Land occupiers in Monwabisi Park, Khayelitsha, were left homeless after the Anti-land Invasion Unit (ALIU) demolished shacks on the weekend. Some of the occupiers said they had been living on the land for about three months prior to the demolition. Continue reading
GroundUp
1 June 2017
A group of Khayelitsha backyarders, who orchestrated a large land occupation in Cape Town two weeks ago have vowed to continue their fight for land. This follows the fatal shooting of one of the group’s leaders Mthunzi ‘Ras’ Zuma on Sunday night. Police spokesperson Noloyiso Rwexana said no arrests have been made.
One of the land occupiers, Mabhelandile Twani, said that they would not stop fighting for the land. “We will not stop even if it means I will die. I would have died fighting for a decent place to stay. The struggle continues,” he said. Continue reading
GroundUp, 19 May 2017
A massive land occupation is underway in Town Two, Khayelitsha, near the Magistrates’ Court with hundreds of sites demarcated on the land. If the occupiers are successful, thousands of people will live on the privately owned land.
The occupiers are backyarders from Town Two who say they are tired of renting and living with their parents, while an enormous piece of land stands empty. All the occupiers that GroundUp spoke to said the land had stood unoccupied since they were children.
“I’m a 42-year-old and I am living in my mother’s house,” said Thuliswa January Tshofela.
“We are sick and tired of backyards and renting,” said Liwa Mdleleni. Continue reading
A massive land occupation is underway in Town Two, Khayelitsha, near the Magistrates’ Court with hundreds of sites demarcated on the land. If the occupiers are successful, thousands of people will live on the privately owned land.
The occupiers are backyarders from Town Two who say they are tired of renting and living with their parents, while an enormous piece of land stands empty. All the occupiers that GroundUp spoke to said the land had stood unoccupied since they were children.
http://www.groundup.org.za/content/bank-drives-woman-brink-homelessness
Bank drives woman to brink of homelessness
By Jared Sacks, GroundUp
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.
While the details of this story are unique, evictions of the poor and lower middle class have become a national crisis – one that tends to favour what housing activists perceive to be the greedy and often-times illegal lending practices of South Africa's banks.
This story is not simple. Its spans more than three decades starting out in a tiny shack in Crossroads from which she was eventually forcibly removed. In 1987, she built her home in A Section, Khayelitsha, after receiving permission, by the City of Cape Town, to settle on the serviced site ERF 105. She received a letter giving her the rights through a 99 year lease, to live and build on the property. Today, a trespassing charge could, if a magistrate gets his way, result in her eviction once again.