We did it! 🏆✨ Thanks to YOUR support, Oasis is officially the Best Thrift Shop in Cape Town!

We’re so proud to have won Best Thrift Shop in the Cape Tourism Awards 2025!

Thrifting has never been more exciting! Cape Town has become a hotspot for vintage gems, pre-loved treasures, and one-of a kind finds, and at Oasis, we’ve taken it to the next level.

Forget boring old thrift stores! Oasis Charity Shop in Claremont is a treasure hunter’s paradise! And the best part? By shopping at Oasis, you’re not just finding treasures, you’re empowering people with intellectual disabilities to live, work, and thrive in their community.

Best Thrift Shop in the Cape… that’s us! 🤩💚
Thanks for loving all things pre-loved! Sustainable style on a mission!

What makes the Oasis Charity Shops so special?

Oasis Charity Shop in Claremont is actually five shops connected, so get ready to spend some serious browsing  time. Everything here is pre-loved, and there’s a ton of cool stuff to explore:

• There’s a bric-a-brac section filled with unique homeware, trinkets, and vintage finds that will make your gran jealous.
• Fashion enthusiasts will be thrilled by the beautiful selection of clothing. Fashion lovers will fall in love with the fabulous clothes, sparkling jewellery, and stylish accessories waiting to be discovered, each piece with its own story and charm. You might even score a designer piece for next to nothing!
• Furniture and books are also well represented, so there’s something for everyone.

The staff are all super friendly and will happily help you on your shopping adventure.

And when you’ve found that perfect item, don’t forget to visit our on-site bakery for fresh muffins, Swiss rolls, or warm bread. Yum!

Oasis Charity Shops in Fish Hoek has levelled up with two fabulous shops — a book nook bursting with brilliant reads, and a bric-a-brac & vintage fashion shop filled with stunning,quirky, charming fashion finds. Come shop, explore, and treat yourself!

So, ditch the usual stores and head to one of the Oasis Charity Shops in Cape Town. You’ll have a blast hunting for treasures, and your good vibes will help people with intellectual disabilities.

It’s a win-win! So pop in!

Oasis Charity Shops Claremont

📍 Corner of Lee and Imam Haron Road, Claremont
🕰️ Monday to Friday: 8:30am – 4pm
Saturday: 8:30am – 1pm
Closed on Sundays and Public Holidays

Or pop into our Fish Hoek Charity shop

📍 Somerset House, 6 Recreation Road, Fish Hoek
🕰️ Monday to Friday: 8:30am – 4pm
Saturday: 8:30am – 1pm
Closed on Sundays and Public Holidays

With heartfelt gratitude to Cape Tourism, Africa Works, and all the generous sponsors for this incredible initiative honouring Cape Town’s Charity Shops, your recognition means the world to us.

https://www.capetourism.com/award-category/gold/

https://www.capetourism.com/thrift-stores-in-cape-town/

https://www.africaworks.co/

The Chair’s Report reflects a year of resilience, gratitude, and meaningful progress for Oasis, despite the deep loss of our beloved President, Rosemary de Waal.

The period saw strengthened governance, renewed staffing capacity, vital donor-funded improvements to our transport fleet and properties, expanded partnerships, and significant developments such as wage subsidies for 110 workshop workers.

Our day centres, houses, adult groups and protective workshops all continued to advance opportunities and dignity for people with intellectual disabilities, thanks to the unwavering dedication of our staff, volunteers, donors, and partners.

Together, we move forward with renewed purpose as we continue building hope, opportunity, and a more inclusive community for all.

Click here to read the Full Annual Report 2024/2025 

Click here to view the Annual Financial Statements

Nestled in the heart of Claremont, Oasis Charity Shops has earned its place as a nominee for the community’s Best Thrift Shop — not only for its unbeatable deals and quality finds but also for the heart and purpose behind every sale.

Step through the doors and you’re met with more than just shelves of affordable books, clothing, homeware, and vintage treasures. You’re stepping into a space driven by compassion and social impact.

Every purchase made directly supports the Oasis Association, which provides care and opportunities to intellectually disabled individuals. It’s a place where everyday shopping becomes a powerful act of giving.

Oasis Claremont stands out for its welcoming atmosphere, friendly staff, and thoughtfully curated stock. Shoppers return time and again for the thrill of thrifting — whether searching for a good book on a rainy day, revamping a wardrobe sustainably, or picking up unique décor pieces. New items are donated regularly, keeping the shelves vibrant and full of surprises.

And let’s not forget the mouthwatering selection of home-baked goods, including fresh breads and their legendary shortbread biscuits — a treat that keeps customers coming back for more.

The Oasis Charity Shops are also deeply embedded in the Claremont and Fish Hoek communities. Locals donate generously, knowing their preloved items will be appreciated by others and benefit a greater cause. The staff know their regulars by name, creating a warm, familiar, and inclusive environment.

What truly sets the Oasis Charity Shops apart is their blend of purpose and personality. It’s a place where you can find a bargain, make a difference, and feel at home — all in one visit.

In a world of fast fashion and faceless retail, Oasis offers something real: community, sustainability, and soul.

Oasis Charity Shops Claremont
Our charming Claremont village of shops.
Corner of Lee and Imam Haron Road, Claremont.

Opening Hours:
Monday to Friday: 8:30am – 4pm
Saturday: 8:30am – 1:00 pm
Closed on Sundays and Public Holidays.

Oasis Charity Shops Fish Hoek
Somerset House,
6 Recreation Road, Fish Hoek.

Opening Hours:
Monday to Friday: 8:30am- 4pm
Saturday: 8:30am – 1:00pm
Closed on Sundays and Public Holidays.

Thank you for your continued support.

Did you know that Oasis offers a bulk shredding service for
confidential documents.

A Certificate of destruction is issued once shredding is complete.

Shredding process

• • • Done in an enclosed area.
    • Carried out by intellectually challenged beneficiaries.
    • No public access (to comply with POPIA regulations)

Charges

• • R6 per kg (depending on volume).
  • R250 collection fee (if collection is required).

No need to remove

• • Sleeves, paperclips, or staples or documents from files
    Oasis will handle it.

Should you need us to collect, we can arrange collection. Our collection times are as follows:

• • Monday to Friday: 10am – 1pm.
    R250 collection fee (if collection is required).

Invoice and payment

• • Invoice sent after collection and weighing.
  • Certificate of destruction issued after payment confirmation.

Please contact Beraldine recycling@oasis.org.za or call 021 671 2698 for more information.

Individual Drop-offs
(No charge for small volumes dropped off)

• Monday to Friday: 8:30am – 4:00pm
• Saturday: 8:30am – 1:00pm
• Drop-off location:
  Corner of Lee and Imam Haron Road, Claremont.

Please contact Beraldine recycling@oasis.org.za or call 021 671 2698 for more information.

If you need more information about our confidential paper shredding services please contact Beraldine at recycling@oasis.org.za

Oasis Charity Shops are proud to celebrate Second Hand September alongside other thrift champions across Cape Town! At the same time, the Oasis Association — providing opportunities to people with intellectual disabilities — salutes every generous soul who donates stock to our shops in Claremont, Fish Hoek, and Elsies River. 💚

Founded by Oxfam UK in 2019, Second Hand September has become a global movement that encourages us all to pause, reflect, and rethink our choices. It’s all about the circular economy: giving preloved items a new lease of life while reducing landfill waste caused by fast fashion and throw-away culture.

✨ Here’s the truth: our homes are often overflowing with things we don’t want, need, or use. By donating them to a charity shop, you can transform “clutter” into life-changing opportunities for others.

And Oasis is living proof of that impact. Recently nominated for a Cape Tourism Best Thrift Shop Award, our shops are often described as “a happy place” — where customers relax in Claremont’s tea garden over scones and legendary shortbread, browse shelves bursting with bargains, discover vintage treasures, or pick up functional items and freshly baked bread.

Executive Director, Gail Bester, sums it up perfectly:

“It is so important that every charity shop in Cape Town receives
public support. We are all doing our best to support the beneficiaries
of our varied work. At Oasis, just one clean, up-to-date book can pay for someone’s seat on our daily passenger buses and kombis.”

 

So this Second Hand September, let’s shop with purpose, declutter with heart, and keep the circle of giving alive. 🌸♻️

Shop Oasis.
Shop happiness.
Shop second hand.

📍 Oasis Charity Shops Claremont
Our charming Claremont village of shops.
Corner of Lee and Imam Haron Road, Claremont.
⏰ Opening Hours:
Monday to Friday: 8:30am – 4pm
Saturday: 8:30am – 1:00 pm
✖️ Closed on Sundays and Public Holidays.

📍 Oasis Charity Shops Fish Hoek
Somerset House,
6 Recreation Road, Fish Hoek.
⏰ Opening Hours:
Monday to Friday: 8:30am- 4pm
Saturday: 8:30am – 1:00pm
✖️ Closed on Sundays and Public Holidays.

Thank you for your continued support.

It is with great sorrow I inform you that Rosemary de Waal, our much loved and respected Honorary President and long-standing member of the Oasis Association Board of Management, passed away on Tuesday 28 January 2025.  On behalf of the Oasis community, I send condolences to her family, circle of friends and all who worked with her.

Rosemary’s work with Oasis has left a considerable legacy in the field of intellectual disability.  Almost four decades ago, she played a key role as a social worker at an Oasis centre in Elsies River. As a volunteer in subsequent years, she served on numerous Oasis committees and was involved in developing day care centres in Ravensmead and Delft; group homes in Kenwyn, Claremont and Ruyterwacht and the current protective workshop in Elsies River.

Her unswerving loyalty to people with intellectual disability is best illustrated by many years of serving on the Board. She held various offices – Chair, Vice-chair, Trustee and signatory.  At the time of Rosemary’s passing, she was a member of the Board elected sub- committee working on the housing needs of ageing residents.

Rosemary was a volunteer extraordinaire. Oasis wasn’t the only beneficiary of her generosity, which to name some, embraced education, social housing, early childhood development, and intellectual disability. She invested resources, unusual time commitments and broad expertise in contributing to the development of sustainable, caring environments. In these contexts, her work was characterized by empathy, hope, humility and a commitment to ensuring the rights and dignity of vulnerable people.

She was an unassuming, quiet hero, who made an immeasurable contribution to improving the lives of so many.

 

Rosemary was also a valued colleague, mentor and friend to me. Over the years, we often met in my office garden, drinking copious cups of coffee and laughing at ourselves while we tried to solve the imponderables that life presented to us.

She had a lovely sense of humour, a sharp mind which would cut to the chase and above all, a heart which cared deeply for others.

Gail Bester
Executive Director

World Book Day 23 April 2024 

The power of reading to take us to new places and experiences is beautifully captured in Reading your way, the theme of this year’s world book day.

A good story, unravelling sentence by sentence, page by page,
can hold us in its grip and transport us to other worlds, to new ways
of thinking, feeling, and using language.

 

It’s an adventure in which we can participate vicariously, experiencing a rollercoaster ride while curled up in bed! We connect personally, perhaps identifying with the characters, and we follow them with anticipation, fascination and delight, cheering them on as they traverse magical unexplored paths, and suffering anguish as they navigate dangerous terrain.

I often find it difficult to put a book down because I need to know how the story will end: at the same time, there is a part of me that doesn’t want the experience to end. This is my present predicament as I’m nearing the end of Prophet Song, a brilliant dystopian novel by Paul Lynch. The story is set in a future Ireland, and yet, for me, it’s triggered memories about police surveillance and brutality in South Africa’s past, as well as anger about the current global approach to the refugee crisis.

It has also prompted reflection on how we deal with prejudice and increasingly authoritarian regimes in our present day. I know there’s no neat resolution to the themes in this powerful, complicated novel – I’d be disappointed if there were one – but that hasn’t stopped me from wishing for peace and harmony. This is what good stories do: they tinker with our emotions and invite us into their world to make connections, but they also challenge us to reassess and to imagine alternatives.

To imagine is to think – an active process in which we stretch our minds, play with words, create, innovate and contemplate how things could be different and better. As Einstein once said, “imagination is more important than knowledge. Knowledge is limited. Imagination circles the world”.

Books have the power to unleash our imagination, to take us away
from comfortable ways of thinking and believing and towards
new ideas and concepts.

 

Reading is therefore an activity: a process of thinking, learning and potentially creating. In recent years, many literacy organisations, educators, and librarians have changed the narrative around books, by moving away from narrow teaching approaches that prioritise the technical aspects of reading over reading for meaning.

They have recognized the power of shared reading activity that doesn’t prescribe what children ought to read and which, fosters a desire to read because it’s fun. Book clubs and libraries are helping children to experience a range of books in multiple languages and are developing imaginative book-focussed activities that encourage young people to discuss and interpret their book experiences, inhabit the characters, and create their own stories and productions. In partnership with literacy groups, teachers are also starting to involve parents and care-givers in the process of reading with their children. In some contexts, these adults are learning to read and to share the pleasures associated with reading alongside their children for mutual benefit.

While these interventions are relatively small scale, and not a replacement for our struggle for better classroom practice and well-stocked libraries, they represent an important model for building a culture of reading.

Another exciting, recent development in Cape Town is that the number of second-hand bookshops has increased.

Second-hand bookshops are affordable and deserve our support
and patronage. They often support a charity, and they aid our
efforts to recycle, share and network around books.

 

As individuals, we can build on these developments. In order to find their way in books, children need a plethora of books to cater for their individual needs, interests and desires. As is the case with most other activities, they need adults to help by turning reading into an active, exciting and joyful journey.

ROCHELLE KAPP
ROCHELLE KAPP is an Emeritus Associate Professor (UCT, Education). She is a member of the Board of Oasis Association and part of the management team of the Newly-Qualified Teachers’ Project.

Celebrate World book Day by popping in to one of our Oasis Charity Book Shops.

📍 Oasis Claremont
Our charming Claremont village of shops.
Corner of Lee and Imam Haron Road, Claremont.
⏰ Opening Hours:
Monday to Friday: 8:30am – 3:30pm
Saturday: 9:00am – 1:00 pm
✖️ Closed on Sundays and Public Holidays.

📍 Oasis Fish Hoek
Find us at Shop No. 4, Somerset House, 6 Recreation Road, Fish Hoek.
⏰ Opening Hours:
Monday to Friday: 8:30am- 3:30pm
Saturday: 8:30am – 1:00pm
✖️ Closed on Sundays and Public Holidays.

When you shop at Oasis, you shop with conscience. Revamping your closet and home, while donating to a good cause.

It doesn’t matter which shop you choose: Claremont, Fish Hoek or Elsies River, the income from these charity shops is the lifeblood of our organisation, and enables us to do the work we do, while providing work opportunities for our intellectually disabled beneficiaries.

And please always remember that we welcome saleable quality donations of second-hand books, household goods, toys and games, décor items, small appliances/electronics (working), clothing, jewellery, shoes, small furniture, DVDs/CDs, art, etc.

1. Claremont Village of Shops

The Oasis Village of Shops in Claremont is one of Cape Town’s hidden gems.

The Oasis Association for Intellectual Disability has a little “village” of four shops at the corner of Lee and Imam Haron Road, Claremont.

This circuit of delight is home to all things pre-loved and vintage, from clothing and jewellery, to hats, second-hand furniture, books, vinyl records, accessories and more.

– Our second-hand clothing store

There’s nothing more satisfying than trawling through rails and boxes of clothes to come home with unique vintage pieces bought at a fraction of the original cost. Our second-hand clothing store is an Aladdin’s cave of pre-loved clothing ranging from hats, bags, scarves, and dresses to men’s and kiddies’ wear. Even some throwback memorabilia from the 80’s and 90’s to help you get your groove on.

– Bookshop, including an art gallery and furniture

Books, vinyl records, maps, textbooks, plays, antiques, prints – on subjects ranging from children’s literature and nursery rhymes to recipe books by Jamie Oliver and fiction for adults – you’ll find all this and more.

All the books and art are categorised and alphabetised – we know you won’t leave empty handed.  And, our stock changes constantly, so be sure to pop in regularly.

– Oasis bric-a-brac shop

Our bric-a-brac shop has an abundance of pre-loved homeware – cutlery, crockery, vases, framed paintings, toys, puzzles and many other treasures. Stock changes daily, so pop in to see what we have instore.

While you are browsing you will more than likely catch the whiff of freshly baked breads, enticing you from the centre display. The bakery is integral to Oasis’ service and all the goods are made by our beneficiaries. Try our shortbread, brownies, muffins, swiss rolls and other baked goods, all available for sale or on pre-order – or sold to be enjoyed in the tea garden outside.

And our brand-new shopping area
– Lavender Shop

Lavender is the newest addition to the Oasis offering.  Specialising in collectibles, editions of excellent quality used books and goods, treasured collectibles, art, and antiquities.

Then, once your bargain-hunting is done, sit down and treat yourself to cup of tea or a cappuccino and indulge in a decadent scone or one of our infamous creamy chicken toasted sandwiches!

Pop in today!

Where: Corner Lee and Imam Haron, Claremont
Opening hours: Monday – Friday 8:30am – 3:30pm;
Saturday 9:00am – 1:00pm. Closed Sundays.

2. Fish Hoek Oasis books and bric-a-brac shop

Our ever-popular bargain shop in the bustling heart of Fish Hoek’s suburbia is a treasure trove of boxes and rails with stylish vintage clothing, records, books, paintings, and trinkets. Here you will find a range of high-quality décor and Bric-a-Brac items, as well as a wonderful selection of books.

Where: Shop no 4, Somerset House, 6 Recreation Road, Fish Hoek
Opening hours: Tuesday – Friday 8:30am – 3:30pm;
Saturday 8:30am – 1:00pm
Closed on Sundays and Mondays.

3. Elsies River Oasis bric-a-brac shop

Our ever-popular pre-loved goods shop in Elsies River is on the same premises as the Protective Workshop. Practical, pre-loved, must-haves – here, you can shop for electronics, toys, clothes, books, DVDs and more – all at bargain prices!

Where: 16th Street & 8th Avenue, Elsies River
Opening hours: Mondays – Fridays: 9am – 3:30pm.
Closed on Saturdays and Sundays.

We invite you to pop in to one of our charity shops and browse our wide range of pre-loved fashion, books, baked goods, bric-a-brac and more.

At Oasis, there’s something for everyone!