Cape Town Mayor Geordin Hill-Lewis is committed to transforming large, underutilised tracts of land into affordable housing, hoping to gain support from his DA colleagues in the national government.
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He has identified several military bases in Cape Town and the parliamentary village in Goodwood as prime locations for these projects, though these properties are owned by the national government. The City has been actively advocating for the transfer of underutilised state land to local authorities to initiate affordable housing developments.
Hill-Lewis emphasised the lingering spatial inequalities from apartheid in South African cities and highlighted the importance of affordable social housing in well-located areas as a means to address this legacy.
‘We are working every day to dismantle that legacy, and one of the best ways to do so is to enable much more affordable social housing, developed at scale by the private sector, in well-located parts of Cape Town,’ he stated.
He stressed that affordable rental units near economic opportunities and transport corridors could significantly improve people’s lives. The City is prioritising a comprehensive program to accelerate land release for affordable housing.
‘As we continue to drive municipal land release, immense potential lies in a handful of severely underutilised mega-properties owned by the national government,’ Hill-Lewis said. These properties include the Wingfield, Youngsfield, and Wynberg military bases, as well as the Acacia Park Parliamentary Village near Century City. Hill-Lewis noted that these properties could be transformative for thousands of Cape Town families, estimating they could provide up to 100 000 affordable housing opportunities.
Despite previous requests being ignored by former public works ministers Patricia de Lille and Sihle Zikalala, Hill-Lewis remains hopeful. Housing advocacy groups have also called for military bases in Cape Town to be repurposed for housing. Ndifuna Ukwazi, Development Action Group (DAG), Community Organisation Resource Centre, and the Legal Resources Centre highlighted the availability of about 668 hectares of underutilised land at the Wingfield and Ysterplaat air bases and Youngsfield.
These groups stressed the strategic location of these sites, within a 10km radius of the Cape Town CBD, close to economic and industrial hubs, schools, social facilities, health services, and public transit. They noted that both Ysterplaat and Wingfield are in areas identified as urban development corridors by the City and the province.
In 2021, De Lille criticised Hill-Lewis’s proposal to use Acacia Park for affordable housing, calling it stupid.’
However, with DA member Dean McPherson now serving as the public works minister, Hill-Lewis is optimistic. Talks have begun with McPherson, whose spokesperson, Lennox Mabaso, said, ‘The minister is prepared to engage with any local government on any project that will see public assets used for public good.’
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