GOOD Speech by Suzette Little, GOOD Deputy Secretary-General & City of Cape Town Councillor:
Speaker,
This is not just about 187 square metres of land in the CBD, this is about how this City chooses who benefits, and who gets left behind. Because in this Item, the City is not simply disposing of land, it is rewarding an encroachment. A building was allowed to extend onto public land, and now that very encroachment is being used to justify a direct sale to the adjoining owner through a non-competitive process. Did the City even submit compliance notices in line with the law, or are we avoiding the legal processes by now wanting to sell the property.
This document is telling us that, for some, If you build on public land, the City will negotiate with you. However, If you are poor, if you are a long-term tenant, if you’ve kept a City property standing for decades, you get nothing.
In Kewtown, residents are told to pay full market value, with No discount, No recognition and No justice. In Maynard Street, land taken under the promise of public purpose is now being sold off, not returned, but sold.
Speaker, the law may allow this. Section 14 of the MFMA may be ticked off. The process may be compliant. But compliance is not justice — and legality is not fairness.
Even Provincial Treasury warned that disposals must be fair, equitable, transparent, and competitive, yet here we are, approving a deviation from that very principle.
And where does the money go? We are told it goes to transport, yet this Council has not seen a single transparent, itemised account of how those proceeds are spent, with no oversight, just blind trust.
And then there is Wynberg. Land scarred by the Group Areas Act, land that carries the weight of forced removals, quietly auctioned without informing the residents of the history attached to the property. There is No restitution lens and No historical justice, just Silence.
Speaker, apartheid was not just a system of laws, it was a system of outcomes.
And today, through different language and different processes, we are reproducing those same outcomes. We called for a moratorium. We asked for a review. We asked for consistency, and the DA majority refused, forcing this DA run City of Cape Town to take the hope of a better life away from its residents.
Speaker, as GOOD we want to be clear and clearly state it on record, the people of Cape Town are not confused. They see the pattern. They feel the exclusion. They understand exactly who this City works for. Because hope without fairness is fiction.
And there is no such thing as a City of Hope… without restitution. We do not support this item, until restitution is available to all within this city.
GOOD Environmental Justice: The party advocates for environmental justice and protection of natural resources.
Acid Queen
Y\’know, I could have sworn South Africa had apartheid.
Is this the Mandela Effect?
Kickstart
I am intrigued by your article – thank you for your efforts.