‘This is apartheid’: Cape Town slum residents condemn forced removals

Bulelani Qolani at Ethembeni, an ‘informal settlement’ near Cape Town. As the shanty town is illegal, there is no waste collection, running water or electricity but residents say they had to move there when they lost their jobs during the Covid pandemic and have nowhere else to go. Photograph: Sarah Johnson/Guardian

One sunny July morning in 2020, Bulelani Qolani was washing inside his corrugated-iron shack in Ethembeni informal settlement when his door was kicked in. Four officers from Cape Town’s Anti-Land Invasion Unit banged on the metal roof, yelling at him in racist and derogatory terms to get out.

“There was no engagement, no explanation,” says Qolani. “I tried to get out of the house. Then I realised people had gathered outside and I was naked. I tried to go back in because I was ashamed and embarrassed.”