The South African Western Cape provincial government on Wednesday ignored public calls for low-income housing redevelopment of its Tafelberg property in Sea Point, giving a go-ahead for its $10.8m sale on Wednesday.
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The government later justified their action in a statement about the unsuitability of the site for housing purposes paving way for Tafelberg property to be sold off.
A contributing factor was that the site would not receive a state subsidy because it was not a Restructuring Zone, a requirement stated in the Social Housing Act of 2008.
Failure of declaration by the national human settlements minister was thus a hindrance to the legal provision of the site for the construction of housing units.
The provincial cabinet proposed that the Helen Bowden Nurses Home in Sea Point be redeveloped as low-income housing as it did not face legal challenges from surrounding property owners as well as being outside the current Restructuring Zone.
The cabinet said a financial scheme would be developed without state subsidy, which might be feasible due to the size of the property.
The province was pursuing the development of “well-located” properties in Woodstock, Pinelands, and Belhar. In Pinelands, it planned to provide 3 500 residential “opportunities” on 22ha of land.
In the Belhar CBD, the province planned to construct 3 000 residential units near education facilities such as the University of the Western Cape and the Cape Peninsula University of Technology.
However, this did not augur well with Reclaim the City, a subsidiary of Ndifuna Ukwazi, who termed the action “an insult to black and coloured working class people”. It went ahead to accuse the province of not paying heed to public interests.
They also spoke of consultation with their lawyers, housing experts as well as supporters.
The Western Cape African National Congress would as a result call on the provincial standing committee on transport and public works to launch an inquiry into the sale.
ANC’s Cameron Dugmore said they would file a complaint with the Public Protector to look into the matter as well.
