GOOD Statement by Axolile Notywala, GOOD City of Cape Town Councillor:
The GOOD Party has formally declared its opposition to the City of Cape Town’s decision to auction off approximately 50 public properties, including the historic Good Hope Centre. This move represents a betrayal of the city’s constitutional obligation to address spatial justice and provide well-located housing for its residents.
The City’s decision to sell these assets to the highest bidder, rather than utilising them for the public good, is a short-sighted financial move that permanently strips Cape Town of the tools needed to dismantle the legacy of spatial apartheid.
The GOOD Party highlights a disturbing contradiction in the City’s management of the Good Hope Centre. While the building is being prepared for auction, public funds have recently been spent on maintenance, including fixing roof leaks and ensuring the facility was compliant for the recent Opening of Parliament.
Public land is a strategic instrument for spatial justice, not a disposable asset, says Axolile Notywala, GOOD Party Councillor. Using taxpayer money to refurbish a building only to hand it over to the private sector is not just exclusionary; it is fiscally irrational. This facility is functional and vital to the city’s public identity.
With over 400,000 households on the housing waiting list, the GOOD Party argues that strategic inner-city land must be reserved for mixed-income and social housing. Selling central land purely for commercial development forces the poor to the periphery, entrenching inequality and increasing transport costs for the working class. True economic growth is not measured by the construction of luxury apartments, but by how many residents can afford to live near economic nodes.
If the auction proceeds, the matter does not end there.
There are further legal options, continued council oversight, policy proposals to more strictly regulate future alienations, and ongoing public mobilisation.
Public land is a scarce resource. Once it is sold, the loss is permanent. That is why every alienation must be tested against a simple question: does it truly serve the long-term interests of residents?
Cities are not measured only by how much they develop, but by who they include.
Cape Town must decide whether it will use its strategic land to correct inequality or sell it and lose that opportunity forever.
There’s something bigger sitting underneath this entire debate: who owns the future shape of a city? The highest bidder or the public that lives in it? That’s the real contest here.
GOOD Ministerial Role: Patricia de Lille serves as the Minister of Tourism in the national government.
Jelly Camber
At the end of the school year and a mother asked his son if the exam questions were difficult. And he answers her saying “They weren’t bad at all,” it was the answers that gave me all the trouble.
Truth
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