Key Points:
- The Bredell land invasion must be understood primarily in terms of housing issues and access to secure tenure in urban areas.
- While the Bredell land invasion attracted a great deal of attention, it is not the first of its kind. CDE’s research shows that there have been more than 50 land invasions in South Africa since 1994 and ten occurred in the year before July 2001.
- It was reported on 3 July 2001 that the Pan Africanist Congress was selling plots for R25 at Bredell, Ekurhuleni and that thousands of people, especially from Tembisa, had paid for the plots.
- Of the large group of invaders, there were people who were genuinely seeking housing but had lost patience of being on waiting lists, thus placing pressure on the South African government to accelerate housing delivery and implement the land release programme effectively.
