Government blames activists for housing delivery delays

Reclaim the City has accused the provincial government of shifting blame on the issue of delays in the delivery of affordable housing.

This after Infrastructure MEC Tertuis Simmers accused housing activist groups of actively encouraging and taking part in illegal invasions which delayed projects and was costly.

“Illegal invasion of public property has been a major obstruction in the Western Cape Government’s path to building communities that enable residents to prosper. But our efforts, especially in Cape Town, are being heavily hindered. Illegal invasions do not only take up physical space and prevent us from actually building houses, it has a much wider impact.

“Due to illegal invasions our budgets are reduced, funds that we have earmarked for more housing developments are re-allocated for either securing our projects or defending them in court, and, most importantly, illegal invasions rob deserving beneficiaries, who have been on the waiting list for decades, of their right to affordable dignified housing,” said Simmers.

According to Simmers, if they consider both budget cuts and expenditure on security, illegal land invasions have cost them more than R1.5 billion in the last five years.

“Illegal invasions also disrupt our efforts to address apartheid-era spatial injustices and meet the high demand for affordable inner-city housing across the province. Despite the myriad of challenges, the WCG has delivered 46,000 housing opportunities between 2019 and 2024. It is deeply frustrating that despite our successes, activist groups in this province are actively encouraging, and in many instances taking part in, illegal invasions,” he said.

Simmers highlighted that Woodstock Hospital and the Helen Bowden Nurses Home earmarked for affordable housing projects in the inner-city were also illegally occupied.

“In 2017, supporters of the Reclaim the City campaign openly and unashamedly admitted to occupying these sites. To date, the department has spent over R19 million on security and maintenance at the Helen Bowden site alone.”

Reclaim the City’s Karen Hendricks said there was no political will before the occupation of buildings or illegal invasion took place.

“Both houses were occupied in March 2017 in protest against the province's decision to sell the Tafelberg site in Sea Point. While Cissie Gool House had stood vacant since 1992 and Ahmed Khathrada House since 2010, the reality is that they have become home to many who would otherwise have been rendered homeless.”

She said the two properties under dispute were only but two of the vacant under-utilised buildings among others which have been promised or earmarked for development of housing in the inner city.

“Due to the failure of government and lack of political will to build truly affordable housing, the city has a housing backlog of 600 000 units.

Public land is being prioritised for the wealthy, instead of using vacant land and buildings for the social good and to build inclusive cities.

“The occupations are rather labelled as criminals, queue-jumpers or building hijackers. We have a vision for these sites, that these buildings can be incrementally developed without evicting occupiers and many of the occupiers have been waiting for housing for decades,” said Hendricks.

Cape Times