Victory in the Settlements

PIC: ciaranichonaill on Flickr.com

By Ayanda Mhlanga

The Abahlali baseMjodolo Movement (ABM) were fighting for the scrapping of the Slums Act but had lost the case in Durban High Court in January this year to Judge Shabalala’s ruling. The Mercury article painted the ruling as almost ridiculous because the information provided made me side with the ABM. It’s a good thing they appealed, because Deputy Chief Justice Dikgang Moseneke of Constitutional Court ruled that section 16 of the Slums Act was unconstitutional in October.

That first judge probably wasn’t too keen on shacks, understandably, they are not that pretty to look at and they were in his province; but people live there and people deserve respect, and a home.

The story seems to have been covered by one media agency, SAPA; this is disappointing as media did not really interact with the issue so one has little to base opinion on, because it is all recycled into the various publications.

The members were also involved in attacks by a mob during one of their meetings. An attack that occurred, coincidentally, 2 weeks before their appeals case was to be heard. There were certain allegations about who could have been behind the whole situation; the suspect being ANC members, which was dismissed without much thought. My intent is not to point any fingers but pose a question. I cannot imagine why a mob would attack an organisation that was trying to stand up for the people living in settlements made of those who co-inhabit with them. Can you?

Maybe I'll Get Famous

By Ayanda Mhlanga
I like writing stories, the made up type that don’t need much verification that make the reader want to smile, or cry or jump up in excitement. I do not see how this would pose too much of a problem if I am to become a journalist; these days it seems I would only have to reconstruct press releases, wait for people to phone in and send a few emails to survive in this line of profession, I’ve learnt that you need not leave the office in the construction of a newspaper except perhaps to get the pretty pictures that will shock the consumers into purchasing that particular newspaper, for the most part I could probably sit by the phone and write stories that push unfortunate ideologies all day.

Now that’s precisely my problem with the system, it is warped. I feel there is so much left unsaid, and a few too many things left unseen, no one sees the moonwalking bear. I used to be optimistic or naive and think I, or any person really, had the power to change it all, but as the days go on, the course (Journalism 1) progresses, and my years grow nearer to their closing I tend to lose hope; now I’d just be happy if everyone was aware of what’s going on and trying to make their own decisions.

I, myself, am really keen on feature journalism because it allows one to dig a bit deeper and express a bit more love, features are a bit more colourful and a lot more fun, and I also feel it is a lot less cutthroat than hard news; I struggle with cutthroat. I also enjoy magazine journalism, but not the fluffy ‘how-to’ side, I like interesting literature that challenges the reader, the piece of literature that challenges me most would have to be my Bible and I don’t plan to match that. Just something to brighten up someone’s day or make them think about aspects of life a bit more, things that record life and in turn make life a bit more interesting.
The wonderful ladies who are co-authoring this blog with me seem to be on round about the same page as me on this, and seem really excited about changing perspectives and questioning the status quo, which is great because we are young and are hence allowed to have foolish ambitions and sometimes goals set by such ambitions are met and sometimes they aren’t, but a girl can dream.

I’m talking about when one doesn’t merely want to survive in the journalism profession, but to shine. And maybe I’ll get famous as the girl who dared to change the system, or maybe I won’t.