Founded in 2011, Ndifuna Ukwazi is an activist organisation and law centre that advocates for access to well-located land and affordable housing for poor and working class families, communities and social movements. In our campaigns, we use a combination of community organising, research, advocacy and litigation to advance urban land justice and fuel systemic change. Our theory of change holds that leverage for social change is created by bringing together the use of the law, evidence-based research, media advocacy and, importantly, a movement of people. We believe that this convergence creates the right atmosphere for social change.
We’re an activist organisation and law centre that challenges the reproduction of spatial apartheid in Cape Town and promotes social, economic and racial justice through increased access to land and dignified homes.
Community & Movement Support
We provide community organising support to strengthen, support and sustain families, communities and social movements fighting for access to well-located land and housing.
Litigation & Legal Support
We use litigation, a pro bono housing law clinic, legal research and legal advocacy and movement lawyering to promote and protect people’s land and housing rights.
Research & Advocacy
We use research, rights-based popular education, storytelling and a media strategy to craft and advance evidence-based campaigns.
Security of Tenure
This programme compliments equitable access to land and resisting evictions, in ensuring that each and every citizen feels safe and secure in what they call home
Everyday we disrupt the systems that hold structural inequality in place by adopting innovative approaches to challenge long-standing societal issues.
Our three work programmes are i) broadening access to well-located land and housing; ii) resisting evictions and displacement; and iii) supporting and strengthening the families, communities and movements most affected by urban inequality. By adopting this unique approach we are not only responding to ongoing efforts to erase the land and housing rights of vulnerable people, but also providing meaningful support, guidance and solidarity to land and housing activists who are fighting for a more equal, spatially just and inclusive city.