Hundreds of people to be evicted from land owned by Shoprite
“We don’t want to be thrown into the street like dogs” says Mfuleni community leader Andiswa Nkohla
Residents protested on Saxondown Road in Mfuleni, Cape Town on Friday in a bid to stop their court-ordered eviction from land owned by Shoprite. Photo: Vincent Lali
Protesters blocked the busy Saxondown Road in Mfuleni with charred debris and large stones to prevent anti-land invasion officials from evicting them from Sqawunqawu informal settlement.
People first moved onto the land, owned by Shoprite, in March 2019. The settlement grew during 2020 and 2021 when many people lost their jobs as a result of the covid lockdowns.
Following several protests and complaints by residents, the City of Cape Town provided water and mobile toilets.
According to the municipality’s human settlement’s department, Shoprite was initially granted an eviction order on 8 November 2023 which the shack dwellers’ attorney successfully had rescinded on 27 January 2025. “In the order the City was directed to provide a housing report related to the personal circumstances of the occupiers.”
This report was submitted to the court and Shoprite then re-enrolled its eviction application. The occupants failed to file an answering affidavit, and the eviction was granted in September. There was nothing in order directing the City to provide alternative housing.
Residents were served with the order, which stated they needed to leave the site on 3 October, or be forcefully evicted on 10 October. The court also granted an interdict against further occupancy on the site.
Community leader Andiswa Nkohla said residents would consider moving only if they were given alternative housing. Nkohla said the eviction would affect 400 people in Snqawunqawu and a dozen others in the neighbouring Madikizela informal settlement.
“We are willing to leave Shoprite’s land, but we have nowhere to go. We don’t want to be thrown into the street like dogs.” She said they had no funds to pay a lawyer to fight this application.
Nkohla said many residents rely on piece jobs and government grants to survive.
Resident Nomonde Manya sells vetkoek and sweets to support her children. “My children and I will sleep on empty stomachs if I relocate,” she said.
Mini Vuyokazi, who works as a cleaner at the nearby Tsitsa Primary School, said moving from the land could jeopardise their ability to earn an income. “My children also ask me if they will have to drop out of school, but I tell them that Shoprite will evict us next year to ease their worries.”
Nkohla said residents were living on edge, worried that officials could return at any moment to execute the eviction.
Shoprite did not respond to our questions by the time of publication.
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Letters
Dear Editor
This report on the eviction of 400 families from the Snqawunqawu informal settlement is more than a legal matter; it is a shameful mirror reflecting our society’s misplaced priorities.
In the midst of a constitutional crisis of housing, how can we stand silent as a corporate giant – one that profits daily from the very communities it seeks to displace – is granted the right to throw people, including children, onto the street? As Community Leader Andiswa Nkohla stated, this is about basic human dignity: no one should be "thrown into the street like dogs".
This crisis is not the occupiers’ fault. These people are not invaders; they are victims of systemic economic failure, forced onto the land by the loss of jobs during the pandemic. They represent the fundamental failure of both the City and the private sector to provide basic security.
The court may have granted an eviction without a directive for alternative housing, but the moral obligation remains. Shoprite, as the landowner, has a social responsibility that extends beyond its balance sheet. To pursue this eviction without offering a viable, dignified alternative is to prioritise profit over people's lives and a legal deed over a constitutional right to shelter.
If we allow corporations to use the courts to solve their "nuisance" problems while ignoring the human cost, we lose a piece of our shared humanity. We must demand that the City of Cape Town and Shoprite step up now. The solution is not displacement; it is a rapid, collaborative plan that guarantees safe, nearby alternative land for these 400 families.
Water, like housing, is a basic right. Until these families are secured, every grocery bag bought from that corporation carries the moral weight of their impending homelessness. Accountability must flow, not just from government, but from the powerful interests who benefit from the very system that created this destitution.
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