An eviction order has been issued for the unlawful Castle of Good Hope squatters, says a Cape Argus report.

Illegal occupiers at the city centre landmark have until 17 October to vacate the site after the Western Cape High Court granted an eviction order to the national Public Works Department (DPW) to remove them.

The occupants, who live in tents and makeshift structures along the castle’s moat, have been living there since the Covid-19 lockdown in 2020.

Yesterday squatters at the Castle said they were destitute and had nowhere else to go. One of them, Natasha Goliath, said they needed support to cancel the eviction order.

‘We don’t have anywhere else to go otherwise we wouldn’t be here. There were no safe spaces that were mentioned to us. All the safe spaces near are full and they are like prisons, we want to be free. If the city wants to move us, they are going to have to move all of us as a community because we hustle together. I have been here for a year and many have been here for years. We want our own grounds where we can build our shacks and eventually get houses. We need to fight this eviction but we can’t do it alone.’

However, DPW MEC Dean Macpherson said the eviction order serves as a boost for Cape Town’s economy ahead of the summer tourism season and ‘reinforces our position that state assets should be looked after and used for public good’.

Full Cape Argus report