WHAT'S THE PROBLEM?
More than 5 million people in South Africa live in informal settlements, where daily life is marked by hardship, indignity and uncertainty.
Residents of informal settlements lack protection from forced evictions and adequate access to essential services such as water, sanitation, waste collection and electricity. Often, the settlements are built near rivers or in low-lying areas, which makes them especially vulnerable to flooding, waterlogging and mudslides, partly because authorities have failed to put in place protective measures. When heavy rains fall, their homes are washed away, their belongings destroyed, and their children’s health and education put at risk.
“Flooding has become the norm for us… when it floods you need gumboots to walk around the settlement as you don’t know whether you are walking in mud or faeces.” - Kenneth, resident of Barcelona informal settlement, Cape Town
CAMPAIGN ISSUE IN CONTEXT
South Africa’s informal settlements and underserved areas reflect a deep housing crisis rooted in colonial and apartheid policies. Segregation began under colonial rule and was crystalised by apartheid in 1948 through the Group Areas Act of 1950, which divided urban spaces by race and displaced around 850,000 Black, Coloured and Indian population groups.
Those forcibly moved were relocated to racially designated townships on the outskirts of cities, far from economic opportunities and essential services.
South Africa faces a severe housing crisis.
Watch this video to learn how the country inherited a vast housing backlog from the apartheid era, and how the legacy of inequality, deprivation, and racial segregation in access to housing still endures today.
In 1994, with the dismantling of apartheid and the establishment of a democratic government, South Africa began to right the wrongs of the apartheid era, and housing was recognised as a key part of this agenda. The post-apartheid Constitution of South Africa, which came into force in 1996, explicitly recognised the right to have access to adequate housing.
- Everyone has the right to have access to adequate housing.
- The state must take reasonable legislative and other measures, within its available resources, to achieve the progressive realisation of this right.
- No one may be evicted from their home, or have their home demolished, without an order of court made after considering all the relevant circumstances. No legislation may permit arbitrary evictions.
However, as the state embarked on its ambitious housing construction programme, it also ended up perpetuating spatial patterns from the apartheid era. Millions remain in unsafe areas where flooding, fire, and disease are daily realities.
When floods hit KwaZulu-Natal in 2022, 435 people died, and over 128,000 were affected. Since then, floods have struck Cape Town and eThekwini, yet disaster responses remain uneven and inadequate. The climate crisis is intensifying. The same communities denied housing justice are now facing the worst effects of extreme weather, trapped in cycles of loss and rebuilding.
full report
This report documents the experiences of people living in informal settlements and other underserved areas in South Africa. It is based on qualitative research carried out between February and September 2025.
It focused on the three large metropolitan municipalities – Cape Town, eThekwini and Johannesburg – as they account for some of the largest numbers of informal settlements in South Africa.
WHAT'S THE SOLUTION?
A holistic upgrading of informal settlements, with community participation, is the key to protecting lives and fulfilling the right to have access to adequate housing. This includes the regularisation of the land on which the informal settlement is located so that residents may have security of tenure, the installation of public structures and services such as water pipelines, sanitation systems, electricity connections, street lighting, paved roads, and waste collection, and making structural improvement to housing so that it is safe and habitable.
what is amnesty calling for?
Amnesty International is calling on all levels of government and the international community to take urgent, coordinated action to ensure housing justice and climate resilience for everyone.
to local government
Priortise the upgrading of informal settlements programme with a view to guarantee the right to
housing and put in place robust climate change adaptation and disaster risk reduction measures.
Take urgent action to provide permanent housing opportunities to people who have been living in temporary relocation areas or temporary emergency accommodation prioritising those who have been in these housing situations for more than six months.
Take urgent steps to ensure that all residents of informal settlements and Temporary Relocation
Areas, including those with restricted mobility, have access to adequate housing and essential
services in line South Africa’s human rights obligations.
to national DEPARTMENT OF HUMAN SETTLEMENTS
Ensure that any review of the Prevention of Illegal Eviction from and Unlawful Occupation of Land Act 19 of 1998 does not result in retrogression of the right to have access to adequate housing by lowering protections against forced evictions and homelessness, including by removing the obligation on the state to provide adequate alternative housing in case of evictions.
Ensure adequate resourcing of grants to local government to carry out upgrading of informal settlements in line with national and international human rights standards.
Review the downward trend in provision of housing options and increase the provision of housing options with a view to significantly reducing and ultimately ending the housing backlog.
To all states
Substantially increase funding for adaptation to climate change to address the adaptation finance
gap.
Rapidly and equitably phase out all fossil fuel extraction, production and use, and shift towards renewable energy for all, produced in a manner consistent with human rights, as quickly as possible based on a state’s capacities and responsibility for emissions.
Cease all new oil, gas and coal exploration and development, and stop financing fossil fuel projects domestically and abroad.
