Housing
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
Scam exposes township title deed confusion
A housing dispute in Mfuleni demonstrates how the informal process of transferring title deeds for RDP houses can lead to people losing their money and their homes.
Nombulelo Damba-Hendrik and Siphesihle Matyila
News | 18 August 2015
When temporary housing isn’t temporary
“They promised us that we would stay for a short period of time. They didn’t keep their promise,” says Amelia Nono, who came to Intersite, a temporary relocation area (TRA) in Langa, nine years ago.
Ashleigh Furlong
Feature | 18 August 2015