Tommy Trenchard/Panos Pictures

Community leader Unathi Dyanthi, sits outside an abandoned armoury building on an old military base in the Tamboerskloof neighbourhood dating back to 1893. This building, and others on the base, are now being occupied by dozens of families. Dyanthi has started a small permaculture farm on the property to help support himself and the community.

Since 2017, the Reclaim the City movement has been supporting the occupation of various abandoned buildings in central Cape Town in order to protest against gentrification and the lack of affordable housing near the city centre, and to provide a refuge for those being evicted from their homes. During the apartheid era non-white residents were forcibly removed from much of central Cape Town. Nearly three decades later the city remains chronically divided along ethnic and socio-economic lines, while South Africa remains the world's most unequal country, according to the World Bank.