Occupiers of the Arcadia House home were preparing to spend a second night outside. Photo: Ashraf Hendricks
3 October 2019
Occupiers of Arcadia Place in Observatory were preparing to spend a second night outside on Thursday after being evicted from the building on Wednesday.
Several weeks ago the occupiers moved into the home, which is owned by the Cape Peninsula Organisation for the Aged and which was vacant. Its residents had been moved so that the home could be renovated.
On Thursday mattresses and blankets were laid out on the lawn as residents waited for the outcome of a further court case on their fate.
They had hoped that the matter would be heard today but it was not.
”It was a very scary and a traumatic experience,” said Lindelwa Luza who slept outside with her two 11-year-old children. She said that her children had been crying most of the evening and were unable to sleep. Today they didn’t go to school.
She said that if they could not get back into the building they might have to try and find a shelter instead. Luza was previously a backyard-dweller in Gugulethu. She said that she had left because she didn’t like leaving her kids alone at home in Gugulethu.
“It was very cold,” said another resident who suffers from a leg injury due to a previous abusive relationship. Her two sticks were lost in the eviction on Wednesday.
She said she had nowhere else to go and if the occupiers were not allowed back inside “we’ll sleep here on the streets until something happens”.