GOOD Statement by Axolile Notywala,
GOOD City of Cape Town Councillor
6 November 2025
The GOOD Party is deeply concerned about the worsening socio-economic and safety conditions in Philippi, particularly in the informal settlement of Siyangena, where residents continue to live without basic services and are exposed to daily violence and deprivation.
On Saturday, 1 November 2025, GOOD councillor Axolile Notywala attended a community meeting in Siyangena, where residents shared their ongoing struggles. Siyangena was established in 2018 on privately owned land and is home to roughly 800 households, primarily former backyard dwellers from Philippi, Nyanga, and Gugulethu.
Earlier this week, residents protested by throwing human waste outside nearby businesses and facilities, a desperate act to demand attention to their unbearable living conditions. The protests followed Eskom’s disconnection of electricity from a mini-substation residents had been using unlawfully since 2018. Eskom has since installed a new substation inside the nearby Shoprite Centre, mere metres away from where the old one was situated.
In December 2024, the community submitted a detailed budget proposal to the City of Cape Town, signed by 550 residents, urging the City to take ownership of the land they occupy and to provide essential services. The Siyangena community also approached the South African Human Rights Commission (SAHRC) for intervention to secure access to water, sanitation, and electricity.
Cape Town’s entrenched inequality and poverty are structural, driven by the City’s refusal to provide services to settlements on private land and its continued failure to expropriate land in the public interest. These failures perpetuate the cycle of poverty, violence, and disaster that defines life in many of the City’s informal settlements.
As the fire season begins, Siyangena’s children are forced to study under candlelight, at constant risk of devastating fires. Neighbouring communities such as Sesikhona and Winnie Madikizela face similar challenges. In Winnie Madikizela, power connections are expected to be cut due to MyCiTi construction, yet the City has offered no alternatives to residents.
Shootings, violent crime, and social breakdown are now daily realities in and around these communities. The absence of electricity, lighting, and sanitation breeds insecurity and hopelessness. Children unable to study at night fall behind in school, later struggle to find work, and are pulled into the cycle of crime and poverty gripping their neighbourhoods.
“The Constitution and the Expropriation Act empower municipalities to expropriate land in the public interest. The City of Cape Town must stop hiding behind red tape and political excuses. Every day it delays, deepens inequality, fuels anger, and entrenches the violence that divides our city,” said Cllr Notywala.
The City of Cape Town has both the legal power and moral duty to act. Land expropriation in the public interest is not only a constitutional tool, it is a necessity for justice, dignity, and safety in communities like Philippi.
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