Statement by Brett Herron, GOOD Candidate for Mayor of Cape Town
23 August 2021
Cape Town’s increased frequency of land occupations, new informal settlements and rising homelessness are the clear consequences of the decisions taken by the DA to collapse the delivery of housing. The City’s annual revisions to its Integrated Development Plan (IDP) have consistently revised the targets downwards – and under-delivered even on their reduced annual delivery targets.
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In the year I took over responsibility for housing in Cape Town, we increased the delivery of housing opportunities by 40% from the preceding year. By the second year, we increased delivery even further, exceeding the annual target for delivery by the City of Cape Town for the first time ever (https://www.tct.gov.za/en/news-and-alerts/press-releases/articles/city-exceeds-housing-target-for-first-time-since-2000/page-1/).
Housing delivery was doubled within 2 years and our team developed a plan – which we were exceeding – to continue to increase housing delivery through the 5 year term of office.
The accelerated delivery rate was made possible through a restructure of the city administration in 2016. The creation of the Transport and Urban Development Authority reduced the costs of senior management; and ensured that departments that were formerly working against one another became aligned for a common purpose. In short, the restructure saved costs by reducing bloated senior management posts and streamlined service delivery, as our delivery results prove.
I resigned at the end of 2018 when several of the housing projects I had launched were stopped by the DA Caucus. In the month after I left, they also voted to dismantle the Transport and Urban Development Authority, the administrative structure which had been driving this accelerated delivery.
The results of the DA’s cruel actions are clear for all to see. The data from the City’s Integrated Development Plan reports on the dismal collapse of housing delivery.
In 2019, the year after I resigned, delivery dropped to 5692 opportunities and the year thereafter delivery totally collapsed. The City’s IDP report confirms that just 2738 new houses and only 785 new serviced sites were delivered in the latest audited year (2019/20). This pathetic delivery is the lowest delivery rate for new housing that I can find on record.
The IDP also confirms that the DA has cut the target for new housing opportunities by almost two thirds for this current 2021/22 year. Our plan, which was deliver 14182 new sites and houses, has been revised downwards to just 5100 new opportunities. This means that two out of three new housing opportunities originally planned will no longer be delivered.
Under these low rates of delivery, the City’s housing waiting list will not be solved this century. We will all be dead – and most of our children will be dead – before even the current list of those waiting for housing will be addressed.
The collapse is in part due to the cancellation of thousands of well-located affordable housing opportunities that were due to be under construction already; build on city-owned land within neighbourhoods that coloured and black families were evicted from during the National Party’s reign over the city.
Although the costs of senior management have ballooned since 2018 – escalating by more than 40% – the city’s IDP shows that our targets for housing delivery have been cut by more than 60%.
Delivery has collapsed and more than 6000 families who should have received new housing opportunities last year remain homeless. By the end of this year, the DA’s plan for housing delivery means another 9000 families who could have been housed will also remain homeless.
I know delivery can be turned around – I’ve shown how – but to do so, housing for those who need homes must be a priority of a caring city government.
In addition to what the city government can do, we can increase delivery even faster by working with eager partners in the private sector who want to invest in affordable and social housing in the mother city.
These socially responsible businesses need a government that is open for business and ready to partner with them –not one that cancels projects. I promise you that I will ensure that we release public land and use it for a public good – to deliver a range of housing opportunities that collectively meets the range of diverse needs.
We must break down apartheid spatial divisions and begin to develop a sustainable post-apartheid city for all our residents and we can do this by delivering affordable housing close to all our economic hubs – including the city centre.