City Power(less)

Rising unemployment and living costs are pushing more people to seek refuge in city parks and on street corners. With the number of homeless people on the increase, a turf war between residents and the displaced intensifies. Find more exclusive content on Carte Blanche: The Podcast: https://linktr.ee/carteblanchetv

𝗧𝗵𝗶𝘀 𝘀𝘁𝗼𝗿𝘆 𝗼𝗿𝗶𝗴𝗶𝗻𝗮𝗹𝗹𝘆 𝗮𝗶𝗿𝗲𝗱 𝗼𝗻 𝟯𝟭 𝗠𝗮𝗿𝗰𝗵 𝟮𝟬𝟮𝟰. The City of Johannesburg (COJ) is building an informal settlement for displaced residents. With a 500 000 housing backlog, the city has repeatedly failed to deliver on its housing projects, leaving thousands of residents without adequate homes. Last year, when 77 people died in a massive blaze at the Usindiso building downtown, the city’s skewed priorities and lack of preparedness were exposed. Every municipality is required to provide temporary shelters for residents caught in a major disaster – but the COJ hadn’t made any arrangements. So, it built 300 one-room, paper-thin tin shacks at an eye-watering R4.2 million. But should shacks cost ratepayers millions of rands? Carte Blanche investigates. Find more exclusive content on Carte Blanche: The Podcast: https://linktr.ee/carteblanchetv

𝗧𝗵𝗶𝘀 𝘀𝘁𝗼𝗿𝘆 𝗼𝗿𝗶𝗴𝗶𝗻𝗮𝗹𝗹𝘆 𝗮𝗶𝗿𝗲𝗱 𝗼𝗻 𝟭𝟳 𝗠𝗮𝗿𝗰𝗵 𝟮𝟬𝟮𝟰. In the town of Despatch in the Eastern Cape, residents sleep with one eye open. On most nights, brazen robbers wielding pangas and guns stalk their streets, breaking in and terrorising the community in their homes. But are these just opportunistic criminals or are they recruits from gangs entrenched in Gqeberha’s inner city? From drug dealing to gun smuggling, the biggest city in the Eastern Cape has long been wracked by criminal enterprises vying for turf. Now, similarly violent operators are making the rural outskirts their stronghold. As residents and private security companies fight back, Carte Blanche investigates why this community has become such an easy target. Find more exclusive content on Carte Blanche: The Podcast: https://linktr.ee/carteblanchetv

One-room shacks made of paper-thin iron sheets… The City of Joburg is building shacks for people who have been displaced. But what looks like a cheaply built infrastructure has a multi-million rand price tag. Find more exclusive content on Carte Blanche: The Podcast: https://linktr.ee/carteblanchetv