Tafelberg judgment: Rolling back the apartheid Group Areas Act Tafelberg judgment: Rolling back the Apartheid Group Areas Act

31 August 2020

Tafelberg School judgment is a victory for the role of public land in addressing our housing crisis and rolling back the apartheid Group Areas Act.

It demolishes the Western Cape Government’s argument that well-located land should not be used for housing because of its high rand value. 

Tafelberg School should have been made available, as was always intended, for affordable housing.

The unlawful sale of the Tafelberg School site demonstrates this government’s resistance to social and spatial integration and to using well-located public land to address the housing deficit.

The fact that the Western Cape Government persisted with the sale, despite all the evidence that the site was viable for affordable social housing and despite the pleas of countless organisations and housing experts was an act of arrogance and defiance.

Last year, in the first sitting of the current Western Cape Provincial Parliament, Premier Alan Winde, committed to resolving the dispute and settling the litigation.  Instead of honouring this commitment, the Western Cape Government proceeded to defend the review application vigorously. 

There has been no evidence that Winde made any effort to resolve this and the people of the Western Cape are paying for wasted legal costs and years of lost time.

Winde must rethink his absurd attitude to the release of public land – that he would do so only if national government does so first.  This judgement confirms what we have been saying -  that such a condition is unlawful and immature.

This judgment is critically important because it confirms the legal obligations of governments to use public property, like land and buildings, to address critical housing shortages.

The Western Cape Government must change its attitude to the use of public land, especially well located land, to leverage critical housing opportunities and to achieve integration.

Public land belongs to us all and it should never be regarded as a private commodity to be done with as the government of the day pleases. This government holds this land in custody, on behalf of the people of this country, and their obligation is to use it for a public good

The judgment will have far reaching consequences for the role of public land in addressing exclusion and inequality in a land where the majority are landless.

Issued by Brett Herron, GOOD Member of the Western Cape Provincial Parliament and Secretary-General, 31 August 2020