Protesters want action for death

Community take baby ‘killed’ by teargas to police

Hundreds of shack dwellers from the Foreman Road settlement in Clare Estate‚ Durban‚ marched to the Sydenham police station with the body of a dead two-week-old baby‚ who they say died when police teargased protesters yesterday.

Abahlali base Mjondolo spokesman Thapelo Mohapi said the baby‚ Jayden Khoza‚ was in a shack at the settlement with his mother when the teargas was released at about 5am.

The community protested earlier yesterday after failing to get a report back from the eThekwini municipality after protests last Monday.

Hundreds of informal settlement residents took to the streets in the area last Monday‚ claiming the municipality disregarded their rights to dignity and ignored their pleas for housing and electricity.

Mohapi said residents were fed up with being ignored by the municipality and were incensed by the “brutality” of the police and death of the baby.

“The comrades in the Foreman Road settlement organised a road blockade on Tuesday 23 May. They organised another blockade this morning at 5am. The police responded by attacking the settlement with fists‚ batons‚ rubber bullets and teargas. Many shacks filled up with teargas.

“Children started crying‚ coughing and vomiting. Residents told the police that they were putting the children in grave danger. However‚ the police continued the attack‚” said Mohapi.

He said it was for this reason that residents were marching to the police station with the baby’s body.

“We have to do this because that is the only language this brutal police force understands. The only crime this Khoza baby boy did was being born to a poor family who lived in a shack. He could have been a president or leader of the country‚ but now he is dead.”

Mohapi said the new administration promised to break with a history of repression.

He said the mayor had failed to fulfil all of her promises.

“We are back to the demand for dignity being met with violence and death.”

The only crime this Khoza baby boy did was to be born poor Thapelo Mohapi ABAHLALI BASEMJONDOLO SPOKESMAN

Nomazulu Khoza, right, is supported by a friend as her husband Receive Khoza watch the body of their two-week-old baby being taken away in a mortuary van after he died during a service delivery protest.

A mortuary attendant carries the body of baby Jayden Khoza, who died while police were dispersing protesters.