WORLD NEWS

Stench of shanties puts ANC on wrong side of new divide

From Jonathan Clayton in Durban

THE stench of human waste hits like a punch in the stomach. Rotting rubbish divides rows of flimsy shacks. Halfnaked children play alongside pools of stagnant green filth. A heavy chain and padlock blocks entry to a long-drop toilet, one of seven in the ratinfested Duncan Road shanty town, which is home to about 7,000 people. "They filled up long ago and the council has not bothered to empty them. People now go to the bushes. There is no human dignity here," said S'bu Zikode, 31, a petrol pump attendant who lives with his four children

in a leaking hillside shack overlooking one of Durban's main highways. Mr Zikode shot to prominence late last year as a co-founder ofthe Shack Dwellers' Association, a movement that has shaken the political landscape of South Africa. The organisation quickly drew support from more than a dozen other shantytowns. Angry demonstrations over the lack of basic services from the local municipality, run by the African National Congress (ANC), triggered copycat demonstrations across the country. Twelve years after the end of apartheid, many of South Africa's sprawling townships

and "informal settlements" are again in turmoil. In scenes reminiscent of the protests against white minority rule, effigies of mayors have been burnt. ANC officials have been shouted down and chased from rallies. Residents have blocked roads with burning tyres and overturned vehicles. Riot police have fired teargas. The issue has dominated the national campaign for next Wednesday's municipal elections, and, for the first time, the ANC can no longer depend on the support of those it professes to champion. Indeed, for all the ANC's promises, the poorest...