Latest news:

City plans to auction Mowbray Market site

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

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

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

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

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

Fishers fight offshore oil and gas drilling

TotalEnergies taken to court over plans to drill wells off the west coast

By Liezl Human/GroundUp

Small-scale fishers and environmental organisations were in the Cape High Court on 23 March in a bid to halt oil and gas exploration by TotalEnergies along the West Coast.… Read more

District Six families vow to fight eviction

“Who would have thought back then that it would have turned out like this today” says 69-year-old resident

By Matthew Hirsch/GroundUp

Six District Six families living in historic semi-detached Victorian cottages on Searle Street, who withstood apartheid forced removals but now face eviction, say they will fight on despite a magistrates’ court judgment in December ordering them to vacate the cottages by 6 March.… Read more