Veteran Durban cameraman Clive Read’s
documentary, We Came in Spring Carts
is about the conflict between traders of Durban’s Early Morning Market and the
Durban City Council over the proposed development of a mall on the site of the
Market.
“In early 2009, Durban was frantically
preparing to host some of the major FIFA World Cup soccer games to be held the
following year,” explains Read. “The Early Morning Market’s days were numbered.
A private developer together with the Durban City Council proposed to build a
modern shopping mall on the market site. An estimated 5,000 people directly or
indirectly employed by the market would lose their jobs. With the FIFA deadline
looming the City Manager together with the 2010 Programme Head decreed that the
market be demolished to make way for an up-market shopping mall with the usual
major commercial tenants as well as a taxi rank. This had to be completed
before the games commenced. A vague promise of relocating the market traders to
a new site was met with fierce resistance from the stallholders.
“After South Africa won the bid to host the
2010 Soccer World Cup, the country pulled out all the stops to impress FIFA and
their worldwide audience. When traders at Durban’s one hundred year old fresh
produce market were told they had to make way for a new development tied to the
event, they stood their ground. The Council fought back with lockouts, rubber
bullets and intimidation. “We Came in
Spring Carts” documents the trials and tribulations of these humble people
to where they are today,” Read continues.
We
Came in Spring Carts will be broadcast nationwide
on DSTV # 263 (Cape TV) at 22h00 on June 13, 2017.
# 263 is available across all DSTV bouquets
including the basic Easy view.
It has also been accepted in a film
festival in India. For more information see the Facebook page: Facebook: We Came
in Spring Carts or visit www.cliveread.co.za/market.html
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