Cape Town - The ANC in the legislature has called for the City’s auction of at least 18 properties to be suspended.
ANC members met at one of the vacant sites in College Road, Claremont, for a press conference on Wednesday.
Opposition leader in the legislature, Cameron Dugmore, said the call for the suspension was to allow for a detailed look at the properties, and those which could be used for social housing and therefore integration, due to, among others, their proximity to transport routes, schools, shopping centres and work opportunities.
The live and virtual auction by the High Street Auction Company is scheduled to take place on February 10 at 11am at Cape Town Stadium.
The properties are in Claremont, Strand, Newlands, Mitchells Plain, Blue Downs, Belhar, Kleinvlei, Durbanville and Atlantis Industrial.
Dugmore said: “What we are very concerned about is we’ve actually counted the number of properties that the City has sold since 2015 until March 2021, and it’s over 300.
“So this appears to have been going on and on, and in the process possible opportunities for densification and integration have been lost, and that’s why we want to put a hold on this and then look at a way forward.
“We have also started engaging with the national minister of Human Settlements because there are a number of these properties that they would also have an interest in, from a housing point of view.”
He also announced that they would be writing to the mayor in each municipality seeking meetings to establish whether there were updated and accessible land audits in each municipality.
Dugmore said criticised the City for complaining that the national government was not releasing land, when it was in the same breath selling land.
“We don’t want a chaotic populist approach where anyone says, ‘I’ll take this piece of land’, but if you are not releasing the land, that pressure, anger and frustration are going to build. So we think we need a social compact.
“We need to bring the three spheres of government and actually resolve this issue, not just talk about it, have public spats. We noticed the mayor is having public spats with Minister of Public Works, Patricia de Lille.
“Those spats don’t actually assist, and that is why we think a social compact is necessary. Based on credible, transparent land audits across the province,” Dugmore said.
ANC councillor Andile Lili said: “Everybody knows around here that there is a crisis in terms of housing backlog in the Western Cape. So many of our people are living in squalor. A sphere of government like the City of Cape Town should be very sensitive when it comes to the issue of land. We are here to oppose any sale.”