Table of Contents

Foreword Raj Patel Introduction Miloon Kothari This is the hard truth - Aunty Jane Roberts Eviction Anthea and Theodore Williams and family The Bush of Evil Lola Wentzel and family Court case of two innocent people Jolene Arendse Untitled Zuleiga Dyers You can still get married on the pavement Qiyaamudeen Alexander Geagte Lesers/Dear Reader R Levember To the minister of housing Shamiela Fataar The fire and the struggle on Symphony Rd Dawn, Gerald, Nicole (13 years old), Courtney (7 years old) and Dominique Hendricks (1 year and 3 months old) Letter to the former Minister of Housing, Lindiwe Sisulu Mr and Mrs Davids Our Struggle on the road for 14 years Mr Abdulgaliek Samuels and Family (Faiezah, Abdia, Shakeera, Ismail, and Tashreeq) Stragel [Struggle] Mr Saal and family The Pavement and the TRA dwellers Aunty Badru In South Africa you have to fight for a house Doreen Lewis The world seen through a struggling soul - Miss L. Jansen Do you think that is right? Jeanette J Smith Struggle for Freedom, Struggle for a Home Jacolene Faroa A South African senior citizen Matilda Groepe To all my fellow comrades in da struggle: Don't Give Up!! Comrade Vicky Hier het ek geleer om te deel/ Here I've learned to share Florrie Langenhoven My Struggle Sharon Coleridge en famielie Sharon Coleridge and family The struggle Alfred Arnolds What is rightfully ours is houses Bahiya Claasen A Gift From God Rene Onverwag, and the Onverwag Family Aluta Continua! Kareemah, Zainodien, Madenieyah, Zaid, and Mushfeekah Linneveldt and Shanur Davids Struggle for Houses Valerie and Melvin Solomons We didn't lose faith in staying in the struggle Lee-ann Erasmus and the Erasmus family These conditions are not for elderly people Cynthia Twigg Survival and my Struggle Amanda Engelbrecht Here I've learned C.D. Small To Whom it May Concern Bonita, Dwayne and Ashwin Seconds, and Daniel Mathys Living on the Pavement: My Life on Symphony Way Mina Mahema We won't tolerate any violence in our road Jerome Daniels My Story Mncedisi Shaun Plaatjies We deserve a house! Sarita, Nigel, Kurtly, Shane, Charl, and Gabriel Jacobs Ons 'bly of gly' huis/Our 'Stay or Go' house Nicolene Manewel Ongetitled/Untitled John (Daddy) Pa, Jeniffer (Mommy) Ma and Sandonique Schultz (Daughter) Dogter, ouderdom 16/John (Daddy) Pa, Jeniffer (Mommy) Ma and Sandonique Schultz (Daughter, 16 years) Dogter You can light your candle when you want to Nicholas Reynolds I choose to take a stand Arnold Hendricks-Van Wyk Our sea of troubles here in Symphony way Sharon Payn From the poor man to the rich man to conciliate the grounds of where we come from Conway Payn How the pavement changed our life Bonita, Kaylin, Cameron and Dowayne Jubelin, and Henry Kammies My Silver Lining Shamiela Mullins and family To Whom it May Concern Miss M. De Jongh Our Days of Struggle Willem and Susan Hendricks Die pad is toe/The road is closed Kashifa, Sedick Jacobs, Zakeer and Sedeeqa Jacobs/ Kashifa, Sedick Jacobs, Zakeer en Sedeeqa Jacobs Postscript: Symphony Way is not dead. We are still Symphony Way. We will always be Symphony Way. Symphony Way Anti-Eviction Campaign press release

About the Author

Symphony Way Pavement Dwellers are shack-dwelling families in Cape Town who were moved into houses but soon afterwards evicted again. They organized the Symphony Way Anti-Eviction Campaign and write about their experiences and their struggle for justice.

Reviews

A magnificent and moving account of a long and hard-fought struggle. . . . a clarion call for basic human rights and for human dignity. A powerful insider s view into the landscape of poverty in neoliberal South Africa. Michael Watts, professor of development studies, University of CaliforniaBerkeley"

An extraordinary collection of writings from the spirit of resilience and strength of the collective which lay bare the betrayal of the people in post-apartheid South Africa. Sokari Ekine, author and award-winning blogger"

As middle-class African journalists and activists, we thought we were telling the tale of the poorest, but here we are surpassed. Their truths, spoken in their sharp vernacular tongue, fly straight to the heart of the matter. Michael Schmidt, journalist and author"

The Symphony Way occupation was a real attempt at an insurgent and tenacious solidarity against an increasingly exclusionary and brutal society. It was an experiment at the outer limits of the innovative and courageous grassroots militancies that have emerged in South Africa in recent years. This book is also an experiment at the outer limits of radical publishing. All the tenacity, beauty, pain, desperation, and contradictions that breathe their life into any popular struggle haunt the pages of this searing book. Richard Pithouse, department of politics and international studies, Rhodes University, South Africa"

This book carries not only the suffering of the Symphony Way communities but of the millions of poor people of the world. . . . It is through this courage that we can all hope for the real struggle that intends to put human beings at the center of our society. S bu Zikode, president, Abahlali baseMjondolo Movement, South Africa"

"A magnificent and moving account of a long and hard-fought struggle . . . . a clarion call for basic human rights and for human dignity. A powerful insider's view into the landscape of poverty in neoliberal South Africa." --Michael Watts, professor of development studies, University of California-Berkeley

"An extraordinary collection of writings from the spirit of resilience and strength of the collective which lay bare the betrayal of the people in post-apartheid South Africa." --Sokari Ekine, author and award-winning blogger

"As middle-class African journalists and activists, we thought we were telling the tale of the poorest, but here we are surpassed. Their truths, spoken in their sharp vernacular tongue, fly straight to the heart of the matter." --Michael Schmidt, journalist and author

"The Symphony Way occupation was a real attempt at an insurgent and tenacious solidarity against an increasingly exclusionary and brutal society. It was an experiment at the outer limits of the innovative and courageous grassroots militancies that have emerged in South Africa in recent years. This book is also an experiment at the outer limits of radical publishing. All the tenacity, beauty, pain, desperation, and contradictions that breathe their life into any popular struggle haunt the pages of this searing book." --Richard Pithouse, department of politics and international studies, Rhodes University, South Africa

"This book carries not only the suffering of the Symphony Way communities but of the millions of poor people of the world. . . . It is through this courage that we can all hope for the real struggle that intends to put human beings at the center of our society." --S'bu Zikode, president, Abahlali baseMjondolo Movement, South Africa