Two weeks after the devastating fire at the Cape York building in inner-city Johannesburg, which left seven people dead and hundreds homeless, the City of Johannesburg announced on Monday it was embarking on a "crackdown on bad buildings". The most vulnerable people living in Cape York have been relocated to alternative accommodation, at a shelter in Turffontein, south of the inner city. Most have been left to fend for themselves on the street or in other occupied buildings. The crackdown entails raiding buildings and arresting "building hijackers" and unlawful migrants. The city indicates that it intends to scale up these operations to include 85 buildings it has identified as "problem properties". Meanwhile, in a different context, evictions and displacement are reaching a crisis point in Cape Town. In a recent publication, the Cape Town-based social justice organisation Ndifuna Ukwazi describes a new round of segregation and inequality as skyrocketing house prices and speculation...

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