Lindela Figlan, vice president of the Shack Dwellers Movement in South Africa, will speak in Edinburgh today, Saturday, on “Land and Housing in the City”.  The meeting will be at the re-arranged venue of Out of the Blue, on Dalmeny Street, at 7pm.  Lindela will describe the struggle of some of the poorest people in South Africa to win access to land and to basic rights such as provision of water, electricity, sanitation, healthcare and refuse removal.

The Shack Dwellers have hit the headlines because of their resistance to forced evictions.  When the government has wished to use land occupied by shanty towns for commercial developments the residents in the movement have refused to move, insisting on the right to a home and to land.

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