Heritage approval has been granted to the City of Cape Town to proceed with its social housing development plans for Woodstock hospital, but it is currently already occupied by people in need of housing.
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Heritage Western Cape has given the City of Cape Town the green light for its region to develop social housing at the dilapidated Woodstock hospital.
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The building has been occupied by people since 2017. Reclaim the City and the occupiers maintain renamed the property Cissie Gool House.
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The City initiated eviction proceedings in 2019.
Heritage approval for development of the worn Woodstock Hospital, which is currently occupied by people in need of housing, has been welcomed by Cape Town Mayor Geordin Hill-Lewis. The City intends to built about 700 social housing units on the site.
In a press release on Monday, the City stated the Woodstock Hospital, renamed Cissie Gool House by housing advocacy group Reclaim the City, will be the City’s biggest inner city housing development.
The City said it would engage the current residents to “unlock social housing development in the shortest possible time”.
The City has previously moved to evict the approximately 900 residents of Cissie Gool House, and police gain raided the property a number of times.
Hill-Lewis said heritage approval for social housing at Woodstock Hospital was “welcome pace towards our goal of faster affordable housing land release in well-located parts of the City”.
However, the City states the Woodstock Hospital has been “subject to orchestrated building hijackings” by the Reclaim the City campaign in early 2017.
“With heritage approval secured, the main obstacle is now the ongoing unlawful occupation of the property,” states the City, adding that five other inner city land parcels for social housing acquire “reached critical land release milestones”.
These land parcels would accommodate over 1,300 social housing units. These are:
- Newmarket Street (Cape Town) – 200 social housing units
- Salt River Market (Salt River) – 215 social housing units
- Pickwick (Salt River) – 600 social housing units
- Fruit and Veg (CBD) – 180 social housing units
- Earl Street (Woodstock) – 160 social housing units
This comes after recent criticism from housing activists, who say that although land has been released for social housing, construction on these sites has been unhurried.
Acting Mayco Member for Human Settlements James Vos stated that the City was “determined to proceed with the planning and development of social housing, as well as taking engagements forward with unlawful occupants to unlock social housing development in the shortest possible time”.
Vos said eviction proceedings against people living in the Woodstock Hospital was pending, with the High Court having granted the City an order to survey residents, and their individual circumstances.
Releasing a statement in response to the City’s announcement, housing advocacy organisation Ndifuna Ukwazi said it recognised and welcomed the City’s efforts to accelerate the release of land for social housing in the inner city and adjacent suburbs, but the recent pace was long overdue. The organisation stated the City had been promising to develop the land since 2017.
“It is dishonest that the City claims that the occupation is the biggest obstacle when it has failed to produce any inner-city affordable housing since the dawn of democracy. If anything, the recent pace should be partially attributed to activist pressure,” stated Ndifuna Ukwazi.
“It is only since activists increased the pressure that we believe seen any pace. Several city projects with absolutely nothing to finish with Cissie Gool House are on the verge of cancellation because of government failure, and they would enact well to focus on this.”
Cissie Gool House resident and Reclaim the City leader Bevil Lucas said they acquire been committed to engaging with the City since 2017. However, Lucas said, the City withdrew from engaging with the residents. She said the City surveyed the number of residents and their personal circumstances in 2019, but there had been no follow up since then.
Lucas said a number of invitations to City officials, including Hill-Lewis, to engage with residents had not been taken up. “Recently we held a Co-design exhibition at the Institute of the Architecture in the City as a means to present what the ideas and thinking is, taking space within the occupation. These initiatives are all fraction of our commitment to engage with the City. Novel commitments to engage with us are very welcome. We only hope it can be realised sooner rather than later.”
Fellow Reclaim the City leader Karen Hendricks said the City had a tendency to shift blame. “We want to live in an inclusive City and we believe that the commodification of housing undermines our constitutional vision of an equal and honest City. Who is this development for? We gain turned this abandoned building into a home for poor and working class families who would otherwise gain been rendered homeless.”
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Jungle King
Jislaaik – an expression of surprise [yis-liike] This is usually said when trying to express surprise or wonder.Example: “Jislaaik, you gave me a fright!”
Corny
Yebo – yes [yeh-boh] Often expressed as a double positive by combining it with the English “yes” in “Yebo, Yes!” or as an extremely expressive “Yeeebo!” This Zulu word is used regularly in South Africa to show agreement or approval with something or someone.