Literature from the global South has highlighted the role of self-organized “grassroots” groups in championing the rights of the poor, securing specific objectives (e.g. service provision) and strengthening individual and collective capacity. Less attention has been paid to what happens when a poor community is provided with services in the context of weak collective capacity and in the absence of grassroots organization. This case study describes a former informal settlement in Cape Town, where residents were awarded formal housing by the state without a “struggle” and thus without developing the collective drive, capacity or leadership necessary to be full participants in the ensuing process. The paper assesses the community's struggle to assert itself collectively over time, linking their pre-development community diversity to subsequent exclusion from the development process and continuing problems of post-development community consolidation. The implications of becoming beneficiaries without community agreement, involvement, organization or capacity are considered.
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