GOOD Speech by Brett Herron, GOOD Secretary-General & Member of the Western Cape Parliament:
This speech was delivered by GOOD Secretary-General & Member of the Western Cape Parliament Brett Herron during today’s interpellation on public land under the authority of the Western Cape Government.
A week ago, I stood here and welcomed the launch of 353-on-Main, the former Tafelberg site. It’s an important moment. It proves that public land can serve the public good. That affordable housing in well-located areas is not a dream, it’s entirely possible. But it also proves something else: that progress only happens when communities fight for it. Because this project wasn’t a gift. It was the result of tireless organising, legal battles, and public pressure.
That’s why I stand here again today, not just to acknowledge what was done, but to ask: why is this the exception, not the norm?
Across this province, thousands of people live on publicly owned land, in informal settlements that have existed for years. In 2023, this government managed to upgrade just one of them. One.
This is not a capacity crisis, it’s a crisis of political will. There are currently 14 applications under the State Land Disposal Act. Five of these relate to land currently occupied, not invaded last week, but settled years ago.
Take ERF 59787 in Khayelitsha. Nearly 3,500 people, many from women-led households, have lived there since 2020. The land was empty, unused, and offered real potential for formalisation and development. The application was denied. The official reason? “It belongs to the Education Department. It’s not surplus.”
But let’s be honest. If that land has been occupied for years, with no plans for development, it is surplus.
And if this government has no capacity to upgrade at scale, then surely the answer is to transfer ownership to the people already living there, through a trust or community-owned entity, so they can begin to build their own future.
This government loves to say that communities must take ownership of their futures.
Well, here is a chance to mean it. To step aside and allow communities to formalise, secure tenure, and begin development, because this government clearly isn’t keeping up.
Occupation is not a barrier. It’s an opportunity. A starting point for land reform. So the question isn’t just why the Province isn’t acting. It’s this: Why is the Province standing in the way?
I have already raised the issue of five parcels of land currently occupied by desperate communities, land this government refuses to release, using occupation itself as justification for inaction. Now I want to speak about the nine remaining sites.
These are not occupied. They’re not in use. They are vacant, underutilised, and in some cases, decaying. Yet every application for their release was denied.
Civil society groups, such as NU and IYM have made the legal case. The moral case. The developmental case. But the Province hides behind technicalities:
- “It’s not surplus.”
- “It’s reserved for future plans.”
- “It’s not feasible.”
These are not reasons. They are excuses for paralysis.
We are told the government wants to work with communities, but at every turn, it blocks the very actions that would empower them. This is not land reform. This is stagnation.
And in a city battling housing backlogs, mass displacement, and the ongoing legacy of apartheid planning, stagnation is not neutral. It is a choice. A choice to protect the status quo. Even without the Disposal of State Land Act, the Premier still has the power and responsibility to dispose of provincial land, including through donation, under the Western Cape Land Administration Act. The law provides the tools. What’s missing is the will.
If the Province cannot deliver upgrades at scale, and the 2023 numbers show it can’t, then it must consider innovative solutions. Like donating occupied land to community trusts. Like partnering with those already living on the land to build viable, dignified futures. It’s time to stop pretending these proposals are radical.
What’s radical is letting public land sit idle while people live without water, electricity, or safety.
One successful project is not enough.
Its time to hand over
- 1 Welcome Zenile Street, Khayeltisha
- 15 Moray Place, Oranjezicht
- 85 Mqha Street, Khayelitsha
- 57 Old Faure Road, Driftsands
If 353-on-Main was possible, so are the others.
We don’t need a performance of reform.
We need real, redistributive action.
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