Housing

City installation displaces street people

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

Nkaneng: sorry symbol of a century of neglect

Living conditions of Lonmin workers show how exploitation and neglect continue on South African platinum mines.

Raphael Chaskalson

Opinion | 17 July 2013

Homes vandalised in Nyanga housing dispute

Some residents in Nyanga claim that the Department of Housing is not to blame for their housing problems.

Pharie Sefali

News | 10 July 2013

Disabled and waiting for a house since 1992

While Thembisa Maso, a KTC resident still waits for her house to be completed, Mbuyiselo Vena, her neighbour, is struggling day in and day out in a wheelchair after being on a housing waiting list for the past 20 years.

Mary-Anne Gontsana

News | 29 May 2013

Responding to criticism

The Democratic Alliance markets itself as an efficient and un-corrupt alternative to the ANC. It never hesitates to point out serious service delivery failures by the ANC. So it is interesting to see its responses to the Social Justice Coalition's criticisms of the City of Cape Town's handling of a major toilet supply contract in Khayelitsha.

Nathan Geffen

News | 30 April 2013

How do you look after an autistic child when you live in a shack?

“I have to tie his leg to the couch. If I don’t he wanders away and I have to run around the whole of RR section in search of him, giving people a description of him and asking if anyone has seen a boy resembling my son.”

Mary-Jane Matsolo

News | 24 April 2013

Rats, that’s not funny: Khayelitsha child bitten by rat

When Premier Helen Zille was bitten by a rat last week, her spokesperson was quoted saying, “I know the City Bowl rats are mutant freaks of nature but if they’re starting to take nibbles out of people, we’re in trouble." However, as this story of a Khayelitsha baby bitten by a rat shows, in some parts of the City, rats are no laughing matter and rats "taking nibbles out of people" are not that unusual.

Mary-Jane Matsolo

News | 27 March 2013

Housing development destroyed my business

Andiswa (not her real name) has been a resident of Khayelitsha Site C for 27 years. She turned her township home into a BnB business in 2006 offering tourists the exclusive and unique option of experiencing life in a shack. This all came to a screeching halt in April 2009 when her house was destroyed by BKS employees.

Mary-Jane Matsolo

News | 6 March 2013

Residents in dangerous Gugs block of flats to be relocated

Temporary house structures are being built in Gugulethu to accommodate residents who are currently occupying Masonwabe hostels.

Mary-Anne Gontsana

News | 20 February 2013

Continued existence of shacks is a real scandal

Yet another shack fire has devastated the BM section of Khayelitsha. On New Years morning fires raged through the community, leaving about 4,000 people homeless and killing at least four. The responses from authorities to what has now become a routine occurrence in the area have been mixed.

Ben Fogel

Opinion | 13 February 2013

Libertas Flats in Parow are a human pig sty

On Thursday morning I went to see Libertas Flats in Klosser Street, Parow. This block is a human pig sty. It is filthy and stinks. There are leaking ceilings and walls that seem to have been painted a century ago. Many flats are without water and electricity.

Tariro Washinyira

News | 6 February 2013

Boystown residents protest over housing corruption allegations

Residents burned tyres at Boystown near Crossroads in Nyanga. They complained that houses were being built without knowledge of who is going to receive them.

Mihle Pike

News | 6 February 2013

After the fire

Families are affected by township fires. We follow the lives of these individuals as they recount their tragic stories and how they have picked up the pieces and moved on with their lives.

Chume Ntuli and Buchule Putini

News | 30 January 2013

Crossroads residents burn tyres in housing protest

BREAKING NEWS: This morning, residents of Crossroads protested and burned tyres in protest against a housing project.

GroundUp Staff

Brief | 23 January 2013

BM fire victims to be moved to Mfuleni

Fire left about 800 households destitute on new years day in BM Section, Khayelitsha. Many of these families are sheltering at the O.R Tambo hall a short distance from the scene of the fire.

Mary-Jane Matsolo

News | 23 January 2013

New Delft low-cost housing development - but some residents oppose it

The City has started a new low-cost "RDP" housing project called Breaking New Ground in Roosendal in Delft. But some Delft community members oppose it.

Janine Fortuin

News | 23 January 2013