Informal Living

South Africa is one of the most unequal societies in the world. Large swaths of the population live on the streets or in informal housing (shacks). When Apartheid fell in 1994 and a new government took over the country, many believed that their situation would change.

For decades now, government has been promising housing and better basic services. In some cases this have been achieved but majority still live in the same impoverished environments. This has caused a crises in housing as residents continually protest for what they were promised and use land to build shacks illegally out of desperation and in order to survive.

The Zwelitsha neighborhood of Khayelitsha in Cape Town on 23 August 2015.

A woman stands outside her shack in Khayelitsha, an informal settlement in Cape Town on 23 August 2015.

Residents clash with police after getting their homes torn down during an illegal land occupation in Grabouw in the Western Cape on 10 May 2016.

Residents move their entire home in a bid to save it after the anti-land invasitio unit arrived to destroy their shacks during an illegal land occupation in Grabouw in the Western Cape on 13 May 2016.

Police arrest a resident during a protest for housing in Langa in Cape Town on 20 September 2016.

Residents protest for housing in Khayelitsha in Cape Town on 22 May 2017.

Residents in the informal settlement of Imizamo Yethu protest for housing months after a fire ravished the area in Hout Bay, Cape Town on 3 July 2017.

A youth walks past rubbish in the Marikana informal settlement in Philiipi, Cape Town on 5 September 2017. Many informal settlements lack basic services such as proper sanitation and waste removal.

A house is demolished after land was illegally occupied in Khayelitsha in Cape Town on 13 March 2018.

A woman carries her baby after her house is demolished during an illegal land occupation in Khayelitsha in Cape Town on 13 March 2018.

Residents look down from a hill after protesters clashed with police during a protest over services including electricity and water at the Siqalo informal settlement in Mitchells Plain, Cape Town on 2 May 2018.

Residents block the streets during a protest over housing in Muizenberg in Cape Town on 21 May 2018.

Blikkiesdorp, a temporary relocation area for evicted families containing over 1500 homes in Delft, Cape Town on 21 June 2018. Although “temporary”, some families have been staying here for over 10 years.

Hundreds are left homeless after a fire gutted an informal settlement in Muizenberg in Cape Town on 26 November 2018.