Housing

Children without homes: referrals up for Cape Town centre

Just this week alone six children have been referred to the Fikelela Children's Centre in Mandela Park, Khayelitsha. The institution’s head social worker, Kate Brydon, says the number of abandoned children being referred to Fikelela has risen.

Mary-Anne Gontsana

News | 30 July 2015

Tsunami residents accuse City and Province of playing games

Angry residents of the Tsunami informal settlement in Delft have accused the City and provincial government of playing games with them.

Nombulelo Damba-Hendrik

News | 29 July 2015

City and Blikkiesdorp residents fail to see eye-to-eye

“Residents of Blikkiesdorp do not trust the City [of Cape Town government],” says a Blikkiesdorp leader, Jerome Daniels. A meeting on Thursday night highlighted the ongoing tensions between this community and the City.

Mary-Anne Gontsana

News | 27 July 2015

Strange beds

The homeless in Cape Town find refuge wherever they can and sometimes in the most surprising spaces. Where they sleep is often precarious and exposed to various hazards from bad weather and pollution to criminals or people who don't want them around. Although mostly transient, homeless people will often stay in the same place, wherever it is they have managed to carve out a shelter for themselves. Some homeless people have lived in a suburb or street for longer than many residents who live there in brick and mortar buildings.

Pictures by Masixole Feni.Text by Brent Meersman

News | 24 July 2015

Amputee uses a plastic bag for a toilet

Fifty-three year old Annacleta Zungu, who has only one leg, uses a plastic bag as a toilet at night because she is afraid to use the pit toilet outside her Pietermaritzburg house. Zungu, who is diabetic, lost her leg last year.

Ntombi Mbomvu

News | 22 July 2015

Living in a graveyard

For the past few years, the old Jewish burial site located south of Groote Schuur Hospital in Cape Town has become a home to a number of homeless people.

Siphesihle Matyila

News | 16 July 2015

In 80 years, she’s never lived in a warm house

“I don’t know how it feels to be in a warm house without a leaking roof,” says Betha Mkhize, who is in her eighties and lives in Ezinketheni in Pietermaritzburg with her mentally disabled son.

Ntombi Ngubane

News | 15 July 2015

Street artists battle over De Waal mural

A group of anonymous street artists called Space Invader has claimed responsibility for “reinterpreting” the mural in District Six along De Waal Drive near Cape Town city centre.

Barbara Maregele

News | 15 July 2015

Living in a shed the size of a toilet for 14 years

Forty-three year old Patrick Brewer from Henley in Pietermaritzburg has been living in a tiny shed the size of a toilet for 14 years.

Ntombi Ngubane

News | 10 July 2015