A land occupation called Covid in the time of COVID-19

dc.contributor.advisorBenson, Koni
dc.contributor.authorMvimbi, Yanathi
dc.date.accessioned2025-05-20T11:32:47Z
dc.date.available2025-05-20T11:32:47Z
dc.date.issued2024
dc.description.abstractMost people would associate the word “Covid” with the coronavirus pandemic that disrupted people’s lives globally in 2020. However, in this research, besides referring to the pandemic, “Covid” refers to a land occupation in Cape Town, South Africa. Living without proper housing is one of the hardest struggles that millions of poor black South Africans experience every day. Reflecting ongoing spatial apartheid, it is one of the greatest injustices of the democratic era that many people still do not have a decent home. This research seeks to understand the struggles that people went through during and after COVID-19 in the land occupation that resulted in the informal settlement named Covid. The mini-thesis documents how settlements like Covid are publicly represented through a critical reading of a selection of news articles, government media statements and nongovernmental organisation (NGO) reports. The paper examines how these ‘outsider’ perspectives represent and construct socioeconomic rights, poverty and inequality and how this impacts their attitudes and solutions to homelessness in Cape Town. The study highlights the roles of NGOs and social movements in the fight against spatial injustice during and since the pandemic. Most importantly, all these perspectives are contrasted with how Covid residents represent themselves and their decision to occupy land. By interviewing residents of Covid this research enables them to represent themselves and present their versions of their history and the ongoing challenges in their living situation.
dc.identifier.urihttps://hdl.handle.net/10566/20418
dc.publisherUniversity of the Western Cape
dc.subjectLand Occupation
dc.subjectInformal Settlements
dc.subjectCOVID-19
dc.subjectShack Dwellers
dc.subjectReclaim The City
dc.titleA land occupation called Covid in the time of COVID-19

Files

Original bundle
Now showing 1 - 1 of 1
Loading...
Thumbnail Image
Name:
mvimbi_arts_m_2024.pdf
Size:
1.41 MB
Format:
Adobe Portable Document Format
License bundle
Now showing 1 - 1 of 1
No Thumbnail Available
Name:
license.txt
Size:
1.71 KB
Format:
Item-specific license agreed upon to submission
Description: