Sound Africa

So Where to From Here: Covid-19 has brought with it an increase in homelessness and loss of shelter across the continent. Can the courts protect them? We speak to Khululekile Banzi, the media spokesperson for Residents of Singabalapha (we belong here) informal settlement who won a court order prohibiting the City of Cape Town officials to stop trying to evict them without proper court process. In March 2020 the city issued “compliance notices” warning them that they were contravening the City’s street bylaws by erecting structures. During lockdown, officials tried to relocate them to its Strandfontein shelter for the homeless, but they resisted.