The residents of Imizamo Yethu emerge from corrugated iron shacks every day to one of the breathtaking sights that make Cape Town South Africa’s top tourist attraction.
From the squalor of their overcrowded existence, the shantytown inhabitants share a spectacular view of the Hout Bay harbour and surrounding mountains with millionaire neighbours in one of the city’s most valuable property markets.
Rising tensions
But living within a stone’s throw from each other, the communities have little else in common and tensions are rising as squatters grow impatient with delivery of government housing and threats of land grabs make headlines…
A few hundred metres away, swimming pools and tennis courts are commonplace and mansions can fetch prices in excess of R20-million.
“Hout Bay is a microcosm of the problems in South Africa,” Ehrenreich said.
The government aims to eradicate shantytowns, currently housing about 2.4 million families, by 2014.
Nomxolisi Mgedezi (26), who has lived in Imizamo Yethu for 15 years, is among thousands on a waiting-list for a government-subsidised brick house.
“It is cold here,” she says, inviting AFP into her neat single-room shack.
The inside hardboard walls are painted a calm green and enclose a single bed, a crate for a bedside table, a two-door cabinet with a two-plate stove and a television set.
“I want a proper house, a toilet, water and electricity,” Mgedezi says — a wish echoed by neighbours.
“Life here is difficult,” laments Maphelo Skade (23). “It is difficult to keep out the wind and rain. When it’s hot it’s really hot and when it’s cold it’s really cold.” … - AFP
From the squalor of their overcrowded existence, the shantytown inhabitants share a spectacular view of the Hout Bay harbour and surrounding mountains with millionaire neighbours in one of the city’s most valuable property markets.
Rising tensions
But living within a stone’s throw from each other, the communities have little else in common and tensions are rising as squatters grow impatient with delivery of government housing and threats of land grabs make headlines…
A few hundred metres away, swimming pools and tennis courts are commonplace and mansions can fetch prices in excess of R20-million.
“Hout Bay is a microcosm of the problems in South Africa,” Ehrenreich said.
The government aims to eradicate shantytowns, currently housing about 2.4 million families, by 2014.
Nomxolisi Mgedezi (26), who has lived in Imizamo Yethu for 15 years, is among thousands on a waiting-list for a government-subsidised brick house.
“It is cold here,” she says, inviting AFP into her neat single-room shack.
The inside hardboard walls are painted a calm green and enclose a single bed, a crate for a bedside table, a two-door cabinet with a two-plate stove and a television set.
“I want a proper house, a toilet, water and electricity,” Mgedezi says — a wish echoed by neighbours.
“Life here is difficult,” laments Maphelo Skade (23). “It is difficult to keep out the wind and rain. When it’s hot it’s really hot and when it’s cold it’s really cold.” … - AFP
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