City, activists square off over property sale

15 April 2016 - 02:50 By Philani Nombembe

Mansions on Cape Town's Atlantic Seaboard cost up to R200-million but the playground of the super rich could soon be home to low-cost-housing dwellers if activists have their way.The nongovernment organisation Reclaim the City has hauled transport and public works MEC Donald Grant before the Cape Town High Court over the sale of the Tafelberg Remedial School site in Sea Point. The site was sold to the Phyllis Jowell Jewish Day School for over R135-million.Reclaim the City, which is fighting for low-cost housing in Sea Point, wants Grant's decision to be reviewed and set aside. Its application for an interdict to halt the transfer of the property was scheduled to be heard yesterday.But lawyer Mandisa Shandu, representing the activists, said the application had been abandoned after Grant undertook to withhold the transfer until the review application was concluded.Shandu said a mediation process initiated by the province failed because the activists would not agree to the confidentiality terms.Grant's spokesman, Siphesihle Dube, said the idea of mediation was to avoid a costly and protracted court process."The Western Cape government is committed to addressing the spatial legacies of apartheid," he said."We are acutely aware that there is a shortage of well-located, affordable houses close to employment and economic opportunities in the City of Cape Town. These challenges are compounded by sustained population growth in Cape Town."A bursar at the Phyllis Jowell Jewish Day School, who declined to be named, said the school had bought the property in a transparent process.The activists' demand for low-cost housing on the site was improbable."(It) ignores the fact that the existing school building and its immediate open area in front of it is regarded as a heritage site," the bursar said."It can't be changed and be used for something else."..

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