N2 Gateway

[2] The N2 Gateway is a highly controversial project and has been criticised by the Geneva-based Centre on Housing Rights and Evictions, by the South African Auditor General, by popular organisations such as the Western Cape Anti-Eviction Campaign, by Constitutional Court experts such as Pierre De Vos and by affected residents themselves.

After the January 2005 fire, which destroyed 3000 shacks and made 12,000 people homeless, Joe Slovo residents were promised priority in the allocation of N2 Gateway housing.

The boycott has been supported by residents of Joe Slovo Informal Settlement, social movements, such as the Anti-Eviction Campaign, and civil society.

[12] With Phase 1 of the N2 Gateway completed, the National Government ordered the eviction of the remaining 20,000 shackdwellers to Temporary Relocation Areas in Delft (see section below).

In August 2008, about 200 Joe Slovo residents travelled by train, spent the night at the Methodist Church in Braamfontein, and arrived at the Constitutional Court to protest proposed evictions.

[13] They were accompanied in solidarity by the Anti-Eviction Campaign as well as residents from Symphony Way, an informal settlement that is also in conflict with the government over the N2 Gateway Housing Project.

[21] [22] In September 2009, reports surfaced that the Constitutional Court had quietly issued a new order suspending the eviction of Joe Slovo residents until further notice.

It houses shack-dwellers who have been forcibly or voluntarily moved from shack settlements such as those in Joe Slovo, Khayelitsha, Crossroads, Nyanga and Gugulethu.

[29][30] The Western Cape Housing MEC, Bonginkosi Madikizela, has admitted to serious defects in the N2 Gateway Phase 1 Flats saying that "Some of the units, it will not actually help to fix them.