A group of about 100 Mfuleni backyarders who raised eyebrows in the community after erecting and moving into a tent in an open space, more than five months ago, say they are not going anywhere until they are heard.
Mary-Anne Gontsana
News | 16 January 2015
Hope Street’s pavement carpenter Mark Philander again had his material confiscated by officers from the City of Cape Town Law Enforcement this morning. Now, a local councillor has committed to linking Philander to the City’s informal traders unit in an attempt to find a public space for him to work legally and unhindered.
Daneel Knoetze
News | 13 January 2015
The Wynberg Magistrate’s Court “unconstitutionally” ordered Hangberg resident Janina Samuels to choose between homelessness and imprisonment, the Legal Resources Centre (LRC) has argued in appealing her 2013 conviction for contempt of court.
Daneel Knoetze
News | 8 January 2015
When it is late at night and Cape Town’s streets are quiet, Mark Philander’s faint hammering at his pavement workshop on Hope Street can still be heard.
Daneel Knoetze
Feature | 18 December 2014
At noon on 10 December more than 20 people were left homeless by a fire at a hostel in Mfuleni.
Pharie Sefali
Brief | 11 December 2014
Immigrants who live in Goodman Close and Le Ruth Close at 194 Voortrekker Road Parow are fed up with the awful conditions they live in.
Tariro Washinyira
News | 10 December 2014
It might come to light why and how local banks readily granted bonds to people who couldn’t afford them when investors in a scam, run by the now liquidated Brusson Finance, head to the Gauteng High Court early in 2015.
Mandy de Waal
News | 9 December 2014
Residents of Kanana informal settlement in Gugulethu have blamed power cuts for a fire that left over a hundred people homeless on Friday evening.
Johnnie Isaac
News | 8 December 2014
Approved Joe Slovo housing beneficiaries, who were deemed to be “too young” by government to receive houses in October, this week moved into their new units at the N2 Gateway development. Other families, who remain behind in the informal settlement, and who are now being moved to make space for the next phase of the housing development, remain unhappy.
Daneel Knoetze
News | 5 December 2014
With summer heat and seasonal gale force southeaster winds, it is a time of high risk for shack fires. There were 123 fires in the past month in informal settlements in the Western Cape. This December, load shedding may well be adding to that risk. GroundUp visited a family in the aftermath of a recent shack fire to see how they are coping.
Pharie Sefali
News | 5 December 2014
Tirelessly since 2001, Thembisa Maso has been sent pillar to post by the City of Cape Town, the Department of Human Settlements, housing committees and ward councilors, only to be disappointed. Finally, she will be able to move into her home by the end of this week.
Mary-Anne Gontsana
News | 3 December 2014
Shackdwellers from the original settlement in Marikana, Philippi, are celebrating a court interdict which will protect them from being arbitrarily evicted “through the back door”. Interdicts secured by landowners and municipalities are supposed to prohibit further settlement. Yet they are often so vague that they allow for people who have already settled to be removed.
Daneel Knoetze
News | 1 December 2014
On Thursday, residents of Marikana informal settlement’s Rolihlahla Park section welcomed a Western Cape High Court postponement of an eviction hearing. The court ordered that the City of Cape Town compile an audit of the households living on the erf in question to determine who will need emergency temporary accommodation if an eviction order is granted.
Daneel Knoetze
News | 21 November 2014
The 7th annual Irene Grootboom Memorial Dialogues, which explore the continuation of Cape Town’s “spatial apartheid”, are underway. On Tuesday night, the focus was on the spate of shack evictions around the city this year, and the correlation between poor, densely populated areas and traffic deaths and education outcomes.
Daneel Knoetze
News | 19 November 2014
Santonio Jonkers let out a sigh of frustration as he was told for the third time that his court case was postponed, this time till next year.
Mary-Anne Gontsana
Brief | 13 November 2014
A Khayelitsha housing project has gone bust amidst allegations of corruption. Beneficiaries are frustrated that they may not get their houses, or that problems with houses that have been built will not be fixed.
Mary-Anne Gontsana
News | 13 November 2014