Campaign organisation Reclaim the City have not given up their fight with the Western Cape government over the sale of the Tafelberg site in Cape Town.
On Friday the Ndifuna Ukwazi Law Centre‚ representing Reclaim the City‚ brought an appeal before the Cape Town High Court to review the decision in which “Premiere Helen Zille sold [out] poor and working class residents”.
The site‚ situated in the suburb of Sea Point‚ was formally used for a high school‚ but was sold to the Phyllis Jowell Jewish Day School for R135-million in March‚ following a more than year-long campaign by RTC to halt the sale.
The organisation wanted the site to be used to develop affordable housing for poor and working class black and coloured people‚ as part of effort to make the city centre more inclusive.
In a statement released on Friday‚ RTC said that all their efforts had “fallen on deaf ears”.
“Premier Zille and her cabinet have demonstrated that our voices were not heard or considered. Her spurious justifications for selling the site will now be tested‚” the statement said.
“Why do poor and working class people have to take their own government to court to ensure that well-located public land is used for the public good?”
Ndifuna Ukwazi will argue that that both the province and the city have failed in their constitutional obligations to redress spatial apartheid‚ and “to give effect to the right of poor and working class people to access land and housing in well-located areas”.
Spokesperson for the province Michael Mpofu‚ could not be reached for comment.
- TMG Digital/TimesLIVE
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