- The City of Cape Town approved a social housing development in Ruwari, sparking strong objections from local residents.
- Community members cite concerns over property values, infrastructure strain, and school shortages.
- Despite the city’s assurances on impact and infrastructure, residents remain opposed and plan to take further action.
The City of Cape Town has given the green light to release a property in Ruwari for social housing development, a decision Brackenfell suburbanites are dead-set against due to an anticipated drop in the property values and a lack of infrastructure in the area.
The announcement was made by Mayor Geordin Hill-Lewis at a council meeting on Thursday, as part of the Mayoral priority programme for accelerated land release for affordable housing.
Hill-Lewis said in his address to council that this would be a game changer for families in need of well-located affordable rental housing.
The property, situated in Affodil Street next to the KFC, is earmarked for a mixed-use development that will include around 115 social housing units, 30 gap housing units, and retail space.
Gap housing developments are aimed at people who fall in that income gap of not earning enough to qualify for a home loan, but earning too much to qualify for housing subsidies, while socialhousing provides rentals to low-income families.
On the whole the affordable housing programme is aimed at the transformation of urban spatial patterns.
“Bit by bit, property by property, we are changing the affordable housing picture in Cape Town. Each of these developments might seem relatively small on their own compared to the pressing overall need. But take a step back and look at the full scale of our affordable housing pipeline, and you will see that housing in our city is undergoing a transformation”, the Mayor said in his address.
In a statement to the media Mayco member for human settlements Carl Pophaim said that as is the case with all other affordable housing projects, the City will discount the land to the housing developer in exchange for the optimal yield of social and gap housing.
“We look forward to enabling many more affordable housing opportunities. These have proven to be a game changer for the thousands of families already tenanted at various well-located developments around the metro, including Maitland Mews in the inner city, Bothasig Gardens, Goodwood Station, and the Western Cape Government’s Conradie Park development in Pinelands,” said Pophaim.
Objections
However, residents in Ruwari and surrounds are ready to take up arms against the City, saying that their total of 59 objections pointing to the shortage of schools, road and sanitation infrastructure was wholly ignored.
An estate agent in Brackenfell for 21 years, Petro Smallbones says she has been battling to sell houses in Ruwari since the first talks about developing this erf for social housing in 2019.
At that time the Housing Tribunal upheld the residents’ objections and decided against the developement.
Smallbones says residents really thought the fight was over and done with, which makes the recent decision all the more curious.
“People who have lived in the tranquil neighbourhood for many years now want to sell their homes, but buyers are not interested in investing in properties next to social housing projects no matter what promises the City makes to manage it well,” she told TygerBurger.
Since 2020 residents proposed that the land be developed as an old age home and a much needed parking space for the adjacent traffic department.
“But come 2024 no consideration was given to any of our suggestions and our objections were dismissed at a public meeting held in March 2024.”
According to Smallbones she even battles to rent out these houses as there are only two roads that connect Brackenfell South to Old Paarl Road to get access to Okavango Road and the N1.
“People know there are no schools for their children as they struggle year after year to get admission to Bastion Primary, which is already one of the biggest schools in the Western Cape,” she says.
“I sent the subcouncil photos and videos of cars parked in Affodil Street due to a lack of parking at the traffic department, making it difficult for residents to use the street. Apart from that we suffer burst water pipes on a monthly basis with our road and sidewalks already dug up and split open to enable the constant repairs, of which we also sent photos,” she says.
“The list of objections are long as the area’s infrastructure simply cant carry high density housing.“
The City’s responses to the afore objections, as it is pertained in a report, states that an empirical study done has established that social housing had no impact on house prices in the neighbourhood surrounding social housing.
Furthermore, the report states that the Western Cape Education Department is responsible for the provision of public schools, and that the shortfall thereof in the Brackenfell area will be addressed by the expansion of the existing schools over the next three to five years.
It was also stated that the bulk infrastructure capacity in the area was sufficient to carry the extra load of the development, this according to the internal service departments.
A civic movement to stop the development has gained significant momentum since the announcement on Thursday with the Brackenfell Rate Payers Association’s (BRPA) group being flooded with literally hundreds of messages.
Proposals by residents included petitions, class actions, public protests and bringing motions of no confidence in City councillors.
Residents accused the City of merely ticking the boxes to “squeeze in low cost housing in every hole they can find”.
One resident, who moved to Cape Town in 2006, commented that the city was becoming “as bad as Gauteng”.
A public meeting has been called, but not yet confirmed. TygerBurger requested an official statement from the management of the BRPA, but had not received such by the time of going to print.
