GOOD statement by Brett Herron,
GOOD: Secretary-General & Member of Parliament
28 July 2022
Cape Town Mayor Geordin Hill-Lewis made yet another announcement about inner city affordable housing today, repeating commitments to develop the same set of sites announced for development four and five years ago.
It was the blocking of these projects by the conservative block in the DA-led City that ultimately led to the resignation of then Mayor Patricia de Lille and I, with a number of colleagues, and the formation of GOOD.
Creating a just and accessible city cannot be achieved through recycling promises. We will therefore withhold welcoming this apparent shift in the DA’s hard-nosed opposition to reversing the apartheid Group Areas Act until we see signs of bricks and mortar on the ground.
The conceptualisation of some of the projects announced today goes back all the way to 2011. Others were conceived under our leadership of the City in 2017.
- The Pine Road and Dillon Lane Social Housing Project was first conceptualized in 2011, but initially “blocked” due to challenges around the relocation of the families on the site. The Affordable Inner City Housing Prospectus, which I announced in 2017, then identified the Salt River transitional housing site solution. This allowed the families to be relocated in October 2018, yet four years later the Pine Road and Dillon Lane sites remain undeveloped.
- The Salt River Market site was at first refused by the DA Council in October 2018, directly prompting my resignation from the Mayco, Council and the DA. Then, after enormous public outcry, it was approved for transfer to Communicare in December 2018. Today, the same announcement is being made. The transfer of the same site, for the same social and mixed income housing, has been “approved in principle” – again.
- In 2017 the Pickwick Street site was part of the Prospectus which called for mixed income, mixed use development, with a threshold of 600 social housing units. The competitive process announced today repeats the process conducted from September 2017 to February 2018. Then, the City received 13 bids for the five sites in respect of which we called for proposals. Today, five years later, the Mayor announces exactly the same site and the same project.
In addition, in 2011, the Western Cape Provincial Government announced an Inner City Regeneration Programme and promised to leverage the development potential of five provincial public properties in the Cape Town city centre. The programme promised mixed use, mixed income opportunities for affordable housing to ensure that poorer households get incorporated into the central city.
Eleven years later not a single affordable housing unit has been built and not one poor household has been incorporated into the city centre. The spatial injustice of the past remains the spatial injustice of today.
The lack of spatial integration in the City of Cape Town continues to hinder access to opportunities for the majority of residents. And it continues to keep residents of the city separate. For how long does the City imagine people of colour will tolerate their continued exclusion from the fabric of the inner city?
GOOD is committed to continuing the struggle for social and spatial justice in a City where apartheid spatial planning remains one of the biggest challenges.
Our councillors in the City stand ready to support realistic housing initiatives and real development commitments. But the Mayor mustn’t let the grass grow under his feet.
Media Enquiries:
Brett Herron, GOOD: Secretary-General & Member of Parliament
Cell: 0825183264
Email: bretth@forgood.org.za
Janke Tolmay, GOOD: Media Manager
Cell: 0733671223
Email: janke@forgood.org.za