GOOD Statement by Brett Herron,
GOOD Secretary-General & City of Cape Town Mayoral Candidate
16 July 2026
The manner of Cape Town Mayor Geordin Hill-Lewis’ nudge-nudge, wink-wink, I shouldn’t really be telling you this announcement that the City was now considering selling the Good Hope Centre to a Muslim institution, instead of a church, was very disappointing.
He said the winning bidder on auction for the iconic inner-city site, a Nigerian-led church, had failed to come up with the money, and he believed it would now go to the second highest bidder. As an after-thought, he threw in that he believed the Muslim institution planned to develop some affordable housing on the site.
It told you everything you need to know about the Mayor’s disdain for the principle of spatial redress in Cape Town, where the delivery of public and affordable housing has rigidly adhered to the apartheid spatial plan.
In an unguarded media moment, the Mayor recently dismissed the concept of spatial apartheid as “propaganda language that is no longer rooted in reality”. He tried to walk that statement back, but the truth is that his party, the DA, has led the City of Cape Town for 20 years, and in all that time it is yet to build a single social or affordable home in the inner city or surrounding areas.
This omission was highlighted by the Constitutional Court in its Tafelberg School judgement this month. The court clearly asserted that the use of well-located publicly owned land should first be considered to achieve the State’s Constitutional obligations to social justice before being considered for sale.
The court effectively ordered the Western Cape Province and City of Cape Town to stop acting like the bankers in a game of monopoly, and to return within three months with a plan to deconstruct the apartheid shape of Cape Town.
The Mayor is under pressure in an election year, and to let off some steam he lets slip to a Muslim community radio station that the Good Hope Centre is being sold to a Muslim institution – and by the way, their plan includes some affordable housing.
The Mayor’s challenge is that the Constitutional Court order requires more than political posturing, clever-clever (and sometimes not so clever) media statements, and regular announcements of fantastical future plans.
* The GOOD Party says: Instead of selling the Good Hope Centre to the highest bidder the City should properly maintain and manage the facility and build social housing on the land that surrounds it. That would be a great example of using a public asset for public good. It would conform with the GOOD Party’s founding value of spatial justice, and the principle – now an order of the Constitutional Court – that where you live matters.
Media Enquiries: media@forgood.org.za