On Friday, 28 June 2024, SERI executive director Nomzamo Zondo spoke on a panel entitled "Fearless Cities: Activism, Advocacy, and the Law," a discussion following the screening of the new documentary 'Mother City'. On the panel, Nomzamo spoke alongside Mandisa Shandu (SERI board member and former executive director of Ndifuna Ukwazi), Nkosikhona Swaartbooi (film protagonist and former organiser at Ndifuna Ukwazi and later Social Justice Coalition), and Dr Jonty Cogger, (attorney at Ndifuna Ukwazi). The discussion was facilitated by the documentary editor, Khalid Shamis. The Nelson Mandela Foundation and the 26th Encounters South African International Documentary Festival collaboratively hosted the screening and panel discussion.
In the discussion, Nomzamo discussed the housing crisis in Cape Town and a recent SERI case that provided representation to unhoused people in Cape Town whom the City sought to evict. She also reflected on the nature of the housing crisis in Johannesburg's inner city. Nomzamo commended the team behind the film for effectively telling such a powerful story that depicts the effects of stagnant land reform and the failure of metros to tackle the legacies of apartheid spatial planning.
The documentary, Mother City, follows the work of activists from Ndifuna Ukwazi, Reclaim the City and Social Justice Campaign, amongst others who are confronting Cape Town's housing crisis by reimagining the future of the inner City to include the poor and working class by exploring housing solutions that could produce low-cost housing with Cape Town's inner City. It follows the journey of the Tafelburg case recently heard in the Supreme Court of Appeal.