GOOD Statement by Wesley Neumann,
GOOD City of Cape Town Councillor
30 September 2025
On 26 September 2025, a comprehensive set of questions was submitted to the Mayor of Cape Town regarding the fate of the Gilray Scouts Site in Grassy Park, a public facility that has become a symbol of how the City continues to prioritise private profits over public interest.
As GOOD we support the community’s concerns that the Gilray Site was earmarked for sale behind closed doors, with no intention of allowing meaningful public consultation or accountability.
Among the unanswered questions are critical matters of public interest, including:
• Why and how a site that was under long-term lease to the Scouts was suddenly earmarked for disposal without proper process;
• Why the City did not include the lessor or community stakeholders in decisions as far back as 2017, when officials began plotting to rezone and sell the land;
• Whether the legal requirements for terminating the Scouts’ lease were met;
• Whether any departments objected to the sale, and if so, why those objections were ignored;
•And what current processes, if any, exist to safeguard similar community assets from quiet disposal.
The ratepayers deserve to know who gave the instruction to sell Gilray, when, why and for whose benefit?
This is not merely a zoning matter, it is a question of justice, governance, and the democratic right of communities to shape the future of their own public spaces.
Public land is being treated as private real estate to be parcelled out to developers, without transparency or accountability.
As GOOD, we reiterate our demand: the proposed sale of the Gilray Scouts Site must be halted immediately until full disclosure is made and a transparent, inclusive public process is undertaken. The community of Grassy Park will not be silenced. Nor will we accept a City that refuses to answer to its residents.
GOOD stands with the Greater Grassy Park Civic Alliance, residents, civil society leaders, and the many who have raised the alarm about this deliberate betrayal.
Cape Town belongs to its people and the people deserve answers.
Media Enquiries: media@forgood.org.za