Western Cape Anti-Eviction Campaign

Photographs by independent photographer Antonio Angelucci.

The Heart of Struggle

by Antonio Angelucci

I just got the news that the people living on Symphony Way will soon be evicted.

After being evicted in February by the Province from houses just across the street, the Municipality of Cape Town is now attempting to evict these same families for a second time. Very soon everybody will know when the eviction of the community will take place.

When I think about it, my mind wonders back to my first meeting with the Delft community. The weather was shit, the pouring rain was our soundtrack, but despite the rain and bouts of hail, the families there were busy organising the community in anticipation of their solidarity exchange with the Joe Slovo community.

Bunches of wood were being brought into the street from the nearby bush. Suddenly, around 7p.m., the lashing sound of the rain was disturbed by the crackling and intermittent thuds of the handmade communal fire. This sweet backdrop agitated against the coercive tyrant that was the wind and rain until, slowly and firmly, it cut into the obscurity of the night. It was then that the oppressive rain was wordlessly replaced with a background roar, and the suffocatingly cold wind was substituted with warmth from the people huddling around the fire.

I think of the fire’s little sparks that shine within the eyes of the people huddling around it. When I recall that soon someone high up will decide on the fate of Symphony Way, I can clearly envisage that the fire that fights against the rain will also shape the future of this defiant community.

And I hope that the mighty fire will not be blown out by a bitter winter’s rain…