Cape Town Activists Take Lead In Affordable Housing Crisis

Two years after a historic judgment in which the Western Cape High Court set aside the provincial government's sale of the Tafelberg property in the Sea Point suburb to a private school, the local government says it may want to use the land "in the public interest", GroundUp reports.

Activist group Reclaim the City hosted a meeting at the Sea Point Methodist Church to discuss the state of the Tafelberg site. Audience members asked questions about how social housing on the site would work, including who would build the houses, where the money will come from, and who would qualify to live in Tafelberg, once developed.

Other supporters of the housing activist group expressed frustration at the slow movement from the local government after the 2020 judgment. Mandisa Shandu, former director of activist organisation Ndifuna Ukwazi, says it's a political fight. "The government would rather spend millions in court than release Tafelberg and other parcels of land," she said.

This comes after Ndifuna Ukwazi claimed the City of Cape Town is not addressing the housing crisis with enough urgency, with only one of 11 social housing projects announced five years ago in Cape Town having been completed as of May 2022.

Ndifuna Ukwazi researcher Robyn Park-Ross said that by the City's own admission - according to its Municipal Spatial Development Framework - it will take more than 70 years to eradicate Cape Town's current housing backlog.