Cape Town, South Africa – A one-room tin building sits in the backyard of a small house in Mitchells Plain, Cape Town.
Cheryl Ann Smith, her husband, and three grandchildren live inside. They are among the thousands of so-called “backyard dwellers” who live in this impoverished area that locals call the Lost City.
Residents here often sublease portions of their small plots of land to others who are less well off than they are, creating invisible households without access to basic services such as electricity and sanitation. .
The Smiths' one-room home has barely enough space for two beds, a makeshift cupboard with a double-burner stove, and a round bucket for washing dishes. The tap they use is at the front of the property and they have to use a bucket as a toilet.
Smith, 54, has lived most of his life in limbo for the past 30 years, waiting for a home from the government, even before the ruling African National Congress (ANC) won the first post-apartheid democratic elections. Ta.
“I applied for the city council election in June 1993, but imagine it’s 2024. I’m still waiting,” a part-time domestic worker told Al Jazeera.
When the ANC came to power in 1994, housing for all was a key government policy. The country went a step further in its 1996 constitution, stating that all levels of government should address the “legacy of spatial apartheid” and that legal mechanisms would allow for the release of land for affordable housing. Ta.
On paper, there is a promise to provide housing for all. However, in reality, the pace of deliveries has not kept up with the increase in demand, resulting in a huge backlog of orders.
Decades of unfulfilled promises have also left voters dissatisfied with both the ANC central government and the main opposition Democratic Alliance (DA), which runs Cape Town and the Western Cape. .
As the country prepares for a crucial general election in May, which analysts say will be the ANC's toughest ever, some polls show the DA's majority in the Cape has also declined. , indicating that voters are ready to demand elections from their leaders. account.
'nightmare'
According to data, from 1994 to February 2022, the state housed approximately 5 million indigent people. Ministry of Human Settlements. However, approximately 2.3 million households and individuals nationwide are still waiting for a home.
In the Western Cape, more than 600,000 people are queuing up for parliament, including more than 350,000 in Cape Town alone, according to official waiting lists.
And housing activists argue that those on official lists represent only a fraction of those in need.
In Mitchells Plain, where Smith lives, more than 15,000 residents in the area are waiting for housing, according to the local residents' association, but authorities lack the political will to house everyone who needs housing. He says there is no.
Michael Jacobs, vice president of the Mitchells Plain United Residents Association, said: “The housing waiting list is a nightmare and people like Cheryl Ann and others have been on the list for 20 to 30 years. “There seems to be no consistency.”
Jacobs said the civic group has been working with the city, state and national governments to free up parcels of land for housing construction, but no one is listening.
“This list is a joke. At the rate we're going, people will die and their children will grow up and never have a home.”
spatial apartheid
The DA has ruled the Western Cape for more than 16 years, while eight of the country's other nine provinces are ruled by the ANC.
DA leaders have consistently portrayed their territory as an oasis in a country plagued by inefficiency, with leader John Steenhuisen telling voters in Cape Town this month: “As eight ANC-led provinces collapse, the hope we all share for a better future shines even brighter in this country. The place of that hope is in this DA-led West It's the Cape. It's the Cape of Good Hope in the west.”
But for the majority of poor, non-white residents, this rhetoric does not reflect their reality.
Cape Town is a geographically isolated city, with the scars of apartheid often hidden behind the pristine beaches and multi-million dollar real estate that makes it a world-class tourist hub.
Mitchells Plain is located on a flat sandy beach about 30 kilometers from the city center known as the Cape Flats, and was established in the 1970s as a place for the apartheid government to house people of color who followed its racists. Ta. Forced removal.
It was designed to be separate and isolated from economic opportunities and services as well as whites-only areas at the time. And its spatial legacy of injustice remains.
Today, Mitchells Plain is home to nearly 500,000 low- to moderate-income residents in approximately eight neighborhoods of varying socio-economic status.
Crime statistics also show the area had the highest number of attempted murders in the nation in the first quarter of this year, and has repeatedly ranked in the top 30 areas with the highest crime rates in the country.
Mr. Smith and his family have not been saved. She lives in Lost City, one of Mitchells Plain's poorest neighborhoods, and said she has lost three children, two to gang violence, and if she had no choice but to keep them safe. He said he wondered aloud if his children would still be alive if they had a real home to protect.
“The Lost City is far removed from everything,” Smith said. “People say it got its name from the fact that we got lost here. No one would listen to us, backyard dwellers waiting for a home and no one to help us. not.”
Politicians who are “out of touch”
With less than two months until the election, housing is not a top priority for the state's major political parties.
The ANC has only two lines related to this issue in its manifesto, in which it continues to build subsidized housing for vulnerable groups and ensure that everyone has access to decent housing and basic services. It says it invests in people by ensuring access.
The DA does not mention housing at all in its manifesto. However, the party's previous housing policy stated that the party believed in “adequate housing” and supported the provisions of the Constitution that called for the “progressive realization” of this right. There is.
Nick Budlender, an urban policy researcher at housing activist group Ndifuna Ukwazi (NU), finds it “both interesting and disappointing” that political parties are not focusing on housing.
“Land and housing were important issues in the last election, but for many people parties have drifted away and the fight over housing is underfunded. It has slipped down the list of politicians,” he said. Ta.
Last month, Cape Town Mayor Jordyn Hill-Lewis, a member of the DA, announced what she called the city's 2024-2025 “pro-poor budget” and told city council that its future mission would be “pro-poor”. investment.'' unprecedented scale. ”
“We know that with boldness of vision and firmness of conviction, Cape Town can reverse poverty and overcome the long shadow of its past,” he said.
But Budländer said that while “the housing and segregation crisis is extremely acute here, we are not seeing enough government action to match this crisis” and that the leadership is “trying to deliver public services.” “They are not able to utilize public land,” he added.
“This is an example of inequality and racism in our city,” he said.
Mr Jacobs, of the Mitchells Plain United Residents Association, said he also wants the “quick release of the land from the national government” so the city can use it to build housing for people who need it.
But “the city is not ready to deliver the homes,” he acknowledged, adding that Hill-Lewis “doesn't understand” the reality on the ground.
“They've forgotten about us.”
In the Lost City, Smith sat with his family outside their one-room home, holding out hope for change.
Her husband, Russell, 61, lost his right leg several years ago and is no longer able to work. He receives a small disability pension, which helps pay rent to the owner of the property they stay on, but Mr. Smith does domestic work twice a week to earn a little more money.
Most of her income goes toward public transportation to visit the city council to follow up on her housing application, but sometimes that's not enough.
“To go to the city's housing authority, I always have to pay for a taxi and check for news about the council acquisition. I am very tired and frustrated,” she told Al Jazeera. From office to office.
“In January, we were told that we would have to wait longer because there were some issues and the house would not be built, so we would have to wait another 3-4 years. This is very depressing.”
“Unfortunately, we see cases like Cheryl Ann and her family all the time,” said Budlender of NU, a nonprofit association of lawyers and community organizers working to address spatial injustice in New York City. ” he said.
“The idea is that the housing waiting list is a reasonable list, meaning those who get on the earliest can get housing.” [homes] First of all – but it doesn't work like that at all, it's much more random. ”
For Smith, that meant going to the Housing Authority almost every day to follow up on applications. However, no results have been achieved so far.
Budlender said millions of people have benefited from the state's housing policy since 1994, but many more people have received no help at all.
“We know hundreds of thousands of people living in backyard housing, and that number continues to grow,” he said, adding that this is a part of the population that the government would prefer to ignore. he added.
“So far, there has been no substantive policy response to backyard housing,” he said. “It's like sticking your head in the sand.”
As elections approach, politicians are campaigning to fight poverty. But for the Smith family and their neighbors, conversation means little when the reality of poverty is all they have.
“They only come here when they need us to vote, but then they forget about us,” said Smith, who has little faith in the party's promises.
“I dream of the day when I have a house with a faucet that I can easily open and wash my grandchildren in the bath instead of a bucket, and a toilet that flushes,” she said.
