Community to march against port expansion

DALTON hostel dewellers and residents from the Ematsheni informal settlement will join forces with local and environmental organisations in a joint protest against the port expansion programme.

Protesters will march from King Dinizulu Road (Botha’s Gardens) to Pixley Ka Seme (West) Street, from 8am to noon, on Saturday, 29 March, to take a stand against the port expansion programme.

Hostel dwellers were informed of the plans to expand the port at a meeting held at Dalton Hostel recently. According to Des D’Sa from the South Durban Community Environmental Alliance, it was clear from the blank faces of the hostel and informal settlement dwellers, gathered at Ematsheni, the Dalton Beerhall in Sydney Road, that community consultation regarding the contentious Durban Port/Petrochemical Expansion Project with the more than 100 000 strong sector of the city’s population, remained a figment of the eThekwini Municipality’s collective imagination.

The meeting, hosted jointly by uBunye Bamahostel, Dalton Hostel leaders and the residents of Ematsheni informal settlement, featured speakers such as D’Sa, Vanessa Black of EarthLife Africa Durban, Sizwe Shiba of uMlazi Unemployed Peoples’ Movement, Arnia van Vuuren of BirdLife Port Natal and special guest speaker, Themba Mchunu from the National Union of Metalworkers of South Africa.

Zweli Vusizweni, uBunye Bamahostel chairperson, outlined a 40 year struggle against political manipulation and factionalisation that continues, to date, to rob hostel residents of their lives and general security. He expressed frustration over hostel dwellers’ exclusion from port development plans and pointed out that hostel residents remained second class citizens. He also raised concern over serious environmental and health risks associated with the project, the release of asbestos into the environment if old buildings were demolished and the impact of significantly elevated pollution levels from an expanded petrochemical industry.

The general feeling of frustration and dissatisfaction deepened as speaker after speaker outlined plans for the Durban port expansion which would have a significant impact on the already difficult lives of all present. Hostel dwellers listed crèches, real service delivery, decent jobs, an end to historic discrimination and initiatives to address gender-based violence as urgent priorities.

The 200-plus residents of the Ematsheni informal settlement said they have no access to sanitation, social services or support organizations and faced daily indignities and dangers associated with living in an area riddled with the drug whoonga, gangs and criminals. They said refuse collection appeared to be non-existent, stagnant water lay in reeking pools, while at night, the smoke from indoor cooking fires thickened the air – the “Clean-Up Durban” Campaign was clearly not meant for places such as Ematsheni.

D’Sa explained the type of jobs that would be created by the port expansion project would be mainly temporary, menial and would not provide skills acquisition. He informed the audience that developments flowing from the port expansion were likely to engulf small local businesses – the sole source of employment for many in the area – and exacerbate the unemployment crisis instead of alleviating it, contrary to what was being claimed by port developers. He went on to describe that an enlarged port would increase the number of mainly cheap Chinese imports, while South Africa’s raw materials would flow from the country for beneficiation elsewhere.

Sizwe Shiba explained how the port expansion was likely to worsen the housing crisis as people were likely to be displaced, with no, or insufficient compensation, as living conditions worsened during the construction phase.

In a PowerPoint presentation Vanessa Black of EarthLife Africa Durban produced maps that illustrated how hostels were to become ‘human buffers’ between increased toxic industry and vast logistics parks. The effects of significantly elevated air pollution levels on hostel residents who already suffer a high incidence of TB were cause for concern and hostels were likely to be heavily impacted by the significant increase in heavy-duty truck traffic and its associated air and noise pollution, and social ills such as drugs, prostitution, human trafficking and increased crime levels.

Mthembiseni Thusi, uBunye Bamahostel spokesperson and Dalton Hostel chairperson, said: he was against this development and resolved to encourage all hostel dwellers to join other organisations participating in the protest march planned for Saturday.