PUSHBACK Talks

Cities are becoming increasingly unliveable for most people. Costs are rising but incomes are not. Sky-high rents, evictions, homelessness, and substandard housing are common realities for urban dwellers across the planet. There is a global housing crisis. How did this basic human right get so lost? Who is pushing people out of their homes and cities, and what’s being done to pushback? On the heels of the release of the award-winning documentary, PUSH, filmmaker, Fredrik Gertten and Leilani Farha, the former UN Special Rapporteur on the right to housing, have reconvened. Join the filmmaker and the advocate as they reflect on their experiences making PUSH and exchange ideas and stories about the film's central issue: the financialization of housing and its fall-out. For more about PUSH and to view it:  www.pushthefilm.com For more about Fredrik Gertten and his other films: www.wgfilm.comFor more about Leilani Farha in her new role, Global Director of The Shift: www.make-the-shift.org

https://www.wgfilm.com/

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episode 5: Build Homes on Golf Courses! Mobilizing for the Right to Live in Cape Town, South Africa


PUSH-The Film exposed the global pattern: cities have become the domain of the wealthy or at least a deposit box for their wealth – and everyday people are being pushed out. Nowhere is this more true than in South Africa, named by Time Magazine as one of the world’s most unequal places on earth. In this episode the Filmmaker and the Advocate are joined by Mandisa Shandu, lawyer and activist with Ndifuna Ukwazi (NU), a Cape Town-based non-profit activist organisation focused on land justice.  

Mandisa discusses the ongoing legacy of apartheid and the Group Areas Act that currently grips Cape Town. Poor and black populations have been forced to live on the worst lands, on the periphery of the city. In response, NU has been promoting the use of public lands within the city to undo this spatial apartheid. Mandisa describes the bold Constitutional litigation they launched against the city and provincial government to keep them from selling off public lands to private actors. The Tafelberg decision was a huge victory, and offers inspiration to the world - demonstrating the potential power of the Constitutional right to housing. 

More recently NU has had their eye on golf courses in Cape Town which  - located in the heart of the city - use huge tracts of land, pay little land taxes, and are only enjoyed by the most affluent, mainly whites, and tourists. As it happens, neither Leilani nor Fredrik like golf so they are quick to decide how the right to play golf in a city measures up against human rights. Those who love the sport, and those who love to hate, it will be entertained! 

Ndifuna Ukwazi is a very cool organization, made up of lots of young advocates. Check out their work by following them on twitter and facebook @NdifunaUkwazi and impress your friends by learning more about the Tafelberg decisions here.

Produced by WG Film 
Recorded by Mikey Jones
Edited by Hanna Leander
Music by Florencia Di Concilio
Social Media & Support Team - Maja Moberg, Valerie Estrina, Hanna Leander

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 March 24, 2021  37m