Hundreds destitute in Cape Town following strong winds.

18 Mar, 2008

Hundreds of people have been left destitute in Cape Town after strong winds destroyed their homes on 15 March. Many of the victims are former squatters who were evicted from unfinished government housing at Delft on the impoverished Cape Flats in mid-February and who had been sheltering in tents in the area ever since.

The winds, which reached speeds of up to 90 km per hour, also fuelled a fire in the Sheffield informal settlement on the Cape Flats, destroying 16 shacks and leaving 28 people homeless, and caused scaffolding in the city centre to collapse, the South African Press Association reports.