Housing

Lwandle residents to SANRAL: where are our possessions?

Lwandle residents who have been rehoused after being evicted from SA National Roads Agency land in June complain that their possessions have been lost or damaged.

Pharie Sefali

News | 21 October 2014

Hangberg residents demonstrate outside court

Hangberg residents demonstrated at the Wynberg Magistrate’s Court on Thursday in support of Santonio Jonkers who made his second appearance in court.

Mary-Anne Gontsana

News | 17 October 2014

Lawyers to sue over uncovered drain

Lawyers representing the Bardale resident who fell into an uncovered drain in October last year say they are still processing the legal action.

Johnnie Isaac

News | 14 October 2014

In the business of building shacks

Sheffield Road, one of the busiest roads in Philippi, has become one of the city’s best-known places to buy a shack. Here, builders make a living providing affordable housing for township residents.

Joyce Xi and Mary-Anne Gontsana

Feature | 14 October 2014

Drain claims second victim

Residents of the informal settlement in Bardale have accused Baseline construction company of negligence after a man fell into an open drain, injuring his leg. This is the second incident in a year.

Johnnie Isaac

News | 13 October 2014

Hangberg man to sue police

The man assaulted by police at his home in Hangberg last week is preparing to bring a civil claim against the police. Meanwhile, Hout Bay’s police commissioner has said that neither he nor his staff knew of the covert operation by the National Intervention Unit.

Daneel Knoetze

News | 10 October 2014

Masekane: a crisis in the heart of Woodstock

A hacking cough comes from the motley group of people huddled together in a flimsy shack alongside the railway line near Woodstock’s industrial area. It could be from the smoke from the fire; it could be from the cigarette smoke that fills the shack – or it could be tuberculosis.

Ian Broughton

News | 10 October 2014

Lwandle commission recommends reforms to prevent illegal evictions

The Commission of Inquiry into the Lwandle evictions has recommended changes to legislation to prevent illegal evictions in future.

Daneel Knoetze

News | 8 October 2014

Week in activism

This week we look at the SERI’s workshop on law related to eviction, the social dialogue for the gay and lesbian community, TAC’s march for better services and IOM’s public debate on human trafficking.

Thembela Ntongana

News | 8 October 2014

Hangberg on a knife-edge

Four years after the riots of 2010, Hangberg is on the edge of rebellion. Protests after the arrest of resident Santonio Jonkers engulfed the neighbourhood last week and a traditional leader has warned of impending bloodshed. GroundUp finds out why the 2011 Peace Accord between the community and the authorities seems to be in tatters.

Daneel Knoetze

News | 8 October 2014

Shackdwellers celebrate after City eviction squad backs down

Shackdwellers from Philippi East’s Mangaung informal settlement cheered after they successfully faced off the City of Cape Town’s Anti-Land Invasion Unit (ALIU) on Wednesday.

Daneel Knoetze

News | 2 October 2014

Khayelitsha toilet audit finds “dire” results

One in four of the Khayelitsha public toilets, which are supposed to be cleaned by the City of Cape Town's janitorial services, is not working, a social audit by the Social Justice Coalition has found.

GroundUp staff

Feature | 1 October 2014

Another Abahlali baseMjondolo member assassinated

Shortly after returning to KwaZulu Natal from the Abahlali baseMjondolo (AbM) Western Cape relaunch, Thuli Ndlovu, a branch chairperson in the shackdwellers’ movement, was gunned down in her shack.

Daneel Knoetze

News | 1 October 2014

Media reports on protest action lack depth and context — media monitor

Palls of thick smoke hung over the N2 mid-September 2014, after protesters from the farming town of Grabouw, some 20 kilometres from Gordon’s Bay, barricaded the national highway with burning tyres. Rubber bullets flew and canisters of teargas exploded as the police met protesters head on.

Mandy de Waal

Analysis | 30 September 2014

Apartheid geography and murder in Cape Town

Building a socially and racially integrated Cape Town will decrease our murder rate and other violent crime, writes Zackie Achmat.

Zackie Achmat

Opinion | 30 September 2014

Abahlali baseMjondolo relaunches in Western Cape

Abahlali baseMjondolo’s Western Cape branch relaunched at the Sweethome Farm informal settlement on Saturday. Re-elected chairperson Siyamboleka James spoke to GroundUp about the movement’s hopes to expand in the city, to renew negotiations with council for accountable service delivery, and about why there is no prospect of them working with Ses’khona People’s Rights Movement.

Daneel Knoetze

Brief | 29 September 2014