The Constitutional Court has dealt a blow to the City of Cape Town and the government on the 2015 sale of a Tafelberg site in Sea Point.
Image: Armand Hough / Independent Newspapers
The Constitutional Court has dealt a landmark blow to the Western Cape government and the City of Cape Town, declaring the 2015 sale of the Tafelberg property in Sea Point unlawful and finding that both spheres of government have failed to meet their constitutional obligations to provide adequate housing.
In a judgment handed down on Thursday, the country’s highest court found that neither the provincial government nor the city had developed a coherent plan to provide affordable housing in well-located, amenity-rich areas of Cape Town.
Instead, the court said both had continued to rely on cheaper land on the city’s outskirts, perpetuating rather than dismantling the spatial inequalities created under apartheid.
The case, which has been before the courts for nearly a decade, centred on the sale of the prime Sea Point property, widely regarded by housing activists as a litmus test of government’s commitment to using well-located public land to address apartheid-era spatial injustice instead of prioritising commercial interests.
In addition to setting aside the sale, the Constitutional Court ordered the Western Cape government to report back on the concrete measures it will implement to fulfil its constitutional obligation to provide access to adequate housing and ensure equitable access to well-located land.
The judgment is expected to have far-reaching implications beyond the Tafelberg site. It strengthens the legal position of housing advocates who have long argued that provincial and municipal governments have failed to make meaningful progress in reversing apartheid’s spatial legacy by developing affordable housing in economically integrated urban areas.
*This is a developing story.*
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