Last week, the City of Cape Town confirmed that it will officially respond this month to residents who petitioned Mayor Geordin Hill-Lewis, urging him to reconsider the proposed social housing project in Ruwari.
The project will see 115 City rental flats and 30 Gap houses go up on the open land in Affodil Street adjacent to the Brackenfell traffic department, which residents fear among other concerns will be detrimental to their property values.
Some 1 400 residents organised under the Brackenfell Rate Payers Association to lodge individual objections of which 900 have already been handed in at the office of Cape Town Mayor Geordin Hill-Lewis.
In a letter addressed to Hill-Lewis they request that he review their objections and reconsider the development.
“We as residents of Brackenfell and the City of Cape Town look forward to finding an amicable solution that will be in favour of our community and prioritise the interest of the current residents of Brackenfell,” was stated in the letter.
The City’ Mayco member for human settlements, Carl Pophaim, told TygerBurger that the Human Settlements Directorate received the petition on 16 January.
However, he added that the said petition was submitted outside the statutory public participation period that ended on 10 June 2024 for tendering submissions to the City, and is not relatable to a specific statutory City administered process. Pophaim said a public participation process concerning the intented sale of the City owned property for the intented development had been concluded between 10 May and 10 June 2024. “This is a statutory process which occurs over a 30-day calendar period and provides members of the public with an opportunity to tender their comments on the City’s intentions,” he said. According to Pophaim the public participation process entailed advertisements published in the Cape Argus and Die Burger newspapers, notifications to the owners of the adjacent homes via registered mail, notifications to provincial and national treasury, the subcouncil manager, subcouncil chair and ward councillor.
“The City received one comment and 58 objections from members of the public during the statutory commenting period. The Human Settlements Directorate addressed the comments received in the report which served before Council on 30 October 2024 requesting the granting of in-principle approval for the transfer of the property via a competitive disposal process. The directorate also issued a formal written response to the respondents on 25 July 2024 addressing the issues raised in their submissions to the City,” said Pophaim.
Little time to object
According to resident Carlo Agostini, the majority of the residents in the neighbouring suburbs of Ruwari, Protea Heights and Northpine did not receive registered letters, nor does everyone buy the above mentioned papers on a daily basis. “We were caught by surprise, and by the time we became aware of the City’s plans, we had very little time to object. We had to scramble to get objections in on time,” he told TygerBurger. According to Agostini, the City did not make any new impact studies available to residents, on their request. “We suspect that the impact studies used to steamroll this development are based on data gathered in 2019, when the City first wanted to develop the land; data that has shown the infrastructure to be inadequate. Why would the impact be less five years later, as nothing has changed?”
Another 700 objections are to be delivered to the mayor this week, says Agostini, with the hope that it be heard.
