Tafelberg land case continues in Western Cape High Court
The case involving the controversial sale of the Tafelberg site in Sea Point started in the Western Cape High Court on Monday.
Advocate Peter Hathorn presented the case on behalf of Reclaim the City and several social housing activists. Hathorn labelled as “unreasonable” the decision by the government to sell the property and the failure of their obligation to address apartheid spatial planning in Cape Town.
“Over the past two decades, the government has failed to meaningfully integrate black and coloured people working close to the city centre,” Hathorn said.
He said the provincial government had had 25 years to do this but had done nothing so far.
“One has to look at this as a 25-year period of inaction. There has been an obligation since 1994 to redress spatial injustice,” he said.
The Tafelberg school site is highly contested. In 2017, the provincial department of public works said it intended to sell the property to the Phyllis Jowell Jewish Day School for R135 million. Reclaim the City and Ndifuna Ukwazi brought a review application to the Western Cape High Court.
The Department of Human Settlements, with Ndifuna Ukwazi, launched the court action to have the sale reviewed. The application has been set down to be heard this week. Judge Patrick Gamble and Judge Monde Samela are presiding. Hathorn told the court that, by its own admission, the City had failed to reverse apartheid spatial planning.
“The City manager in his own admission said that in contrast to Durban and Johannesburg where the housing crisis is fairly low, the land value in Cape Town remains high. Suitable land must be made available for social housing and that land is scarce,” he said. “We submit that there has been no effort made by the City and Province to obtain land from national government,” he said.
Reclaim the City members showed up in their numbers and filled the gallery. Over the weekend Reclaim the City held various meetings, and on Thursday last week, they held a public meeting close to Tafelberg. On Sunday they held a picnic at Sea Point where they issued a timeline of events.
The case continues today.
In other news – Pictures – Man shot in road rage incident, Shooter drops him off at Hospital
A man has handed himself over to Randburg police after allegedly shooting a man in what seems to be a road-rage incident on Monday afternoon.
Eyewitnesses said the two had an altercation in Bryanston, Johannesburg, at which point the man allegedly shot his victim. In a strange turn of events, after the shooting, the man allegedly loaded his victim into his car and drove him to the hospital before handing himself over at the Randburg police station. continue reading
Source: iol
