Friends to walk from Durban to Cape Town for dignified homes
Wandile Mthiyane and Tshepo Mathekga plan a 1,600km walk from Durban to Cape Town to raise awareness about South Africa’s housing crisis and support dignified housing solutions.
Five weeks ago, a KwaMashu man buried his aunt - a woman he says spent a long time waiting for an RDP house that never came.
Wandile Mthiyane is now raising awareness about South Africa’s housing crisis.
He and his community builder friend Tshepo Mathekga will begin a 1,600-kilometre walk from Durban to Cape Town for the cause.
They are due to set off on the 15th of April with a plan to arrive in Cape Town on Youth Day.
Turning pain into purpose
Mthiyane says when he six-years-old, living in an informal settlement in Inanda, government officials came and wrote a number “1167” on their mud-brick shack.
He says it's the same number his late aunt, Ntombi Khanyile, was given on the housing waiting list.
I'm 32-years-old now and I got a call to say she passed away. The first thing that hit me is that she passed away in that same mud brick shack.
"So, our campaign is about the idea that we are done waiting, we want to be the change we want to see. Ironically, the same time I got the news, I also got the news that I was accepted into Harvard’s graduate school of design, where I'm building an AI platform that can help people like my aunt."
Mthiyane, who also studied at DUT, says they will also be raising funds for Ubuntu Home, his platform that is aimed at helping people design, finance and build dignified homes.
Highlighting south africa’s growing housing crisis
He says Cape Town represents the other side of the crisis, being one of the most unequal and unaffordable cities on the continent.
READ: Durban Human Rights Day: Two men carry 65kg to promote unity, equality
" Which is why we're walking to Cape Town where locals don't feel like they can afford their own city. But sometimes it feels like these are stats, right? So, when I share the story of my life, the story of my aunt, it humanises that. That like there's real people right now who, if there's slight rainfall, don't know if they're going to make it.
“And I think we need to bring back the humanity to this challenge and also, we need to be the change we want to see. I think if complaining to the government is not working, I think building homes is not rocket science. I want to give people the tool to do that."
According to eThekwini Municipality’s 2025/2026 Integrated Development Plan, the housing backlog stands at around 474,000 homes - affecting roughly 1.6 million people.
It's nearly 42 percent of the city’s population.
About two-thirds of the backlog is in informal settlements, with many others living in backyard dwellings, rural homes, and temporary structures.
Mthiyane and Mathekga plan to walk around 27 kilometres every day over the two-month journey.
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