Cape Town boom a bust for long-time tenants

Cape Town

AS a child in the 1970s, Charmaine Marcus was forcefully removed from her Cape Town neighbourhood when the apartheid government declared it a whites-only area.

Now, as a property boom transforms once-neglected suburbs into trendy and expensive enclaves, she faces being pushed completely out of the city she calls home.

"It seems to me they just don't want us here," says Ms Marcus, who is fighting a pending eviction in court after a dispute with her landlord.

"But this is our city. We are this city."

South Africa's slowing economy and political uncertainty have curtailed the property market countrywide.

But Cape Town has proven to be an exception, with houses here on average 78.5 p…