STATEMENT BY BRETT HERRON, GOOD MEMBER OF THE WESTERN CAPE PROVINCIAL PARLIAMENT AND GOOD SECRETARY-GENERAL
Using public land for the public good sees land restitution, housing and upgrades to informal settlements in the Western Cape accelerating
11 June 2020
We welcome today’s announcement by GOOD’s leader and National Minister of Public Works and Infrastructure, Patricia de Lille, of the release of public land for housing, redistribution and restitution purposes.
Public land must be used for public good.
The release of land in Franschhoek, Stellenbosch and Cape Town is intended to be used for restitution of land to a family of land claimants, the accelerated delivery of housing and upgrades to informal settlements.
Our national, provincial and local governments are all custodians of public land. Public land belongs to us all and our governments are obliged to use these public assets for public purposes such as addressing the shortage of affordable and dignified housing and to redress the deprivation of access to land on the basis of race. Well located public land has a role to play in addressing the apartheid spatial plan that persists in our towns and cities.
Our provincial government habitually calls on national government to release land for public housing. The Western Cape Provincial Government is the custodian of public land and buildings that could also be employed to dismantle segregation and inequality in our towns and city. It must release these public assets to do so.
GOOD committed to ensure that all spheres of government used the hundreds of thousands of hectares of public land that is available to assist with accelerated delivery of land for housing, for land restitution and for agriculture. By restoring spatial justice – returning the land to those who it was stolen from, and using public assets in towns and cities to open up land for housing – we believe that greater social and economic justice will be achieved for the country.
The more than 1200 hectares of land being released in Cape Town alone, and the nearly 20 hectares in Stellenbosch, will help to alleviate the massive housing backlogs in our province.
I am also grateful that the family in Franschhoek, those in Doornkop in the North West and the community in Kalkbank, Limpopo, who have all been waiting decades for land restitution, will be closer to finally achieving justice.
Ends