News

Matthew Hirsch/GroundUp

A new 300-bed shelter for homeless people in Green Point run by the City of Cape Town opened its doors on Monday.

This is one of five Safe Spaces for homeless people funded by the City.

The site for the shelter, at the municipal depot on Ebenezer Road, was approved by the City’s municipal planning tribunal in July last year following extensive public participation.… Read more

Providing a guaranteed minimum level of income frees people from vicious cycles of poverty, says Archbishop Thabo Makgoba

By Marecia Damons/GroudUp

Hundreds of churches have joined civil society’s call for the Social Relief of Distress (SRD) grant to be made permanent and become a universal basic income grant (UBIG).… Read more

​The Haven’s shelters are already 85% full

Ashraf Hendricks/GroundUp

Shelters for homeless people across Cape Town are filling up as winter bites. The Haven, which has 14 shelters and 1,300 beds, says the shelters are already 85% full.

While the weather is good, says Haven CEO Shaddie Valayadum, it is possible to make money on the streets.… Read more

​Temporary relocation of families occupying central line contravened municipal by-laws

By Sandiso Phaliso/GroundUp

The Passenger Rail Agency of South Africa (PRASA) has been fined R25,000 for contravening the City of Cape Town zoning laws when it relocated hundreds of families who had erected shacks on the central railway line tracks to a site in Philippi East.… Read more

Judge puts strict conditions on the way the eviction must be carried out and emphasises that the city also belongs to the evictees, as it does to those who live in mansions

The City of Cape Town has been given the green light to evict about 200 people living on the pavement at several inner-city sites.… Read more

The City is developing a new strategy to reduce homelessness, and help people living on the street, but lack of data is a drawback

In its new policy on homelessness currently being developed, the City of Cape Town acknowledges a lack of accurate data on the number of homeless people in the city.… Read more

The only colony of one of the world’s most endangered butterflies is within sight of an ambitious new urban coastal node

A large, multi-storey development proposed at Strandfontein could put one of the rarest butterflies in the world at even greater risk of extinction, and decrease endangered biodiversity for which Cape Town is famous.… Read more

The State Land Disposal Act allows the President to fast track the use of public land

By Matthew Hirsch/GroundUp

President Cyril Ramaphosa has instructed the ministers of Human Settlements and Public Works to investigate demands by housing activists for land to be redistributed to communities, says Presidency spokesperson Vincent Magwenya.… Read more

City school children face a choice between being mugged or crossing the freeway as criminals haunt pedestrian bridges

By Matthew Hirsch/GroundUp

The death of a primary school child on the way to school in Walmer Estate, Cape Town, on 11 April has highlighted the choice young children face: risk getting mugged on a pedestrian bridge, or dodge rush-hour traffic. … Read more