Living without running water or working electricity‚ occupiers at the Helen Bowden Nurses Home in Cape Town’s Mouillie Point say they are committed to staying put until their demands are met. "I am prepared to stay until the government and the premier allow us to live here‚" says occupier and chairperson of lobby group Reclaim the City (RTC) Sheila Madikana‚ 51. She works as a domestic worker in Sea Point and rents a room there for her three children and granddaughter. She has been on the RDP housing list since 1997. "I thought it was very important for me to come and occupy‚ because where we live it is very expensive‚" Madikana says. "Every year the rent goes up. Sometimes it goes up so much that you can’t afford it … where I live I am paying R2‚500 per month for one room." Fifteen people stay at the Helen Bowden complex nightly‚ although Madikana says RTC hopes to slowly move more occupiers into now-empty rooms. People who live and work in Sea Point will be given priority to comba...
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