GOOD press statement by Suzette Little,
GOOD: City of Cape Town Councillor & Caucus Chairperson
18 Augustus 2022
An item tabled today in the DA-led Cape Town Council yet again exposes the City’s apartheid spatial planning logic.
On the one side, the City has been targeting longstanding residents of saleable public housing, in areas such as Uitsig on the Cape Flats, by issuing them with eviction notices. On the other side of the M5, the City uses the identical personal circumstances to motivate to Council that a house in Newlands should be sold to its longstanding occupant.
The DA council has today recommended that the sale of the property in Newlands to its occupant is justified because “he was a reliable tenant and never missed any payment. He maintained the property and added value to it over time. The tenant has had three children who were born in the property and only every lived there.”
These are the exact same circumstances of the residents who live in saleable public housing units across the Cape Flats but who are receiving eviction notices. In both circumstances the occupation of council owned property has been unregulated for decades.
In the leafy suburbs, the occupant is offered the opportunity to purchase the unit, while in the Cape Flats the occupants are regarded as illegal and face eviction.
Earlier this year, GOOD called on the City to halt ongoing illegal evictions and harassment of residents in its public rental stock across parts of the city.
It came after the councillors received requests to assist dozens of families who had been issued with eviction notices based on outdated policies.
The City has a duty to support and regularise residents in good standing, regardless of who they are and where they come from.
GOOD maintains that the management of the available public housing has been left to deteriorate and the City officials, have allowed these properties to be occupied for years with very little intervention from their side.
Mayor Geordin Hill-Lewis and the DA government must end their apartheid thinking and offer the long standing tenants and occupants of Cape Flats housing the same red-carpet treatment as the occupant of a city council house in Newlands.
Media Enquiries:
Suzette Little, GOOD: City of Cape Town Councillor
Cell: 073 321 5036
Email: suzettel@forgood.org.za
Janke Tolmay, GOOD: Media Manager
Cell: 0733671223
Email: janke@forgood.org.za