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GroundUp

Court to rule on fate of families occupying Cape Town buildings

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More than 150 people face eviction from three abandoned buildings in Hope Street

By Matthew Hirsch/GroundUp

Caroline Abrahams just turned 56 but says she has nothing to celebrate. She is one of over 150 people whose lives are in limbo as they face being evicted from three abandoned buildings in Cape Town’s Hope Street.… Read more

Metrorail doesn’t move for wheelchair users

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The “people’s train” doesn’t include people with disabilities

By Mary-Anne Gontsana

In 2016, the Passenger Rail Agency of SA (Prasa) promised to make all its stations accessible to wheelchair users. Ten years later, this is an empty promise, as we found when we accompanied wheelchair user Khanyo Mantshi on a journey in Cape Town.… Read more

City plans to auction Mowbray Market site

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Smallholder farmers from rural towns as far afield as Calitzdorp, Suurbraak, and Genadendal rely on the monthly market

By Liezl Human

The Mowbray Market has been operating on the first Saturday of every month for the past four years, but the a lease on the property has expired and the City is now considering auctioning the lease to the highest bidder.… Read more

Hundreds of Zimbabweans camp outside consulate in Cape Town

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They want the Zimbabwean government to help them get home safely

Hundreds of Zimbabwean nationals are sleeping outside the Zimbabwean consulate in Cape Town pleading for the government to help them get back home.

On Thursday 18 June, piles of large suitcases and bags wrapped in plastic were strewn on the pavements around the office.… Read more

City tests out a shelter for homeless people who are drunk

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The Sober Space project caters for the intoxicated in need of a bed

By Matthew Hirsch

Bonelwa Xaka lived on the streets of Cape Town for more than five years. Now she is a peer support specialist in a “Sober Space” pilot project in Cape Town, set up to offer a place to homeless people who would be turned away from other shelters because they are drunk.… Read more

Government waking up to using empty military land for housing

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An estimated 67,000 homes could be built at Ysterplaat, Wingfield and Youngsfield

By Matthew Hirsch/GroundUp

For decades, housing activists have been calling for under-used military land in Cape Town to be released for housing. This includes about 668 hectares of well-located land at the Wingfield and Ysterplaat airbases, adjacent to Century City, and at Youngsfield, between Wynberg and Ottery.… Read more

Dozens evicted from informal settlement in Green Point

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DA ward councillor says the eviction follows a long process of engagement with the group

By Matthew Hirsch/GroundUp

Chaos erupted near the Cape Town stadium, along Granger Bay Boulevard in Green Point on Wednesday, when a group of about 40 people living in makeshift shelters were forcibly removed.… Read more