Occupying Umlazi: Hesitant Steps Towards Political Ideology in a Durban Township

Abstract

Umlazi is considered the second most populated African township in South Africa, after Soweto. Located in southwestern Durban, Umlazi has long been a site of community movements, especially during apartheid. Umlazi's Ward 88 was a site of political revival in 2012, a time when ideas unified people and motivated them to pursue a common goal. The name of those ideas was ‘Occupy’, following a film screening of the 2011 Occupy movement. There are a variety of lessons from assessing several weeks of protest marred by state violence, followed by a Ward Committee election won by the Occupy movement, followed by uneven access to development resources. The ebb and flow of ideology is one such lesson: it is a necessary part of moving from local to global, to address both deep problems and the politicians who sustain them.