Gugulethu’s apartheid-era hostels finally get a facelift
But residents accuse City of Cape Town of prioritising the flats that face the main road
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Scaffolding surrounds one of the apartheid-era Lingelihle hostels currently being repaired in Gugulethu, Cape Town. Photo: Mary-Anne Gontsana
- Many of the apartheid-era hostels in Gugulethu are overcrowded and weathered.
- This year, the City of Cape Town has started repairing four ageing and broken hostels in the area.
- But residents of Lingelihle hostel, which has five blocks of flats, say the City is only repairing the blocks that face the main road rather than fixing all of the buildings.
Families living in the apartheid-era Lingelihle hostel are accusing the government of prioritising the most visible flats that face the main road for upgrades, ahead of the local government elections later this year.
A year ago, we reported on tenants complaining about the dilapidated state of their units. Many of the hostels in Gugulethu, Cape Town, are overcrowded and weathered. Residents had also complained of inadequate municipal services such as waste management and sanitation.
At the time, the Western Cape government said it would cost more money to upgrade the hostels than to move residents to serviced emergency structures elsewhere.
Now, Lingelihle flats in Ny110 are among four former migrant worker hostels in Gugulethu being upgraded by the City of Cape Town. The other hostels are Noxolo, Nobantu and Cape Oils.
Mayco member for human settlements Carl Pophaim said the repairs and upgrades include asbestos roof replacements, ceiling repairs, and the replacement of windows. He said further repairs will continue in the new financial year.
Despite the long-awaited repairs being underway, residents told GroundUp they are sceptical that the work will be completed.
Chairperson of the Lingelihle committee, Isaac Kutama, explained that Lingelihle has five blocks of flats, but only the two visible from the busy main road are being upgraded.
“This is starting to look like the fencing that was built in the previous financial year. It was built at the entrance, which is facing the main road. The rest of Lingelihle has no fencing, or just old, rusted fences. They never came back to finish up the fencing,” he said.
Kutama said work on the two flats started in May.
“Our initial ask from the City was for social housing, but we were told they could not afford that,” said Kutama.
A tenant at one of the flats being repaired, who asked not to be named, told GroundUp that she has lived there with her husband and two children for seven years.
“The main problems were our leaking roof and broken windows. I just hope that when they do repairs next time, they will also fix the drains,” she said.
Kutama said the drain system in Lingelihle was constantly blocked, causing flooding and leaving puddles of stagnant water.
A few kilometres from Lingelihle is the Nobantu hostel, formerly known as WJM. Even though the City states that repairs are underway, when GroundUp visited the hostel on Thursday, there were no workers on the site.
Community leader Nokhanyo Adonis said they heard upgrades would be done but only routine maintenance was done on some of the flats.
“These flats desperately need attention. The toilets are broken, the piping system is old and leaks, and the roofing is rotten, causing them to leak when it rains.”
“It is wet on the ground because some of the toilets leak when you flush them,” said Adonis.
Next to Nobantu is the Noxolo hostel. It has been upgraded with new roofing and guttering.
At Cape Oil hostel, the new aluminium window frames, new gutters and roofing can be seen from the gate. In the same area is a community centre which has also been refurbished.
Mzu Manyamalala, chairperson and resident of the DairyBelle hostel, a privately-owned hostel near Lingelihle, told GroundUp that some repair work had also been done at his hostel, including the installation of solar lights and the repair of broken windows and toilets. But, he said, a lot more is needed, particularly repairs on the aged, overburdened drainage system.
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© 2026 GroundUp. This article is published under the GroundUp Republication Licence Version 1.0. Email [email protected] to request permission to republish.