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- The City of Cape Town approved the release of another parcel of land to be used for affordable housing.
- The council approved the release of the Fruit and Veg site in Roeland Street.
- Housing activists, however, said the announcement was nothing new.
The City of Cape Town announced that more land would be released for housing within the CBD.
The mayor, Geordin Hill-Lewis, made the announcement during a full council sitting on Thursday. Hill-Lewis said another central Cape Town property was also set to be released for social housing development once the council had approved it.The Fruit and Veg site in Roeland Street, in the inner city, received authority from the council to advertise the intention to release for social housing.
The site is expected to deliver around 150 social housing units as part of a mixed-market development.
"'There are hundreds of thousands of Capetonians who can pay something for accommodation, but cannot afford to rent anything available now," he said.
Hill-Lewis said many live in backyards in Kalkfontein and Tafelsig.
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"Some pay two thousand rands to rent a shack in Dunoon or Joe Slovo or a tiny room in Delft or Lentegeur. That is why we are so focused on freeing up land faster for more social housing," the mayor said.
The land that the council intends to earmark for social housing was among several other sites which housing activists had been campaigning for the City to release. The City released 11 parcels of well-located land within the City Bowl five years ago.
These were supposed to be used for affordable housing. Jonty Cogger, an attorney at Ndifuna Ukwazi Law Centre, said they appreciated efforts to release council homes to long-term tenants, but they were concerned that these properties would be lost, over time, to the open property market.
"Without adequately replacing public housing at the same scale, it is likely that many long-term tenants will on-sell. Similar trends were experienced with the 'right to buy' council property in the UK, ultimately leading to massive housing privatisation and crisis.
The loss of public housing would mean a loss of affordable housing opportunities," he said. Cogger added they welcomed the positive steps towards the release of the Fruit and Veg site for social housing, but said this was not a new commitment.
"The site was earmarked for social housing in 2017. We hope this indicates a definitive shift towards prioritising state land for affordable housing, particularly in well-located areas. And that the City of Cape Town will fast-track the implementation of these projects through social housing companies," he said.
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Cogger said the development of well-located, affordable housing was absolutely essential to redressing the legacy of spatial apartheid.
"Simultaneously, we hope that the City of Cape Town will incentivise the delivery of affordable housing in newly built private developments through inclusionary housing.
We trust that no stone will be left unturned in this renewed effort to make Cape Town a more just, inclusive and affordable city," he said.
Brett Herron, the former mayoral committee member for transport and urban development, who ditched the DA for Patricia de Lille's GOOD party after an acrimonious fallout, said the DA was recycling announcements.
"The DA must stop playing publicity games with our housing crisis. MMC Malusi Booi held an event on the Fruit and Veg site on 7 February 2022 when he announced the site was to be released as we had planned for in 2017.
Those are people, with anxiety and hopes, who make up the numbers of people awaiting a solution for our housing crisis," he said.
Herron said the DA owed the people an apology for "sabotaging" the release of land in 2017 for party political and funding purposes.
"The current lot is simply rolling out what we had planned to do five years ago. Of course, we welcome, with justified exasperation, the release of the land - but can they stop playing politics with land, and release all the sites we identified in 2017," he said.
