Housing

Dumping on the poor in Siqalo

Rubble dumping on the fringe of Siqalo informal settlement has forced hundreds of shackdwellers to evacuate their homes. Boulders have rolled into shacks; dumping has prevented winter rains from draining, leaving dozens of households flooded and abandoned. Yet the dumping carries on unchecked.

Daneel Knoetze

Feature | 5 August 2014

Neighbour tries to bury Siqalo informal settlement

Rubble dumping on the fringe of Siqalo informal settlement has forced hundreds of shackdwellers to evacuate their homes. Those on the fringe of the settlement have experienced large boulders hitting their shacks. The mound from the dumping, which has shot up since the beginning of the year, has prevented winter rains from draining - leaving dozens of households flooded and abandoned. Yet, the owner of the plot adjacent to Siqalo who allows the dumping to go ahead unchecked, claims that the mound is a necessary safety barrier between his land and the settlement.

Masixole Feni

News | 5 August 2014

Firgrove residents want their land back

Two thousand residents removed forcefully from Firgrove, Somerset West, between 1971 and 1975 under the apartheid Group Areas Act, want their land back. ‘Blacks’ were moved to Mfuleni and ‘coloureds’ were moved to Macassar.

Mary-Anne Gontsana

News | 4 August 2014

Case against Nomzamo residents to be transferred to Regional Court

The case against ten Nomzamo (Lwandle) informal settlement residents, who were arrested during violent clashes between police and the community in June, has been postponed.

Barbara Maregele

Brief | 1 August 2014

Evicted student: All I could save was my backpack and ID

The only things college student Sisanda Mbayi could save before her shack was demolished last month were her backpack and ID, the ministerial inquiry into the Nomzamo (Lwandle) evictions heard yesterday.

Barbara Maregele

News | 1 August 2014

Evicted resident breaks down at Lwandle inquiry

Xoliswa Masakala broke into tears at the ministerial inquiry into the Lwandle evictions today as she was asked to comment on two pictures of herself which were published in the media. In one of the pictures, she is seen with her breasts and upper body completely exposed and the rest of her clothes appear torn.

Barbara Maregele

News | 29 July 2014

Montagu family on brink of losing home

Darkness falls on the Koo valley. Andries Joostenberg, 63, and his son hang up their axes, stack the last logs of cut wood and trudge indoors. The temperature drops. In the farm cottage's kitchen a family huddles in semi-darkness around a wood stove. The electricity has been cut, so too the water: final instalments in a siege designed to drive Andries off the land.

Daneel Knoetze

Feature | 25 July 2014

Makhaza’s shoddily built houses

Zone 14 residents in Makhaza are worried about the shoddy building of houses managed by the Niall Mellon Township Trust (NMTT). This has prompted the provincial Human Settlements Department to investigate after receiving numerous complaints.

Mary-Anne Gontsana

News | 23 July 2014

SANRAL says City of Cape Town was involved in the eviction of displaced Nomzamo residents

Nomzamo informal settlement residents would have been relocated to new land years ago had the City of Cape Town not withdrawn from negotiations in 2011, attorneys for the South African National Roads Agency (SANRAL) told the Lwandle Inquiry yesterday.

Barbara Maregele

News | 23 July 2014

Premier called “racist girl” as tensions flare at Lwandle inquiry

Tensions flared during the second half of the Lwandle inquiry yesterday after Ses’khona leader Loyiso Nkohla referred to Western Cape Premier Helen Zille as a “racist girl”. The remark prompted an infuriated DA staffer, Jamie Turkington, to interject during Nkohla’s presentation.

Barbara Maregele

News | 22 July 2014

Ward councilor sheds light on the history of evicted Nomazo residents

A Nomzamo ward councillor told the ministerial inquiry into the Lwandle evictions how he cautioned a group of backyarders, who were tired of “unfulfilled promises” by the City of Cape Town, against settling on land owned by the South African National Roads Agency (SANRAL).

Barbara Maregele

News | 22 July 2014

Shacks in Masiphumelele wetland area drenched

The Masiphumele informal settlement in Fish Hoek was flooded on Thursday by heavy rains.

Zintle Swana

News | 21 July 2014

Ses’khona and ANC councillor accused of hijacking City disaster relief

Some Lwandle residents have accused Ses’khona and ANC city councillor JJ Maxheke of keeping food and other disaster relief material supplied by the City of Cape Town for Ses’khona members.

Pharie Sefali and Alide Dasnois

News | 17 July 2014

Why the sun will continue to burn in Langa

Last Wednesday, Langa erupted into massive protest that locked down the area with no way in or out of the township. To many, it seemed like the anger came from nowhere – yet frustration has been simmering here for months if not years.

Jared Sacks

Opinion | 17 July 2014

“Police were firing and I ran for cover”

An eye-witness to the eviction of hundreds of Nomzamo residents in June described the “chaotic” scene to the ministerial inquiry this morning.

Barbara Maregele

News | 15 July 2014

Lwandle inquiry begins

The ministerial inquiry into the eviction of hundreds of informal settlement residents in Nomzamo near Lwandle Strand began today.

Barbara Maregele

News | 14 July 2014