Cape Town’s housing crisis leaves hundreds in limbo: Video

Felkers, who was displaced in 2007, has spent 16 years living in a tiny metal shack on a plot originally intended for "housing emergencies," located near Cape Town's international airport.

"We were told we’d be here for just a few months, but 16 years later, we are still waiting. They make it very clear to you that, you don't belong here. This is not your space. That is what the city is saying to you because you don't earn that type of money to be able to live this type of lifestyle. And that is so unfair to us," Felkers told AFP. 

The living conditions in these emergency settlements are harsh, with scorching heat in summer and freezing cold in winter. Despite initial hopes when construction of new homes began, progress stalled after the death of a government official. "Everything stopped. There are no houses being built anymore," Felkers added.

Nick Budlender, an urban policy researcher at Ndifuna Ukwazi, explained that Cape Town's housing challenges stem from historical and structural inequalities. "The city is basically inside out. And that's been described as inverse densification. And that obviously has really, really serious implications socially, environmentally and financially as people have to travel these vast, vast differences, both trying to find work and to try and retain employment, it makes both of those very difficult," said Budlender. 

He emphasised that this segregation is a legacy of 350 years of deliberate action and will require equally intense efforts to address.