Non-profit organisation Reclaim the City on Tuesday hung out “laundry” during the debate on the Western Cape State of the Province Address (SOPA), to object to the lack of inner city housing.
“No deal on Tafelberg”, “land for the people not for profit” and “Is the provincial property committee broken?” were some of the phrases written on clothes the group’s members displayed in the provincial legislature.
In a statement, Reclaim the City said it attended the debate to ensure Premier Helen Zille was held accountable.
Zille delivered her tenth SOPA on Friday. The debate was open for the public to attend, unlike the SOPA itself.
It had been 20 years since any new affordable housing was built in the inner city and no new land had been allocated to social housing this year, the group said.
The provincial cabinet ordered a feasibility study for the Tafelberg site, near the V&A Waterfront, on July 29.
It was concluded in November, and the public had until January 31 to comment. The public works department extended it to February 10.
In July, GroundUp reported that the provincial government planned to use the money from the sale of the Tafelberg land to cover a shortfall on a new provincial office project in the city centre.
Reclaim the City said they had been informed that the project had been cancelled.
Zille’s administration had not responded to accusations that it sold an important piece of public land to prop up a failing and unaffordable mega-project, Reclaim the City said.
Zille and her spokesperson Michael Mpofu did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
[Source: News24]
