Manenberg residents who have been living in containers for the last five months while their City Council flats are renovated have been left in limbo yet again. The subcontractors responsible for the renovations packed up all their equipment and abandoned the site last week.
Barbara Maregele
Feature | 31 March 2015
Informal settlement residents say they are always told by law enforcement and the Anti Land Invasion Unit that if they want to extend or renovate their shacks, they need to obtain a permit from the City of Cape Town. But what exactly is this permit and how does it work?
Mary-Anne Gontsana
News | 25 March 2015
Some of the Manenberg residents who were temporarily relocated to containers more than five months ago say they are eager to move back to their homes. Dozens of families that have been living for decades in the council-owned flat of Eva Court were moved from their homes to make way for its refurbishment in October last year. But a three-month long gang war in the area, rampant vandalism and a delay in payment to contractors by the City of Cape Town has delayed work for months. The upgrade is expected to be only completed by May.
Barbara Maregele
News | 25 March 2015
The Eastern Cape government has failed to even acknowledge a petition from a group of housing project beneficiaries. What options does this leave aggrieved citizens, asks Mimosa Delgaro?
Mimosa Delgaro
Opinion | 20 March 2015
Loud barks from a multitude of dogs are what you hear when entering the small area of Wolwerivier, where 28 families live under difficult conditions.
Mary-Anne Gontsana
Feature | 20 March 2015
The wheels of justice finally seem to be turning in relation to a huge suspected fraud in a housing scheme for the poor that is said to have cost the Vryburg municipality at least R60-million in 2008 and 2009.
Pharie Sefali and Drew Forrest for amaBhungane
Feature | 20 March 2015
A Mitchell’s Plain man has been making fake house sales in Delft, Mfuleni and Gugulethu, apparently scamming buyers out of tens of thousands of rands.
Mary-Anne Gontsana
Feature | 9 March 2015
In February the City of Cape Town’s Anti-Land Invasion Unit (ALIU) dismantled a family’s shack in Mfuleni. This acrimonious incident raises important questions about how informal settlements are to be upgraded.
Nathan Geffen
Opinion | 9 March 2015
As the country's attention was transfixed on the Table Mountain fires, another blaze claimed one life and left three families homeless in a Franschhoek informal settlement.
Daneel Knoetze
News | 5 March 2015
Langa residents are asking why a man accused of fraudulent plot sales to dozens of poor people has still not been arrested, while the activist who exposed him fears for her life.
Daneel Knoetze
Feature | 4 March 2015
When the Madlingozi family in Mfuleni extended their shack without authorisation, the City of Cape Town removed the extensions, amidst a dispute over the facts. Jared Sacks argues that the City presented its position without checking the facts.
Jared Sacks
Opinion | 2 March 2015
A violent rain storm that hit Kimberley on Tuesday has set flooded residents on a collision course with the local authorities.
Douglas Mthukwane
News | 26 February 2015
The City of Cape Town has policies in place, not to make it more difficult for our residents to live dignified lives, but to ensure that land use and housing delivery is equitable. The undeniable fact is, there is limited land available. And there are many people coming into our city for a better life. So, we have to be as fair as we can.
Priya Reddy
Opinion | 20 February 2015
A family of six say they were left scrambling for material to rebuild their shack after it was demolished on Wednesday morning.
Mary-Anne Gontsana
News | 19 February 2015
Last week, residents of Soweto’s Mzimhlophe Women’s Hostel were at the forefront of a crowd that occupied 66 new homes at the hostel site which have stood empty for over seven years.
Mosa Damane
News | 17 February 2015
The City of Cape Town’s Law Enforcement evicted land occupiers near Gugulethu on Saturday morning – demolishing six shacks before violent protests erupted. By Monday calm had returned to the community, but the frustrations of shack dwellers from KwaKiki and Sweethome Farm informal settlements continue unrelieved. As police remain on site, residents have vowed that their struggle for land will continue.
Daneel Knoetze
Feature | 16 February 2015