Vrygrond, sometimes called Capricorn in parts of older records , is an informal settlement on the False Bay coast near Muizenberg, City of Cape Town. The name Vrygrond means “Free Ground” in Afrikaans; local stories link the name to either early fishing/trek settlement or to a legend about land being given by an Italian landowner.

Some sources date initial occupation around the early 1900s, while other local records note a first clear wave of settlement on the beach dunes around 1942. These early residents were largely self-reliant fishing families and labour migrants who settled informally on municipal/unused land. 

Throughout the 20th century Vrygrond’s residents lived without formal title to the land and were affected by apartheid spatial policies (group areas, forced removals and restrictions on African and other Black urban residence). The settlement was repeatedly reshaped by evictions, municipal interventions and the broader apartheid plan to reorganise where Black and ‘coloured’ people could live — a history shared across Cape Town’s informal settlements.

After 1994 Vrygrond continued to grow through rural-urban migration and in-migration from other parts of South Africa and neighbouring countries. Over time it has developed complex internal neighbourhoods (sometimes referenced under names such as Capricorn) and by recent local reporting and community profiles the population is commonly estimated in the tens of thousands (some community reports cite figures approaching ~40,000 residents). The settlement faces the typical challenges of informal communities: overcrowding, high unemployment, limited formal housing, service delivery backlogs, and social problems exacerbated by poverty.