Protests have marred the start of the City of Cape Town's Affordable Housing Indaba.

Housing activists on Friday demonstrated outside the Cape Town International Convention Centre (CTICC) amid a strong police presence, where the indaba was set to kick-off.

Activists from Reclaim the City, along with community leaders, demanded that Human Settlements Minister Mmamoloko Kubayi address them.

Outraged community leaders were upset because they claim to have been excluded from the indaba, which had mainly developers and stakeholders from the private sector in attendance.

Nikelwa Maqula, a community activist from Khayelitsha, criticised the fact that the indaba was going ahead without community involvement.

"No one consulted with us or engaged us. We are saying that nothing can happen without us being part of it. Communities were not invited to join this indaba. The mayor made no effort to reach our representatives and failed to respond when they reached out to him.

"Again, we are on the outside, trying to have our voices heard."

The protest had prompted Kubayi and her provincial counterpart, MEC Tertius Simmers, as well as mayoral committee member for human settlements, Malusi Booi, to address the disgruntled group.

Maqula told the minister about the challenges homeless occupiers of land experienced daily and how the Covid-19 pandemic had plunged households into poverty.

"We are not criminals; we are families who need homes. The need for affordable housing has been even more urgent since Covid-19, and we refuse to be treated as criminals rather than collaborators in response to this crisis," she said.

Maqula also urged the minister to urgently intervene in the scrapping of the unlawful occupation by-law and the streets, public places, and noise nuisances by-law approved by the City of Cape Town last year.

"The unlawful occupation by-law and the streets, public places and noise nuisances by-law must be scrapped immediately because they criminalise poor people for choices made in the absence of affordable housing," she said.

The streets by-law gave law enforcement officers increased powers in dealing with, for example, the homeless, while the unlawful occupation by-law aimed to protect land and buildings from illegal occupation.

Kubayi told protesters she would be setting up a committee to address all their concerns and report back within two weeks.

"I know of 16 informal settlements that are without services.

I arrived at the community hall in Khayelitsha recently and asked community committees to rally residents so I could give a progress report on how the government's plans are going," she said.

Kubayi added: "We are here to consolidate our public-private partnerships today; my budget isn't sufficient, which is why today is important. Our solutions are based on different categories such as those who are able to fully pay for houses and those who would require [a] state subsidy."

Meanwhile, inside the indaba, while Cape Town mayor Geordin Hill-Lewis was delivering his opening speech, protesters managed to get inside the venue armed with posters which read: "Mayor, Minister, Premier: You are needed outside @ the peoples housing Indaba outside [sic]."

In response, Hill-Lewis said protesters were welcome to join proceedings.

"We have to speed up asset ownership in Cape Town to undo the legacy of apartheid spatial planning," he said.