Cape Town’s hidden informal settlement

Flamingo Heights informal settlement in Lansdowne, Cape Town, has roads and running water. Photos: Ashraf Hendricks

Tucked away in the heart of Lansdowne in Cape Town is the little settlement of Flamingo Heights, established in 2014. On the face of it, this is an informal settlement with a difference: there are wide paths between shacks, and each home has its own running water, sanitation and electricity connection. But residents say life there is tough.

Some people have been living there, on land owned by the City of Cape Town, since 2005. In 2014, people living near the train station and under Lansdowne Bridge were moved there by what was then the City’s “Vagrant Unit”.

In 2014, the City “reblocked” the settlement, reconfiguring the shacks into clusters and creating space between them for vehicles.

Today about 400 people live there, say residents, in 100 homes. Most are unemployed.

Each house has a flush toilet and running water, but residents say drains are often blocked and there are rats.

“The City used to provide us with those pills to kill the rats but they stopped about six years ago, now we have to kill them ourselves,” said resident Jamie-Lee Sauls, an unemployed mother of three who shares a home with her mother.

Residents also complain about electricity outages. Xanthea Limberg, the City’s Mayco Member for Energy, said since complaints to the ward councillor, a team had visited the settlement and was attending to faults.

Ward councillor Mark Kleinschmidt said he regularly visits Flamingo Heights. “We act on these as soon as possible,” he said, but with flooding, repairs sometimes take time.

It’s a perpetual, ongoing challenge,” he said.

Sheila Siedras was one of the first people to move to Flamingo Heights. She has seven dogs and two cats.

Resident Sheila Siedras was among the first people to be moved to the settlement. She runs a tuckshop from the three-room shack which she shares with her seven dogs and two cats.

Standing in her kitchen while her pot comes to a boil on the stove, Siedras tells GroundUp that “Life is very deurmekaar (chaotic) here”.

“It’s a mixture of drug dealing, domestic violence, electricity problems and just bad things that young children are exposed to,” said Siedras. She said there is a lot of alcohol abuse and fighting.

The Little Paradise crèche in Flamingo Heights cares for 25 children.

Flamingo Heights has a crèche called Little Paradise, which caters for about 25 infants and children up to the age of six. Manager Charlene Anthony said it is a no-fee crèche, funded by the founders who also provide food for the children. People have been generous donating old toys, she says.

The chair of the Flamingo Heights committee, Lenrika Dekoker, says she has been living in Flamingo since 2005 and says things have improved since the re-blocking.

“We didn’t have many basic services back then; we had chemical toilets and only two standpipe taps for the whole community. Most of the structures were in a bad state, there was serious flooding when it rained, and there were no roads, so emergency services could not come through.”

“Ambulances had to wait in the road outside the settlement and then the patient would have to be brought. The re-blocking has made it much easier now because we have roads and our structures are fire-proof from the outside,” said Dekoker.

There are more than 100 homes, according to residents. Most people living there are unemployed.

Dekoker said Flamingo Heights, in her opinion, was much better than informal settlements in the Cape Flats. “We do get affected by crime which mostly happens in surrounding areas like Lansdowne, and yes, people drink and sometimes that leads to violence, but all in all, crime is not huge.”

“I think as residents in Flamingo we are quite lucky, there is a lot of unemployment but the help we get is amazing. Sometimes people come to Flamingo to give out food to the community, on holidays like Easter we get fish, and the little children get party packs.”

“The only thing that I would say Flamingo desperately needs are programmes that will uplift our youth,” said Dekoker.

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