Wallacedene is an informal housing settlement on the eastern outskirts of

Kraaifontein Kraaifontein is a town in the Western Cape province of South Africa and is located on the north-eastern outskirts of the City of Cape Town Metropolitan Municipality. The name originated from the large number of crows (''Kraai'' in Afrikaans) that ...

South Africa South Africa, officially the Republic of South Africa (RSA), is the Southern Africa, southernmost country in Africa. Its Provinces of South Africa, nine provinces are bounded to the south by of coastline that stretches along the Atlantic O ...

. The settlement was established during the 1980s when the relaxation of

pass laws In South Africa under apartheid, and South West Africa (now Namibia), pass laws served as an internal passport system designed to racially segregate the population, restrict movement of individuals, and allocate low-wage migrant labor. Also ...

allowed rural populations to more readily migrate to urban centres. By 2004, Wallacedene had an estimated population of 21,000 people. The housing rights

activist Activism consists of efforts to promote, impede, direct or intervene in social, political, economic or environmental reform with the desire to make changes in society toward a perceived common good. Forms of activism range from mandate build ...

Irene Grootboom lived in Wallacedene.Muzondo, I.F., Barry, M., Dewar, D. & Whittal, J. 2004
'Land conflicts in informal settlements: Wallacedene in Cape Town, South Africa'
paper presented at International Federation of Surveyors Working Week, Athens, 22–27 May. Retrieved on 14 August 2008. Grootboom and other inhabitants won a

Constitutional Court A constitutional court is a high court that deals primarily with constitutional law. Its main authority is to rule on whether laws that are challenged are in fact unconstitutional, i.e. whether they conflict with constitutionally established ru ...

ruling in 2000 which stated that they could not be evicted without being offered alternative accommodation.

References

{{City of Cape Town Metropolitan Municipality Shanty towns in South Africa Slums in South Africa Suburbs of Cape Town Housing in South Africa