Speech by Siyabulela Mamkeli

Speech by Siyabulela Mamkeli, GOOD City of Cape Town Councillor:

This speech was delivered during the Ordinary Council Meeting of the City of Cape Town, item C29.

Namhlanje, we discuss a proposal to sell City-owned land in Manenberg to The Leadership College at 10% of its market value. While this discount is commendable, I urge this Council to go further transfer the land at no cost as an act of redress for apartheid’s legacy of land theft and forced removals.

Manenberg itself was born from apartheid’s racist spatial planning a community where families were violently dispossessed of their land and dignity. The Leadership College now stands as a beacon in that same community, offering affordable education to the Community of Manenberg. This is not just a school; it is a lifeline undoing decades of systemic exclusion.

By charging even 10%, we risk reducing justice to a transaction. The City has a moral duty to prioritise redress over revenue. The 1913 Land Act and apartheid policies stole land from Black, Coloured, and Indian communities not for profit, but to destroy their futures. Returning land to institutions like this college is not charity; it is reparations.

I recognise the legal frameworks guiding municipal asset disposal. But laws can be challenged, precedents rewritten. If we cannot freely transfer this land, let us partner with provincial or national government to fund it as a shared redress project. Let us calculate the “social value” of this school’s impact, 60 distinctions, 200 futures nurtured and let that value outweigh rand-per-square-meter.

To the Council: This vote is not just about land. It is about whether we, as leaders, will honour the past by investing in the future. The College’s learners are ratepayers’ children. Their success is our city’s success.

I implore you: Amend the proposal. Transfer this land freely, do not auction the land. Let Manenberg see that justice delayed is not justice denied. Let this Council be remembered not for compliance, but for courage.

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