Mayor Gives Green Light to Controversial Bo-Kaap Hotel

Construction of a hotel on a vacant plot next to the Auwal Masjid in Bo-Kaap in Cape Town is to go ahead.

Construction of a hotel on a vacant plot in the Bo-Kaap in Cape Town is to go ahead, but it will be three storeys lower than the original plan.

Mayor Geordin Hill-Lewis has confirmed the decision by the City of Cape Town’s Municipal Planning Tribunal to approve the development on Buitengracht Street.

The original plan, for nine storeys, was opposed by residents of the historic suburb. The site is metres away from the Auwal Masjid, the oldest mosque and madrassah in South Africa, established in 1794.

Hill-Lewis said the Masjid was “of profound heritage significance to all of Cape Town”.

“For that reason, this matter has been treated with great care, and has followed an exhaustive engagement process. Few, if any, other development proposals have gone through such extensive community consultation, and redesign. The engagement process included a remarkable community facilitation convened by the South African Heritage Resources Agency. That facilitation resulted in a consensus that the building should be smaller, lower, and that intrusive overlooking features be removed, along with several other mitigating design changes. All those changes were made,” he said.

The planning tribunal initially approved the hotel, at six storeys, last year. Bo-Kaap residents appealed, and arguments for and against the development were heard in January by the City’s appeal panel.

Flyt Property Investment, which bought the land in 2017, argued that most concerns were over the scale of the building, yet there were much larger hotels in the same area.

Community member Rafiq Jacobs told the appeals panel that the “Auwal Mosque and the people who have called this place home for centuries deserve nothing less than our respect and protection.” Residents have previously protested against big developments in the area.

The panel then made recommendations to the mayor, who announced his approval of the project this week.

Hill-Lewis said the building would bring “several benefits to residents, including improved safety, job creation, and economic benefits of tourism for local businesses”.

A written memorandum of agreement will ensure that the development will not object to or complain about any of the activities of the Auwal Masjid, Hill-Lewis said.

In a statement, the chair of the Bo-Kaap Civic and Ratepayers’ Association Dawood Terblanche said the association would study the documentation and would not comment yet.

GroundUp sent questions to property developer Zane De Decker. No response had been received by the time of publication.

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