3-13 October 2011.

Climate change is one of the main issues facing the world at this moment. We all know that when things go wrong, like when there is an earthquake, a flood or a drought poor people are most vulnerable. And usually the response to these disasters is a second disaster for poor people. 

For instance in Sri Lanka the so-called ‘development’ after the Tsunami forcibly removed fisherfolk from their coastal land and gave it to developers to build hotels. Sometimes the attempts to prevent disaster are also a disaster for the poor. In South Africa when it is acknowledged that we are using too much electricity it is not the big companies or the rich that have the police and the security guards kick down their doors to disconnect them. In other countries in Africa, poor rural people are being forced off their land so that it can be used for bio-fuels. Maybe this will slow down climate change but why must it be the poor people in Africa that have to pay the price? 

We did not cause the problem. Climate change was caused by rich industrial countries, especially in America and in Europe.

We are the most vulnerable to crime, to disease and to climate change. And yet the government has privatised the UN climate negotiations taking place in Durban in November, excluding us from them. Even if we do get an invitation it requires finances that we don’t have. Where are we supposed to get the huge amount of money to go and attend workshops about climate change? In this way the government is reserving discussions about climate change for the rich.

Some civil society organisations are just as bad. They keep forgetting that they are not organisations of the people and acting as if they represent the people. It is very important that the organisations of the people – trade unions, community groups, churches and social movements – are fully included in all these discussions. Neither the government nor civil society must be allowed to privatise them.

Climate change can lead to drought or to floods. It is already very difficult to deal with the hard rains in the shacks. Everything gets wet. Everything starts to rot. When the shacks leak some people have to stand up the whole night. If we have no access to clean water and we lack access to a proper sanitation services we end up exposed to diseases that could be preventable. Too much water or too little water will be a disaster for our health.

In most cases when there is a shack fire the government will say that the fire was caused by an illegal connection. Our attempts to survive are shown to be the problem while no one is saying anything about a system that puts some people in transit camps and other people in nice houses. If the climate negotiations are not opened up to the organisations of the people, especially the organisations of the poor, we will find ourselves being blamed for climate change, and how it affects our lives, too. 

Consider diseases like pneumonia, tuberculosis, diarrhea, malaria and HIV/AIDs. I say these are human-made diseases. I say that because people are not suffering from these diseases in the same way in the suburbs as we are in the shacks. The world has been created in a way that is causing some of us to die from so-called natural causes while others are living healthy. 

There are global debates about climate change and there are national debates about climate change. But we only see these debates on tv. We are not invited to participate in these debates. They will say: ‘but who are you to be invited into Mansion buildings’?  

We are known as the dirty, filthy, uneducated and muddy people who can’t be engaged with but just need to be told what needs to be done and to be arrested if we disagree. What about our dignity? We know that they understand and imagine us as those sort of people but our dignity is not negotiable. 

I acknowledge the role that the United Nation played in developing the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). By 2020 shack-dwellers globally must have access to education, water and sanitation and proper housing.

Unfortunately our South African government interpreted it the other way around and said that by 2014 all the slums will be eradicated. 

The KwaZulu Natal Provincial government wants to remove all the shacks and build their own transit camp. I call this the “Government Shack”. What I see from all these high level talks and planning sessions like the United Nations is that we are talked about and yet no one wants to come and engage with us. Our government can even interpret a pro-poor position as a license to attack the poor. Part of the problem is that big institutions like the UN think that they can use millions and millions of Rand in donor money to create their own fake poor people’s organisations that will be tightly controlled by their NGOs and be their good boys and girls. Our government likes this too.

We are already under serious pressure and stress in the shacks. When we lose our loved ones in shack fires and lightning the government does not want to take responsibility for our safety. Yet there are always workshops and meetings that are held without our presence to express our grievances. It is really amazing how many workshops there are to discuss our lives and suffering but you can not find anyone to help you when your shack burns down. 

We as an organisation of the poor can also help to develop our communities. We have great plans for our communities but these are not implemented because our government is distancing itself from us. We are not recognised by the government as people that can think. Most of civil society is exactly the same. As the Anti-Eviction Campaign first said ‘we are poor not stupid’. In other words our problem is that we lack money. It is not that we lack intelligence. And Abahlali has shown us that we were made poor by the same system that made the rich to be rich. 

As we are increasingly affected by climate change it is not the time for the government or big NGOs to make decisions for the people. Instead the people themselves need to be included. I would urge that community based organisations with the support of faith based organization and those few NGOs that are willing to work with the poor to come together and tell the government what needs to be done and what needs to be prioritised first. 

The first priority is that governments must stop taking a top-down approach. As citizens we are at risk from being harshly affected by climate change and we must be able to play our role in identifying what needs to be done.