Housing activist group Ndifuna Ukwazi has accused the City of Cape Town of delaying the development of affordable housing at the Green Point bowling green.
Since 2018, NU has been challenging the City to build houses on the bowling green (erven 2187), which is being leased to a crèche and social clubs.
The City, on the other hand, confirmed that a portion of the property has already been designated for mixed-use development, including affordable housing, as part of the City’s Land Release for Affordable Housing Priority Programme.
“In the interim, the property has been leased to a crèche, bowling and bridge clubs for a three-year period with a six-month cancellation clause. The initial three-year lease term has ended and Council, as required, advertised its intention to renew the lease agreement for a further period of two years and 11 months while the mixed-use developmental plans with an affordable housing component on a portion of this site are being finalised,” said a statement from the City.
The City added that the comment/objection period closed on Monday November 7 and public inputs will be assessed by the mayoral committee and that affordable housing as well as other community uses is planned on this property.
“The annual tariff of R3 000 is based on the ‘social care’ rate charged to welfare, charitable, cultural and religious organisations performing community functions on leased council property. However, it is not correct that this is the only cost to lessees, who are also responsible for significant security and maintenance costs of the property which the City would otherwise need to cover,” the statement says.
According to a NU report titled Regulating the Private Sector, the City has a yearly shortfall of approximately 23 000 formal homes. They claim that leasing the site for R3 000 a year provides no benefit to the greater Cape Town community.
“The City is not only passing up a golden opportunity to build a fairer Cape Town, but it is also losing out on millions of Rands every year in potential rates revenue by delaying the development of the bowling green for mixed income housing, in light of the fiscal dent made by the Covid-19 pandemic,” said Buhle Booi, the head of organising for NU.
NU also believes the land could be developed in an inclusive manner, and that the City’s approach is socially, economically, and environmentally unsustainable.
“In the context of our profound housing crises, it is immensely frustrating to see the City either renege on or once again delay its plans to develop the site into affordable and mixed-income housing. The City spent a considerable amount of money getting consultants to develop plans for the site to be developed for mixed-use housing, and yet these plans have been gathering dust in a filing cabinet in the Civic Centre for several years now,” said NU attorney Jonty Cogger.