Participating Countries
Freedom Park Information
- Freedom Park is 40km from Cape Town.
- Freedom Park is situated in Tafelsig, on the south-eastern edge of Mitchell’s Plain, a township that was created during the Apartheid.
- The population in this township is approximately 50,000 people.
- Freedom Park was so named, when it was established on Freedom Day- a South African public holiday in 1998.
- Residents of back yard shacks occupied the land as they were frustrated by the lack of sourcing land for housing and had been on the waiting list for houses.
- These people on the list built shacks on an area of land known as ‘The Field’, in an effort to claim a place of their own.
- A high profile row followed between the city and the occupants, with bulldozers and the army being called in to remove them.
- With the help of President Nelson Mandela, the crisis was resolved and an agreement was reached between the City of Cape Town and the Freedom Park community.
- It was not until 2001 that the city agreed to provide basic infrastructure to the community, after the inhabitants had lived without water and sanitation facilities for 3yrs.
- The pledge for this township is 493 houses.
- A range of house types are being offered to beneficiaries including row houses, semi-detached and free standing.
- Construction is due to begin in May and it is here in Freedom Park that 1,350 volunteers will descend on Cape Town for the annual Township Challenge in November.