| | Josette Cole traces the history of 'squatting' in and around Cape Town - and at Crossroads in particular - since the mid-1970s. This is a story of housing shortage, influx control, 'coloured labour preference' , broken families and the struggle to find a place to live. For complex and peculiar reasons, not least of which was the determination of the people involved, Crossroads, alone among the major squatter settlements of the western Cape, gained official tolerance as an 'emergency camp' in 1976. In the space provided by this first retreat in the state's assault on the African population of Cape Town, the community developed and grew. And it acquired both an army of external contacts, helpers, do-gooders and political associates, and an internal complexity of political organisations and conflict. SAP (Structural Adjustment Programme) SADF (South African Defence Force) UDF (United Democratic Front) UWO (United Women's Organisation) CAYCO (Cape Youth Congress) witdoeke, Johnson Ngxobongwana, kitskonstabels, Sam Ndima Khayelitsha. |
