R135m land sale sparks protest
RECLAIM the City campaigners marched through Sea Point yesterday in protest against the province’s sale of a R135 million property to the Phyllis Jowell School.
About 100 domestic workers and some of Sea Point’s poorest residents took part in the protest and said the land should be used for low-cost housing instead.
At the same time residents of Durrheim Estate, near Gugulethu, demonstrated in central Cape Town.
They objected to what they described as a proposed “lowhousing development” on land adjacent to Valhalla Drive and Robert Sobukwe Road in Montana and Charlesville.
Reclaim the City organisers said the Sea Point site had been vacant for years after a remedial school was relocated and tenants of the Wynyard mansions were evicted.
“Recently the provincial Department of Public Works declared the property ‘surplus’ and sold it to the Phyllis Jowell School. The province has refused to disclose how this decision was made.
“Supporters ask whether this is reasonable given the lack of affordable housing in the city,” their statement read.
Transport and Public Works MEC Donald Grant’s spokesperson, Siphesihle Dube, said the site was sold through an open tender process and the Phyllis Jowell Jewish Day School NPC was the successful bidder.
“There has been no refusal to disclose how the decision was made. This statement is entirely false. There was an open bidding process that received various bid offers from interested parties.
“All bids were adjudicated and a successful bidder identified as is required by law. During this whole process there were no objections received,” Dube said.
Elizabeth Gqobhoka, 47, who rents a flat in Sea Point, said: “The land they are selling is one we are hoping that lowcost houses would be build.
“We have in the past been told there is no land available, but now here is available land and they are selling it for private development, and we are saying no.”
Meanwhile, Durrheim Estate resident Terence Timmet said they were not against the provision of housing, but there were other needs in the area, where, for example, after 45 years there was still no library.
Provincial Human Settlement spokesperson Nathan Adriaanse said the department had engaged with the Durrheim Estate Residents Body on several occasions.
He said housing was always for a good cause and was never a problem, but the Western Cape has huge parcels of land.
The residents also raised concerns about the crime that would come if houses were built on the piece of land.