The first few months of Margaret Papier’s stay in Flamingo Crescent, a shanty town in Lansdowne, were so rough that she considered moving back to her former home underneath Lansdowne Bridge. Now, after three years of upgrading, she and her partner have a modest yet comfortable and electrified home, with access to clean drinking water and a flush toilet outside their front door.
Daneel Knoetze
News | 11 February 2015
A shack fire that tore through Langrug informal settlement in Franschhoek on Saturday has been blamed on a combination of negligence and unexpected load shedding.
Daneel Knoetze
News | 9 February 2015
Pheliswa Cekiso, 28, was two months pregnant when she was evicted from her shack in Lwandle. In December she gave birth to a healthy boy. But the Nomzamo community hall where she lives is no place to bring up a child, she says.
Zintle Swana
News | 5 February 2015
Minister for Human Settlements Lindiwe Sisulu is in the process of drafting amendments to eviction legislation, in line with the report of the commission of inquiry into the Lwandle evictions last year.
Daneel Knoetze
News | 4 February 2015
Zola Square in Site C, Khayelitsha, was the site of yet another shack fire yesterday.
Photos by Masixole Feni. Text by Kevin Elliott.
Brief | 28 January 2015
Last year, the eviction of hundreds of shack dwellers from Lwandle, Strand on the eve of a winter storm sparked a national outcry. Seven months later, construction of alternative accommodation has ceased, and yet dozens of evictees remain homeless - holed up in a temporary relief shelter at a nearby community hall. They have been all but forgotten.
Daneel Knoetze
News | 16 January 2015
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