Reclaim The City (RTC) is a South African non-racial social movement campaigning for land and housing in Cape Town's inner-city and wealthy suburbs.
Reclaim The City is known for its campaigns for affordable and low-income housing as well as spearheading the occupation of two empty and dilapidated government buildings which it turned into housing for poor and vulnerable families. [1]
Reclaim The City began first as a campaign against the state's sale of a piece of land in Sea Point called Tafelberg to be used for a private school. The movement and its supporters demanded that the land instead be used for affordable housing. With the help of the NGO Ndifuna Ukwazi, they took the Western Cape Government as well as the City of Cape Town to court to stop the sale. They were successful in the Cape High Court with the judgment setting aside the sale.
According to reports, "The court declare[d] that the Province and City have failed in their constitutional duties to provide access to adequate housing and to land on an equitable basis. In doing so, they have 'failed to take adequate steps to redress spatial apartheid in central Cape Town.'" [2] [3] The judgment is currently being appealed to a higher court. RTC is now calling for government to respect the high court ruling and put in place a plan to build affordable housing on the site. [4] [5]
Reclaim The City, along with evicted and houseless residents of the inner city in Cape Town, occupied the old unused Woodstock Hospital in March 2017. They turned the property into a housing occupation for hundreds of families. [6] [7] The occupation has been likened to a modern-day commune in the image of the famous Paris Commune of 1871. [8]
Also in March 2017, Reclaim The City spearheaded a second occupation, that of the former Helen Bowden Nurses Home in the wealthy suburb of Green Point in Cape Town. The property was turned into housing for a few hundred families. [9]
Both occupations have been called a "tool to hold government to account" [10] and have been referred to as "the only affordable housing opportunities for poor and working-class people in the metro". [11]
District Six is a former inner-city residential area in Cape Town, South Africa. In 1966, the apartheid government announced that the area would be razed and rebuilt as a "whites only" neighbourhood under the Group Areas Act. Over the course of a decade, over 60,000 of its inhabitants were forcibly removed and in 1970 the area was renamed Zonnebloem, a name that makes reference to an 18th century colonial farm. At the time of the proclamation, 56% of the district’s property was White-owned, 26% Coloured-owned and 18% Indian-owned. Most of the residents were Cape Coloureds and they were resettled in the Cape Flats. The vision of a new white neighbourhood was not realised and the land has mostly remained barren and unoccupied. The original area of District Six is now partly divided between the suburbs of Walmer Estate, Zonnebloem, and Lower Vrede, while the rest is generally undeveloped land.
The 2006Table Mountain fire was a large fire in and around the Table Mountain National Park in Cape Town, South Africa. It broke out at approximately 4 p.m. on 26 January 2006 above Tafelberg Road, and spread quickly due to dry conditions and strong winds of up to 60 knots. It threatened to spread into the densely populated suburbs of Tamboerskloof, Oranjezicht, Vredehoek and Gardens on the north side, as well as Camps Bay and Bantry Bay on the south side.
Mitchells Plain is a large census designated sub-place located within the City of Cape Town, Western Cape, South Africa and situated about 28 km (17 mi) from the Cape Town city centre. It is one of South Africa's largest residential areas and contains multiple smaller suburbs. It is located on the Cape Flats on the False Bay coast between Muizenberg and Khayelitsha. Conceived of as a "model suburb" by the apartheid government, it was built during the 1970s to provide housing for Coloured victims of forced removal due to the implementation of the Group Areas Act.
Edwin Cameron is a retired judge who served as a Justice of the Constitutional Court of South Africa. He is well known for his HIV/AIDS and gay-rights activism and was hailed by Nelson Mandela as "one of South Africa's new heroes". President Ramaphosa appointed him as Inspecting Judge of Correctional Services from 1 January 2020 and in October 2019 he was elected Chancellor of Stellenbosch University.
Claremont is a suburb of Cape Town, South Africa. It is situated 9 kilometers south of the city, and is one of the so-called "Southern Suburbs", it is situated alongside Lansdowne. It is an important commercial and residential area, which is currently experiencing significant growth and development.
Green Point is an affluent suburb on the Atlantic Seaboard of Cape Town, South Africa located to the north west of the central business district. It is home to Cape Town Stadium, a major sporting venue that was built for the 2010 FIFA World Cup. Sea Point promenade runs through the suburb, connecting it to Three Anchor Bay and Sea Point, a popular Jewish neighbourhood. Somerset Road forms the main thoroughfare lined by restaurants, cafés, delis, boutiques and nightclubs.
Joe Slovo is an informal settlement in Langa, and in Milnerton Cape Town. Like many other informal settlements, it was named after former housing minister and anti-Apartheid activist, Joe Slovo. With over 20,000 residents, Joe Slovo is one of the largest informal settlements in South Africa.
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The following is an overview of public housing estates in Tuen Mun, Hong Kong, including Home Ownership Scheme (HOS), Private Sector Participation Scheme (PSPS), Sandwich Class Housing Scheme (SCHS), Flat-for-Sale Scheme (FFSS), Subsidised Sale Flats Project (SSFP), and Tenants Purchase Scheme (TPS) estates.
Zainunnisa "Cissie" Gool was an anti-apartheid political and civil rights leader in South Africa. She was the daughter of prominent physician and politician Abdullah Abdurahman and mother Helen Potter James. Gool founded the National Liberation League and helped to create the Non-European United Front (NEUF). She was known and loved as the "Jewel of District Six" and "Joan of Arc" by South Africans as a champion of the poor.
In the United States, squatting occurs when a person enters land that does not belong to them without lawful permission and proceeds to act in the manner of an owner. Historically, squatting occurred during the settlement of the Midwest when colonial European settlers established land rights and during the California Gold Rush. There was squatting during the Great Depression in Hoovervilles and also during World War II. Shanty towns returned to the US after the Great Recession (2007–2009) and in the 2010s, there were increasing numbers of people occupying foreclosed homes using fraudulent documents. In some cases, a squatter may be able to obtain ownership of property through adverse possession.
The Prevention of Illegal Eviction from and Unlawful Occupation of Land Act (PIE) is an act of the Parliament of South Africa which came into effect on 5 June, 1998, and which sets out to prevent arbitrary evictions.
Geordin Gwyn Hill-Lewis is a South African politician who is the Mayor of Cape Town. A member of the Democratic Alliance, he was elected mayor in November 2021.
Trafalgar High School is a public English medium co-educational secondary school in District Six of Cape Town in South Africa. It was the first school built in Cape Town for coloured and black students. The school took a leading role in protesting against apartheid policies. It celebrated its centenary in 2012 and is still running and was recently declared a heritage site.
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The Ndifuna Ukwazi (NU), translated from isiXhosa: Dare to Know, is a South African non-profit advocacy organisation established in 2011 to advocate for affordable housing in well-located urban spaces. The organisation does this by conducting policy research, community organisation, public advocacy, litigation, and the provision of legal services. Most of the organisation's activities focus on communities within the City of Cape Town.
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