The ongoing redevelopment proposals for the Oude Molen Precinct in Cape Town reveal a deeper fault line in South Africa's heritage governance: the uneasy relationship between formal heritage impact assessment processes and the lived, intangible meanings communities attach to place.

While statutory frameworks privilege tangible fabric, architectural significance and expert-led assessments, the Oude Molen case shows how intangible cultural heritage and living heritage are often marginalised, contested or rendered invisible.

This article examines Oude Molen as a contemporary heritage battleground, asking what heritage protection and safeguarding mean in a post-apartheid context shaped by unequal power, memory and spatial injustice.

Redevelopment proposal at Oude Molen

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As the Western Cape Government advances redevelopment plans for Oude Molen, a 44.03ha site near Vincent Pallotti Hospital, Valkenberg Hospital, Maitland Garden Village, and Pinelands, a profound heritage dispute has erupted. It is a dispute not only about buildings, zoning or density, but the very meaning of heritage in a democratic South Africa.

The fight over Oude Molen raises a broader question: Who gets to define heritage in post-apartheid South Africa and whose cultural continuity is recognised as worthy of protection? At issue is the Revised Heritage Impact Assessment (HIA) submitted in November 2025 as part of the Western Cape Government's plan for high-density mixed-use buildings with a 34% allocation for social housing.

The land hosts the Oude Molen Eco-Village, home to First Nations practitioners, horse trainers, agro-ecologists, artisans, educators, healers and social organisations collectively represented...