Sub-council 16 has unanimously supported the motion for the City’s Transport and Urban Development Authority (TDA) to immediately implement the Heritage Protection Overlay Zone (HPOZ) for Bo-Kaap.
This follows protests in the past month by residents who are concerned about the developments going up in the area.
Reading the motion on June 18, ward councillor Brandon Golding said the matter was submitted by the then councillor, Dave Bryant, in 2013.
The process was positive but it was never signed off by the mayor.
In 2016, Mr Bryant engaged with the community and the application was approved but has been sitting on the mayor’s desk for approval.
Mr Golding said the application was ready to be implemented and after recent protests, the City’s mayoral committee member for transport and urban development, Brett Herron, tried to find out the reason why it had not been signed off.
Mr Herron said Bo-Kaap has been assigned a Grade 1 rating in terms
of the National Heritage Resources
Act.
This designates the Bo-Kaap as a heritage area of national significance.
He said the only other areas in the Cape Town City Bowl with a heritage rating of this significance are the buildings in the Parliamentary precinct and the adjacent Government Avenue alongside the Company’s Garden.
He said as Bo-Kaap heritage assets are protected, it is unclear what additional protection the community is expecting from a HPOZ. “Local Spatial Planning, including HPOZ work, was suspended during the period that the new City-wide Spatial Development Framework (SDF) was being developed. Nevertheless, and as indicated, the Bo-Kaap has the highest grade of heritage protection,” said Mr Herron.
He said there is a lot of misinformation about the heritage protection status of the Bo-Kaap, and “the so-called developments in the area in general” and several protection mechanisms are in place to ensure the protection of heritage homes within the Bo-Kaap.
Chairperson for the Bo-Kaap Civic and Ratepayers’ Association, Osman Shaboodien, said they were aware of the motion and in full support of the immediate implementation.
However, he said they hope that the City will be serious in its implementation and not hold it up for another four years.
He said they will not allow this to happen and their lawyers have sent the City a demand or they are taking the matter to court.
