JOHANNESBURG, SOUTH AFRICA — Hundreds of people have been stuck for years in “temporary” accommodation, living in squalid conditions across Johannesburg.
About 350 people displaced by inner-city fires and evictions have lived at Wembley Stadium for almost 10 years. The City of Johannesburg moved them there as part of its Temporary Emergency Accommodation (TEA) programme.
The first residents arrived in 2016. People are generally supposed to stay in TEA for no longer than six months before moving towards permanent housing. However, a shortage of suitable housing has left residents at Wembley with no clear route into permanent homes.
Hundreds of people who lost their homes through evictions or fires in Johannesburg’s inner city now live in tents, shacks and other makeshift accommodation in and around the stadium.
Conditions have deteriorated significantly since residents first arrived.
“When we got here there was electricity, and the toilets and water were working. There were even security guards here. Now we have none of those things,” said Ethel Musosoza, who moved to the stadium following her eviction from Chung Hua Mansions on Jeppe Street in 2017.
At least 350 people live on the property. Rubbish is piling up outside the building, rats move through the site and graffiti covers the walls. Residents also 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. She shares a dimly lit room with her two children, mother-in-law and aunt.
“It feels like the government has forgotten about us.”
Other Wembley residents came from Fattis Mansions, another inner-city building, after an eviction in July 2017. The Johannesburg High Court ordered the City to assess people at risk of homelessness and provide suitable Temporary Emergency Accommodation, including appropriate toilets and security.
Authorities initially housed some residents in tents. The City later said it had to procure additional tents because it did not have enough available.
A devastating fire at the Cape York building in 2017 brought more displaced residents to Wembley Stadium. By July 2018, the City had acknowledged that conditions in the tents were unsustainable. It announced 70 prefabricated units with ablution facilities, running water and electricity.
Container homes remain at the site, but residents say authorities have reserved them for South Africans. Many people displaced from Johannesburg’s inner-city buildings are immigrants.
Residents say the container homes are in better condition than the main building, tents and shacks where many people continue to live.
A Tanzanian man who lost his passport and most of his possessions in an inner-city fire in 2018 now sells food and snacks in the dark corridors of the building to survive. He did not want to give his name.
“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 anymore. 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 and survive here.”
The conditions at Wembley expose a wider problem with Johannesburg’s Temporary Emergency Accommodation system.
The City’s own TEA policy says qualifying residents should generally remain in emergency accommodation for no longer than six months, although authorities can extend that period. One of the policy’s principles is “transition”, which requires the municipality to help residents move towards more permanent housing.
The policy makes clear that TEA should continuously serve people facing housing emergencies. Authorities should not regard it as permanent housing “under any circumstances whatsoever”.
It also requires the department to develop an exit strategy within 90 days. That strategy should include a maintenance plan and possible permanent resettlement options.
Yet residents have remained at Wembley for years.
The City has identified a shortage of available housing units as one of the main reasons people remain in Temporary Emergency Accommodation for extended periods.
Funding has also come under pressure. The City’s allocation for TEA facilities fell from R30 million in 2020/21 to R3.3 million in 2024/25. It increased to R9.1 million in 2025/26.
Socio-Economic Rights Institute of South Africa (SERI) senior communications and advocacy officer Edward Molopi said people often become trapped in TEA because the circumstances that pushed them towards homelessness have not improved enough for them to secure alternative accommodation.
Over time, accommodation intended as a short-term intervention effectively becomes permanent. Molopi said the City also has a responsibility to maintain TEA sites and needs to provide more emergency accommodation.
Johannesburg’s housing shortage also came under scrutiny during the Khampepe Commission of Inquiry into the Usindiso building fire. The Commission recommended that the City reconsider the resources allocated to Temporary Emergency Accommodation and social housing.
Almost a decade after the first residents arrived at Wembley Stadium, families are still waiting for the transition they expected would take months.
Their experience exposes the widening gap between Johannesburg’s emergency housing policy and the reality facing people who depend on it. Temporary accommodation has become a long-term home for hundreds of residents, while many continue to live without the basic conditions they were promised.
