/ 27 July 2001

CAPE SQUATTERS ATTEMPT LAND GRAB

ABOUT 200 angry South African shack dwellers on Wednesday occupied a piece of land in Cape Town’s Khayelitsha township, emulating a large-scale land invasion outside Johannesburg earlier this month. Police said the squatters moved on to the private land during the afternoon and demanded the government build them houses. The land invaders measured out plots, marked them with wire, and started digging trenches around them. As the sun went down, the number of squatters dwindled to a handful. – AFP