Housing

Church group assists overcrowded city shelter

It's 7:30 on Monday evening and the Youth Solutions Africa shelter for the homeless in Salt River is abuzz.

Barbara Maregele

News | 2 September 2015

Langa residents and police clash over houses

People who live in shacks and backyards burnt tyres and rubbish earlier today in Langa. They alleged that other people have jumped the waiting list for units in a new block of flats, leaving them without homes.

Masixole Feni and GroundUp Staff

Brief | 1 September 2015

City must re-serve eviction notice to Khayelitsha residents

Western Cape High Court Judge Babalwa Mantame has instructed the City of Cape Town to “re-serve” the eviction order granted against Newcastle Informal Settlement residents.

Barbara Maregele

Brief | 1 September 2015

A tale of two houses

A few kilometres away from five newly built houses, 46 year old Thokozani Zondi lives in a wooden house in Nhlazatshe in Pietermaritzburg and shares a pit toilet with neighbours.

Ntombi Mbomvu

News | 31 August 2015

Khayelitsha eviction case postponed

Residents of Newcastle informal settlement in Khayelitsha may have to wait another month to challenge the City of Cape Town over their eviction order.

Barbara Maregele

Brief | 26 August 2015

Court victory vindicates shack dwellers’ rights

A recent judgment in the Durban High Court has confirmed what shack dwellers, urban land occupiers and their lawyers have known for some time – the state’s habitual use of legal loopholes to evict land occupiers from their homes is unconstitutional. What’s more, Judge Mokgohla’s decision has finally showed up the courts as sharing responsibility for allowing these evictions to go on unchecked.

Daneel Knoetze

Analysis | 26 August 2015

No better than sleeping under a tree for 20 years, says ailing woman

Fifty-six-year-old Fikile Mlotshwa (not her real name) from Imbali in Pietermaritzburg has had to bear the winter cold and summer rains in a leaking mud house for over 20 years. She tested HIV positive 10 years ago and she is on ARV medication.

Ntombi Mbomvu

News | 24 August 2015

Khayelitsha residents challenge eviction in court

Lawyers representing residents of Newcastle informal settlement in Khayelitsha are to challenge the City of Cape Town's compliance with eviction orders in court on Wednesday, 26 August.

Barbara Maregele

News | 24 August 2015

No room for the homeless

Non-profit organisations in Cape Town say they are doing their best to assist homeless people living on the streets of the city, but there are simply not enough shelters or beds. The City’s street people enumeration project counted 7,383 homeless, of whom 2,521 were sleeping in shelters.

Bernard Chiguvare

News | 20 August 2015