The season to be jolly cruel

HERE is no humane time to tear down people’s houses, regardless of whether they are ramshackle, leaky tin-and-nails shelters that barely merit the description of homes.

But taking crowbars to 40 shacks at the Marikana informal settlement in Durban’s Cato Crest just two days before Christmas was particularly heartless.

The most acceptable moment to demolish a shanty is when the occupants are being moved to better, hopefully permanent premises. Doing so in the season of goodwill – without offering them other places to go to – was cruel.

It almost seemed vindictive, allowing the homeless and those who have been fighting running battles with metro officials over housing, to paint it as such.

There can be no doubt these Christmas evictions were meant to signal resolve. The metro authority was ready to render people shelterless and more vulnerable than they already were, even at this time of supposed kindness and consideration.

It seemed to be trying to send a message that the eThekwini metro was no welfare organisation, no soft destination for economic migrants or the destitute. Coming five months before general elections, these evictions reinforced that determination.

The shack dwellers claim the metro has repeatedly violated court orders to stop the destruction. But officials deny this, saying they are levelling new structures not covered by court bans on demolition.

Metro officials clearly fear, with some reason, an unstoppable sprouting of new shacks should they not act. They see the nightmares of a never-ending queue of people demanding free homes, and of a permanent housing backlog.

So the tussle and the misery will go on: cruelty and betrayal of government pledges versus a metro authority drowning in the demands on it.

Municipal bosses, particularly in the country’s metros, are going to be judged largely on how they handled urbanisation and their various housing crises. Which means a dramatic change of gear in the new year for eThekwini housing officials.

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