SA Affordable Housing January - February 2019 // Issue: 74 | Page 6

NEWS
Cape Town’s inner-city housing crisis has been laid bare.
says claiming there was a group within the DA that is
opposed to social housing in or near the inner city.
“They have told the officials, and other politicians, that it
is too close to the election to proceed with the project … I
find this quite shocking especially given their policy and
manifesto promises to integrate communities. It raises a
question for me as to how they perceive a DA voter?”
he adds.
This latter claim was backed up by researcher at Ndifuna
Ukwazi, Nick Budlender, who says they had written to
Deputy Mayor Ian Neilson who admitted that the ground
was earmarked for affordable housing development and
had written back to say, “It is our intention to have a
mixed-use development which includes affordable housing
and will be informed by the outcome of the required
statutory processes and the most feasible modelling to
ensure a successful development.”
Six months after the letter, however, Budlender says
nothing has changed.
“We would expect selfish, wealthy residents who live
nearby to oppose it, but in fact it is the City which lacks the
vision and political will to drive this project forward. When
it comes to affordable housing in former ‘whites-only’
areas, ground is never broken. This is unacceptable in a
housing and segregation crisis,” says Budlender.
Since Herron’s departure his replacement Felicity
Purchase, wrote a letter to Ndifuna Ukwazi, in which she
wrote a near exact response to Neilson’s comments of six
months earlier.
‘The intention is to have a mixed-use development
which will include affordable housing. The development
will be informed by the outcome of the required statutory
processes,’ the letter reads.
At the same time as these accusations were surfacing
the DA laid criminal charges relating to ‘good governance’
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JANUARY - FEBRUARY 2019
and ‘conduct’ against De Lille and Herron following an
investigation led by law firm Bowman Gilfillan.
DA provincial leader Bonginkosi Madikizela also held a
press conference in which he blamed the delays at the
developments on Herron. Madikizela claimed that the
various projects were undergoing ‘legal challenges’ and
posited a theory that Herron had left when it became
obvious he would need to answer questions relating to the
Gilfillian report.
“There were two other court challenges on projects and
we are waiting for the court process to run its course,” he
says. “We had some challenges, but we are dealing with
them. We are taking action against wrong-doing.”
These incidents have brought Cape Town’s inner-city
accommodation crisis to head and put the city firmly in the
media’s gaze with a new development in historic Bo-Kaap
also hitting the front pages. Centrally located Bo-Kaap’s
6 000-strong community has had its roots in the area since
the earliest days of Cape Town’s history, but developers are
now buying up the land they perceive as cheap to put up
luxury developments, which threaten the community’s
way of life.
Startling images were seen online, TV and in the papers
of police firing stun grenades at a small community group
– including old ladies – who were trying to stop a crane
from making its way to a new development styles as
‘FORTY ON L’, located at 40 Lion Street.
Now an online petition has been created, calling for the
recognition and conservation of Bo-Kaap as a unique
historical urban landscape with a vibrant, living culture and
way of life, among other things. That battle is far from over.
The crane that the community tried to stop was delayed,
but eventually made its way to Lion Street.
It’s clear that as we start off the new year, Cape Town’s
fight for affordable housing is only just beginning.
www.saaffordablehousing.co.za