Ahmed Kathrada House

Ahmed Kathrada House (AKH) formerly known as Helen Bowden Nurses’ Home is an occupation of Reclaim the City on 1 Beach Road, Green Point. The occupation was named after a struggle veteran Ahmed Kathrada. In March 2017, domestic workers, petrol attendants, carers, nurses and teachers decided to occupy a provincially owned building in protest of the then Premier Helen Zille’s decision to continue with the sale of Tafelberg site which activists, scholars, experts and national government called for the site to be used for social housing. 

We as the residents of AKH are no strangers to Green Point, many people are employed in areas such as Sea Point and surrounds. Apartheid’s spatial injustice classified people according to the colour of their skin which spoke to access to economic opportunities, good schools, social amenities and good public services, even worse this hindered Black and Coloured people to access “Whites Only” spaces. Our struggle today relies on the unaddressed spatial injustice, we still find ourselves trapped in isolated and barren areas with less to improve quality of our lives and children to inherit. 

We occupied in protest to #StoptheSale of Tafelberg, for six years we are living without electricity. We only have 8 taps for more than 700 people, only 10 ablution facilities and the local municipality collects refuse collection from 8 bins twice a week. These conditions add onto our distress, our quality of life and health deteriorates every dawn of democracy. We are helping to maintain Cape Town to run however, our most basic rights to basic services and housing are being trampled on. 

The Provincial Government is looking to evict residents as they have committed to build affordable housing across the Somerset Precinct in the coming years. Right now we have nowhere to go because they have failed to invest in affordable housing in well-located areas for decades.

Ahmed Kathrada House is not just a home. It is where we meet and deliberate on our work and campaigns. It is a place with a view of the sea. We too want to live close to where we work, we want to improve our lives, we want the systems holding and sustaining the status quo to be dismantled. We are no strangers to property owners of Green Point and surrounds as most of us work for them. We demand social and affordable housing #Land4PeopleNot4Profit 

WATCH OUR STORY: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CLF8oyU7G0w