Cape Town authorities on Wednesday (April 22) demolished a number of shacks illegally built on open ground during a nationwide lockdown aimed at limiting the spread of coronavirus.

Footage filmed at the Mpolweni informal settlement in Makhaza shows shacks being torn down.

Anton Du Plessis, one of the residents, said that people can't afford to pay rent and will simply return and put up structures again.

The City of Cape Town tore down shacks at the Mpolweni informal settlement in Khayelitsha this morning.

In terms of a court order granted last week, only the original 49 families who had been evicted last week were allowed to return to the land and erect structures. Since the weekend more squatters arrived and city police then moved in to have the structures demolished.

Anton Du Plessis, one of the the squatters, says they cannot afford to pay rent and will simply return and put up structures again.