South Africa: The Bisaser road revolt

This is how the local newspaper, The Sunday Tribune, describes the confrontation that took place this past Saturday, 19 March 2005, between the police and the Bisaser road residents: “Amid burning car and tractor tires and flaming, lice-infested mattresses, Durban police battled for more than four hours yesterday to disperse a crowd of about 750 protesting shack dwellers who had barricaded a major arterial route into Durban.” The chief issue is that land promised for the development of housing is suddenly being dug up to be developed for business use. Amongst the secondary issues (sanitation, water, electricity, health) is the question of the Bisaser road dump – which has stayed open as part of the World Bank carbon trading scam which is giving people nearby cancer.