Every day, people across Cape Town struggle to access land and a decent home. These struggles – from landlessness, homelessness and insecure tenure, to evictions, rising rents, gentrification and unfair rental practices – are a stark reminder not only that Cape Town inherited a broken land and housing systems from the colonial and apartheid eras, but that urban inequality is getting worse. We work to broaden access to well-located land and affordable housing. Through our campaigns, Ndifuna Ukwazi combines community organising, research, advocacy and litigation to advance urban land justice and fuel systemic change. We have successfully stopped the sale of strategically located public land, and secured commitments to build well-located affordable housing. We have defended evictees through litigation, advice, tenant education and solidarity, and ensured that people are not displaced to relocation camps on the edge of the city. We support struggles led by people most impacted by urban inequality and have built relationships of solidarity in cities around the world. We have even secured commitments to build affordable homes in private developments by promoting inclusionary housing. But more needs to be done by activists and organisations in our efforts to radically break with the past and dismantle the systems of power that hold structural inequality in place. We believe that a more just and equal city is possible – and we’re ready to fight for it.
