10/06/2026
Many Somerset West residents have expressed concern about the state of homelessness in our village, so we thought we'd share an official statement from our ward councillor Norman McFarlane:
"Many complaints have been forwarded by residents in Somerset West about homeless people squatting illegally on City-owned land. In particular, De Beers Park opposite the police station, across Main Road in front of Southey Vines, the banks of the Lourens River between Main Road and Andries Pretorius Street, and adjacent to the Old Bridge near the old Pick and Pay, commonly known as “Die Pype”.
It is important to remember that homelessness is not a crime. People end up on the street for many reasons, including falling on hard economic times (prevalent during the COVID-19 pandemic), substance abuse, and domestic violence, among others.
The expectation, once a complaint has been laid with Law Enforcement on the number 021 480 7700, is that the illegal squatters will be summarily removed by Law Enforcement. It is not as simple as that.
For those of us who do not live in close proximity to such an illegal settlement, it might be easy to shrug it off as “not my problem”. For those who do, it must be the most awful experience. Complaints I receive include drug abuse, prostitution, cable burning, defecation and urination in public, not to forget the possibility of break-ins and assault.
It is often assumed that the homeless question arose during the COVID-19 pandemic, but that is incorrect since homelessness has been a problem in Somerset West for many years more than that.
Because of the Prevention Illegal Evictions Act, it has become legally impossible to simply remove people who squat on City-owned land. The PIE Act prohibits evictions unless due process has been followed. This requires that each illegal squatter must be processed by Law Enforcement and Social Development Services as a first order of business.
This entails the serving of a Section 56 notice on each individual, as well as the subsequent statutory processes that must be followed. In tandem with this process, Social Development Services also engages with each individual in an attempt to offer them access to alternative housing, such as a safe space, reintegration into mainstream society, or reuniting with the family.
This range of statutory processes that must take place and it take months. All these processes must be meticulously documented pending an application to the Western Cape High Court for an eviction order per individual. This process has been successful elsewhere in the City of Cape Town, for example, at the Greenpoint Tennis Courts, and in the Cape Town CBD around the Cape Town Castle. The sheriff of the court has served eviction notices on all the people squatting illegally in those two areas, who were removed.
Again, there is a misunderstanding on the part of the public. The assumption is that the court orders handed down for those two areas automatically apply to other areas in the City where there are illegal squatters. This is not true. At each location, separate eviction orders must be handed down for each illegal squatter.
The population of illegal squatters is a moving target, because they tend to move from area to area. This means when they leave one area to move to another, that entire process has to commence from scratch again.
Another common complaint is that, having reported an illegal squatter to Law Enforcement, the C3 notification is closed without the illegal squatter having been removed. It is then suggested that “nothing has been done”. This is not true. It means that Law Enforcement and Social Development Services have commenced the statutory interactions with each of the reported illegal squatters.
There is a belief that SAPS has a role to play in the removal of illegal squatters. This is untrue. Illegal squatting is a by-law violation; it is not a criminal offence. SAPS has no jurisdiction over by-law violations. It is the mandate of the City’s Law Enforcement and Social Development Services to deal with illegal squatters on City land.
The only role SAPS has to play is in the event of criminal activity in such locations, but SAPS requires prima facie evidence of a crime and also a sworn affidavit before it will act.
One of the major difficulties that the City confronts with this problem is the insistence on the part of members of the public to provide support to illegal squatters in the form of food, materials to build structures, donation of tents, airtime and so forth. I am making an earnest appeal to all residents in the ward to desist from this practice and rather donate to one of the institutions in the ward that provides safe spaces for homeless people, such as the Somerset West Night Shelter, or the Homeless Support Centre in Strand. This applies equally to homeless people who beg on the streets. Giving money to them enables their staying on the street and inevitably squatting somewhere illegally.
In conclusion, it is worth noting that the City of Cape Town abides by the rule of law, which means it follows the statutory processes it must to evict illegal squatters on City-owned land. These processes are currently underway to acquire eviction orders for the squatters on De Beers Park and on the sidewalk in front of Southey Vines."
