The Elandskloof community, forcefully removed from their land in 1962, was the first successful restitution case in post-apartheid South Africa. Yet, the way the process has unfolded, has left several community members feeling angry and frustrated, 18 years after their historic victory.
Joshua Maserow and Jason Jardem
News | 14 April 2014
Dream homes have become nightmares for several residents of a government-housing development known as Fountainhead. Situated in Blue Downs the development is a joint partnership of the Western Cape Department of Human Settlements and Motlekar Cape.
Johnnie Isaac
Feature | 31 March 2014
In Upington, 40 four-roomed RDP-size houses reserved for ex-political prisoners and MK veterans were occupied in the course of 2013. None of the occupiers have to date paid for municipal services and some are subletting their properties.
Selby Nomnganga
News | 19 March 2014
The Prevention of Illegal Eviction From and Unlawful Occupation of Land Act (PIE) was meant to be a clear break with the many pieces of legislation the apartheid regime used to legalise the forced removal of black people from their land.
Zenande Booi
News | 14 March 2014
Public outrage followed after protestors died in January while demonstrating against problems with water service delivery in Madibeng. Until then the state’s actions in Madibeng produced PR, but failed to lead to any meaningful engagement with those directly affected by the failures of the municipality.
Koketso Moeti
Opinion | 26 February 2014
“This is my passion -- what I’ve known half my life,” fulminates Constance Mogale, the director the Land Action Movement of South Africa (LAMOSA), from her fifth floor office in Khotso House, Johannesburg.
Joshua Maserow
News | 25 February 2014
An expanded public works project in Upington to pave three streets of 1.8km is incomplete a year later and no account can be given of the project by the Department of Public Works, the local municipality, or the responsible councillor.
Selby Nomnganga
News | 5 February 2014
On 7 and 8 January, the City of Cape Town’s Anti-Land Invasion Unit demolished more than 40 homes at the Marikana settlement in Philippi East. There has been ongoing conflict between the City and the residents who have settled on this plot of privately owned land just off Symphony Way.
Sibusiso Tshabalala
Feature | 15 January 2014
Kutala Mtyali's sits on the couch of her house, perhaps for the last day, and tries to piece together the ongoing saga of her 26 year struggle to keep her home. Family members help her with names and dates. She is on the brink of homelessness.
Jared Sacks
News | 9 December 2013
Several houses in Gugulethu were damaged by the heavy rainfall this weekend. Hombazi Fiphaza, a resident from Kanana Square informal settlement, said, “We go through the same thing everytime there is heavy rainfall … What pains me the most is watching the children suffer because of it, and there is nothing you can do to protect them from it.”
Nwabisa Pondoyi
News | 21 November 2013
On the edge of the university hamlet of Grahamstown, there’s a municipal dump where people discard trash. It’s far enough out of town to not smell the stench – or for most locals not to be reminded of the haunting plight of the poor who subsist off the waste.
Mandy de Waal
Feature | 20 November 2013
A fed-up Khayelitsha resident is anxious to know why the City of Cape Town is not making any provision for water and sanitation on her street.
Mary-Anne Gontsana
News | 28 August 2013
A survey done by the provincial department of human settlements showed that in 2010, the Cape Town Metro had almost as many informal settlements as the rest of the entire province.
Mary-Anne Gontsana
News | 14 August 2013
Shack fires are an unremitting scourge facing urban townships. In South Africa, between 2000 and 2010, over 230 000 people were made homeless by fires. Growing urban populations together with inadequate services, in particular electricity and water, means urban shack fires will continue to take their toll. There is an urgent need for effective solutions to address the major causes.
Fergus Turner
News | 5 August 2013
At every railway bridge from Observatory to Rondebosch there are homeless people who occupy the subways. They come from different backgrounds and have different reasons for why they do not have homes.
Pharie Sefali
News | 31 July 2013
Amelia Earnest met people who live on the streets of Cape Town. Some of them have been living outside since they were children. The City recently made it harder for them. Read the full story below the photographs.
Amelia Earnest
News | 30 July 2013