Oasis Place

The Cape Flats (Afrikaans: Die Kaapse Vlakte) is a large densely-populated area situated to the southeast of Cape Town. It was once referred to as “apartheid’s dumping ground”. From the 1950s, the apartheid government forced “Non White” South Africans to move out of central urban areas of Cape Town into marginalised government-built townships on the Cape Flats. Today, due in large part to that legacy, the Cape Flats are rife with crime and gangsterism. Unemployment, homelessness, alcoholism, drug abuse, HIV and poverty help to fuel a cycle of violence and trauma. Countless children in the Cape Flats don’t attend school as they are too afraid of violence. Many of them decide to live on the streets rather than in an environment of fear. For all those people, OASIS is offering a helping hand. OASIS is a registered non-profit organisation. Founder Clifford Martinus grew up in the Cape Flats himself but had the increasingly rare privilege of a healthy family environment, educated with social values and purpose. Through seeing where a lot of his friends and others around him ended up, Clifford wanted to make a positive impact. After many years of community work in the Cape Flats, he founded OASIS in