For many people, a home is more than just a roof over their heads it is access to work, education, healthcare and opportunities . For members of the Singabalapha community, the fight for housing in Cape Town’s city centre is about protecting those opportunities and challenging what they believe is the continued exclusion of Black people from the CBD.
Founded in 2022, Singabalapha is a housing movement made up of residents who have occupied vacant buildings and land in an effort to secure affordable housing close to places of employment. Since its formation, the group has faced repeated evictions, arrests and ongoing legal battles, yet its members remain determined to stay in the city rather than be relocated to the outskirts of Cape Town.
“Our aim is to get houses in Cape Town, not far away from the places of employment and everything,” one of the community leaders Babra explained during an interview. The community says it has occupied several vacant properties over the years, including Conradie Hospital, Military land in Blue Downs, Department of Education hostels in Harfield Road and the former Arcadia old-age home.
Each occupation ended in arrests or eviction, but the movement continued searching for a permanent solution within the CBD.Babra said these experiences reflect a much larger issue of spatial inequality that continues long after apartheid.
“They always send us to the peripheries,” she said, referring to communities being relocated to areas far from jobs, transport and essential services.
Today, Singabalapha’s current occupation site remains at the centre of another legal dispute. While residents wait for a court hearing that is to be held on Tuesday 28 July 2026. They continue living under extremely difficult conditions. They have no reliable access to water, toilets or electricity, and nearby construction has created dangerous living conditions. The leader described how dust from ongoing developments affects residents daily, particularly those with respiratory illnesses, while falling stones from construction sites pose a constant safety risk.“We are living with dust every day, and it is dangerous. Some of us have asthma, and we don’t even have proper access to water,” she said.
Residents say the City of Cape Town has proposed relocating them to temporary tent accommodation, but the community rejected the offer, arguing that it would compromise privacy, dignity and the safety of children.
“We rejected the tent proposal,” Babra said. “There is no privacy, and it is not a safe place for families.”
Beyond demanding shelter, the movement argues that housing should allow people to remain connected to employment, schools and healthcare. Community members have also researched vacant land within the CBD, believing there is enough available space to accommodate affordable housing if the City chooses to act.
Fortunately for the Singabalapha community they are receiving advocacy from a public organisation known as Ndifuna Ukwazi . It is a South African no profit advocacy organization established in 2011. The organisation focuses on advocating for affordable housing in well-located urban spaces and challenges spatial injustice in Cape Town.
The organization continues to help the Singabalapha community to challenge eviction orders through the courts and hopes the upcoming High Court hearing will recognize its right to remain. If unsuccessful, the group says it is prepared to take the matter to the Supreme Court of Appeal.
Perhaps the movement’s strongest message is that housing is not simply about buildings, but about belonging.
Written by Oyisa Ntlombe
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