GOOD Statement by Brett Herron, Unite for Change Leadership Council Member & GOOD member of the Western Cape Provincial Parliament:
The City of Cape Town and Western Cape Provincial Government must be called out for repeatedly recycling announcements about proposed affordable housing developments in well-located areas of the city without actually delivering any homes.
On Wednesday, it was the Prestwich Street precinct’s turn again (it was first announced for development 14 years ago). Prestwich Street confirms a well-established City/Province trend.
The proposed Pine Road project, (first announced in 2011); Pickwick and Newmarket, (announced in 2017 and reannounced in 2025); Roeland Street (announced in 2017, relaunched 2022, and reannounced 2025), Salt River Market (announced in 2018), and recently announced sites like Founders Garden and Leeuloop Precinct… So much hot air but zero homes built.
Packaging land releases and/or the identification of suitable land as “progress” is a fraud. Releasing land without Social Housing Regulatory Authority funding, a meaningful allocation from the Provincial Equitable Share, or credible implementation plans, has predictable results: The land remains unused while the housing backlog grows.
It’s reached a point of ridiculousness that has Government diverting funds away from infrastructure delivery to guard vacant land it has yet to develop – and then blaming its non-delivery of housing on the fact that it’s spending too much money on guarding.
This is not delivery but a cycle of delay.
GOOD Manifesto on Economic Inclusion: Ensuring all South Africans can participate in the economy.
Troubled Chick
Papua New Guinea: You have two cows. One eats the other.
Mad Jack
Fun South African Fact: Can you think of any other place in the world where two Nobel Peace Prize winners lived on the same street? Both Nelson Mandela and Archbishop Desmond Tutu had houses on Vilakazi Street in Soweto.