Housing

Floods as storm hits Cape Town

Low lying areas of Siqalo on Vanguard Drive, close to Mitchell's Plain, flooded yesterday. The heavy downpours reminded Capetownians why the Mother City was named "The Cape of Storms".

Armand Hough

News | 5 June 2014

Floods as storm hits Cape Town

Low lying areas of Siqalo on Vanguard Drive, close to Mitchell's Plain, flooded yesterday. The heavy downpours reminded Capetownians why the Mother City was named "The Cape of Storms".

Armand Hough

News | 5 June 2014

Miserable day for people who lost homes, but baby rumoured to be dead is alive

It’s cold and raining in Cape Town tonight. Ice particles formed on the ground outside the Nomzamo Community Hall in Strand where hundreds of residents, whose homes were demolished over the last two days, are sheltering.

Pharie Sefali and GroundUp staff

News | 4 June 2014

Videos from Strand demolitions

Here are two short video clips from the demolitions of people's homes that took place in Strand yesterday.

Adam Armstrong

News | 4 June 2014

Community desperate as their homes are demolished

Hundreds of people were left homeless at Nomzamo settlement in Strand on Tuesday. Shacks were smashed down while their owners watched.

Pharie Sefali and Adam Armstrong

News | 4 June 2014

Accusations fly as Strand homes demolished

“The law is the law” said a spokesman for the South African National Road Agency Limited (SANRAL) yesterday as hundreds were left homeless in the rain after the demolition of their shacks on SANRAL-owned land near Strand.

Barbara Maregele and Adam Armstrong

Feature | 4 June 2014

Calm returns to Ocean View after violent protests

Calm has returned at Ocean View following violent protests, which erupted on Thursday over the Mountain View Housing Project.

Johnnie Isaac

Brief | 2 June 2014

Risking their lives is a daily routine for Kossovo residents

The people of Kossovo exist on the margins of unguarded train tracks. Their children are at risk. A lack of service delivery and poor sanitation makes dire conditions worse.

Dudumalingani Mqomboti

Opinion | 14 May 2014

Hangberg: mixed reaction to new housing development

For the first time since a violent clash between residents and law enforcement in 2010, development of new housing is proceeding in Hangberg, Hout Bay. 142 new rental units are being built.

Barbara Maregele

News | 8 May 2014

Elandskloof 18 years after restitution

The Elandskloof community, forcefully removed from their land in 1962, was the first successful restitution case in post-apartheid South Africa. Yet, the way the process has unfolded, has left several community members feeling angry and frustrated, 18 years after their historic victory.

Joshua Maserow and Jason Jardem

News | 14 April 2014

New owners accuse provincial government of shoddy development

Dream homes have become nightmares for several residents of a government-housing development known as Fountainhead. Situated in Blue Downs the development is a joint partnership of the Western Cape Department of Human Settlements and Motlekar Cape.

Johnnie Isaac

Feature | 31 March 2014

MK veterans and Upington 26 murder trialists claim exceptionalism

In Upington, 40 four-roomed RDP-size houses reserved for ex-political prisoners and MK veterans were occupied in the course of 2013. None of the occupiers have to date paid for municipal services and some are subletting their properties.

Selby Nomnganga

News | 19 March 2014

Landmark eviction judgment in Cape High Court

The Prevention of Illegal Eviction From and Unlawful Occupation of Land Act (PIE) was meant to be a clear break with the many pieces of legislation the apartheid regime used to legalise the forced removal of black people from their land.

Zenande Booi

News | 14 March 2014

How the state delivered PR instead of services to Madibeng

Public outrage followed after protestors died in January while demonstrating against problems with water service delivery in Madibeng. Until then the state’s actions in Madibeng produced PR, but failed to lead to any meaningful engagement with those directly affected by the failures of the municipality.

Koketso Moeti

Opinion | 26 February 2014

Back to the land: an interview with Constance Mogale

“This is my passion -- what I’ve known half my life,” fulminates Constance Mogale, the director the Land Action Movement of South Africa (LAMOSA), from her fifth floor office in Khotso House, Johannesburg.

Joshua Maserow

News | 25 February 2014

Less than 2km of Upington street paved after a year

An expanded public works project in Upington to pave three streets of 1.8km is incomplete a year later and no account can be given of the project by the Department of Public Works, the local municipality, or the responsible councillor.

Selby Nomnganga

News | 5 February 2014