Du Noon, Cape Town

Du Noon is what South Africans call an "informal settlement" or a "previously disadvantaged area" or a "township". It's situated to the east of Table View, and north of Killarney Gardens. The people who live in Du Noon are very poor and many live in "wendy houses" in the back-yard garden of brick houses. Unemployment levels are high, with many of those who are being employed being domestic workers in the nearby affluent areas.

photo archive of Du Noon

Fire in Du Noon

11 Nov 2005	A blaze (at the Thembeni informal settlement in Du Noon) razes 300 shacks, leaving no-one injured but as many as 1 500 people homeless. The blaze started at 4am. Affected people are being accommodated in a community hall.
Dec 2005	Hundreds of shacks are destroyed in a fire. "A Primus stove explodes and 750 houses burn down. In white culture, that last happened during the Great Fire of London in 1666. In Du Noon it happens every year." Andrew Freeborn
Jul 2004	More than 40 people lost their homes in a fire (nobody seriously injured).
Feb 2004	A fire in Du Noon results in a number of people losing their houses/shacks.

Living in Du Noon

Du Noon Xenophobia

A number of Angolan and Namibian “foreigners” were living in Du Noon. The local population felt that the “foreigners” were taking their jobs and their women, and alleged that an Angolan operating a shebeen refused to extend credit to South Africans. The situation came to a head in January 2001, when fighting broke out between the two groups on the night of 4/5 January 2001 and a local resident was killed. In response, residents drove about 50 "foreigners" from their homes, with property being destroyed and possessions stolen. The foreigners first sought refuge with the Milnerton/Table View South African Police Services, who initially refused to become involved. Eventually, the the Blaauwberg administration of the City of Cape Town provided temporary shelter in Atlantis but, after complaints that the accommodation was too far from Cape Town, the foreigners were relocated to a sportsfield closer to Du Noon, where they were housed in tents. The majority of the "foreigners" were thereafter repatriated to Namibia. The remaining foreigners found alternative accommodation of their own in settlements in the area. Some of the foreigners were married to South Africans and it was therefore the responsibility of the local authority to provide housing to these families.