Families live with rubbish and rats in Joburg stadium

Hundreds of people who lost their homes in evictions and fires in Johannesburg’s inner-city are living in tents and shacks in and around Wembley Stadium.

They were moved to the south years ago by the City of Johannesburg for temporary emergency accommodation (TEA). The first residents arrived in 2016. People are supposed to stay in TEA for six months before moving to permanent housing, but the city has no plans to move the people at Wembley Stadium.

None of the TEA facilities across the city are in good standing, and residents have not been moved from them into independent living or another form of housing.

“When we got here there was electricity and the toilets and water were working. There were even security guards. Now we have none of those things,” said Ethel Musosoza, who was moved to the stadium after her eviction from Chung Hua Mansions in Jeppe Street in 2017.

At least 350 people live on the property. Rubbish is piled up outside the building. Rats run through the site. The walls are covered in graffiti. Residents describe drug use and violence as part of daily life.

“It is very tough here for us. It’s dark and dirty and unsafe. It is even worse when you are a woman,” Musosoza said in the dimly lit room she shares with her two children, her mother-in-law and her aunt. “It feels like the government has forgotten about us.”

Some were initially housed in tents, with the city later saying it had to procure additional tents because it did not have enough available.

A devastating fire at the Cape York building in 2017 led to more people being moved to the stadium. By July 2018, the city acknowledged conditions in the tents were unsustainable and provided 70 prefabricated units with ablution facilities, running water and electricity.

There are container homes, but residents said these are reserved for South Africans. Many of the people who were displaced from inner-city buildings are allegedly immigrants. The container homes are in better condition than the main building, tents and shacks where most residents live.

A man from Tanzania who lost his passport and most of his possessions in an inner-city fire in 2018 sells food and snacks in the dark corridors of the building to survive.

“I can’t go anywhere else because I don’t have enough money. I can’t get a job because I don’t have a passport. The government people said they will help us get new passports after the fire but we are still waiting,” he said.

“We are here because we have no other options. What must I do? Where must I go? I don’t have family here, so it is very difficult. All of us do what we can to try to survive here.”

Johannesburg’s TEA policy says qualifying residents should generally remain in emergency accommodation for no longer than six months, though the period may be extended. One of the policy’s principles is “transition”, requiring the municipality to help residents move towards more permanent housing.

It also requires the department to develop an exit strategy within 90 days, including a maintenance plan and possible permanent resettlement options.

The city’s spokesperson said the main reason people stay in temporary emergency accommodation for a long time is that there aren’t enough housing units available.

Funding for TEA facilities has fallen significantly, from R30m in 2020/21 to R3.3m in 2024/25, and R9.1m in 2025/26.

Socio-Economic Rights Institute of South Africa (Seri) senior communications and advocacy officer Edward Molopi said people often become stuck in TEA because the circumstances that push them towards homelessness do not improve enough for them to find somewhere else to live.

Over time, he said, accommodation intended as a short-term intervention effectively becomes permanent. The city has a responsibility to maintain TEA sites, and more TEA is needed, he said.

The Khampepe commission of inquiry into the Usindiso fire also pointed to a shortage of housing. The commission recommended Johannesburg reconsider resources allocated to temporary emergency accommodation and social housing.

There is no running water or electricity at the Wembley Stadium temporary accommodation site.

“The issue is not simply around TEA,” said Wits University senior anthropology lecturer Matthew Wilhelm-Solomon.

“The issue is that at its root, there is a lack of affordable accommodation for low-income inner-city residents, and you’ll never resolve that issue just through TEA.”

He said TEA should be more than a way to keep people off the streets.

“Basic standards of living in dignity should be a characteristic of TEA,” he said. “A TEA should be a home of sorts. Certainly, issues of dignity and privacy should apply.”