Kuils River community activists have decried the auctioning of public land for private development, saying there is a huge need for housing development in their area.
This comes after the City of Cape Town successfully auctioned what reportedly used to be a public park at Wiersma Street in Mabille Park last month.
According to Isaac Jenecker, the chairperson of Kuils River Civic Association, the community had proposed that houses be built for the people living in the backyards and informal settlements in the vicinity on the 1 519 m2 piece of land.
"Any number removed from the dire living conditions is one too many. But no, the City sells all the land for profit and is so focused on urbanisation of residential areas instead of providing security for our people.
"The rezoning of that piece of land was objected from day one and they chose to proceed regardless, those engagements they call people too are just formalities, anything raised or is of a concern to the public is never taken seriously unless it it is on favour of their agenda," said Jenecker.
City’s Mayco member for Economic Growth, James Vos confirmed the auction, saying it was zoned for a single residential zone.
"The intended sale was advertised in terms of the Municipal Asset Transfer Regulations (MATR) July 6 and 10 2019 and no objection was received. The matter was tabled at Subcouncil on August 2020 and recommended. Council granted the MATR in-principle approval for the transfer on December 3, 2020. Following the auction, the City received an acceptable offer for the property," explained De Vos.
The auction took place on November 16.
Jencecker said: "Look in the next meeting when we ask about housing projects we will, as usual be told there's no land available. The City must stop being profit driven and put the needs of the people. Yes we support and want to development in our respective areas but not at the cost of poor."
He said the lack of housing is slowly claiming lives of many in the City, and that Sarepta informal settlements has already suffered many fire incidents that could worsen if nothing is done in the near future.
"The places are congested and you can't blame the people," he said.
Zandre Allen said Sarepta, Kalkfontein and Wesbank have thousands of people living in the backyards and the informal settlements, with the majority being in the housing waiting list for over 20 years.
He said the community has been engaging with the City since 2016 but all they got were empty promises.
"The rezoning of public land to benefit the haves is not fair because this is the land that belongs to the people, and must be used for community benefit, for the betterment of the less privileged. Now the City is giving land to whoever has money to buy, and or bringing people from outside to benefit from the few developments they've brought to our community. We have seen houses built with Kuils River given to people from the Cape Flats areas such as Steenberg, Crossroads, Philippi and other areas," Allen said.