Cape Town Housing Crisis
Agoes Still Remembering the City?
- I wrote about the City of my housing program and why the same old apartheid patterns.
My family was kicked out of Claremont, and my grandfather’s claim to Stadsig Farm never got resolved.
I wrote as a grandson, a son of the Cape Flats, and for all the African and coloured families who were told they didn’t belong in the city of their birth.
We said: “We are here. We want to be seen and heard. We want well‑located land, affordable housing, and an end to spatial inequality.”
The Court’s Verdict
What the Constitutional Court Said
Five years later, South Africa’s highest court backed up what we had been saying.
In the unanimous Tafelberg judgment, the court declared that where you live matters for a decent home.
It ordered the City of Cape Town and the Western Cape Government to provide affordable housing in and around the CBD—places like Salt River, Woodstock, Observatory, and Sea Point.
The judges found that both authorities had failed their constitutional duty to create and finish social and affordable housing in those areas.
Why This Isn’t Just a Planning Glitch
The ruling isn’t about technical zoning mistakes.
It’s a constitutional indictment of a political project that has kept Cape Town’s economic and racial map almost unchanged for almost two decades.
The court called it a failure of spatial justice—plain and simple.
Mayor Hill‑Lewis’s Record
Promises vs. Progress
Geordin Hill‑Lewis has been mayor since November 2021.
He inherited a well‑funded city machine and had a full term to steer it toward real spatial transformation.
Instead, we got lots of words but little action.
The Numbers Speak
- 2024: Over 375,000 people on the housing needs register.
- 2026: That number rose to around 440,000.
These aren’t just stats; they’re retirees who might die waiting, kids crammed in backyards, families living beside train tracks, and workers commuting for hours because they can’t afford to live near their jobs.
Mayor Hill‑Lewis often calls Cape Town a “city of hope.”
But hope without land, budgets, deadlines, and keys in people’s hands is just a slogan—political theater.
Budget Priorities
The 2026/27 capital budget is about R13,032 billion.
- Water & sanitation: R5.387 billion
- Urban mobility: R3.039 billion
- Energy: R1.506 billion
- Human Settlements (housing): R967 million
Water, power, and transport are vital, but when a city faces one of the country’s biggest housing crises, treating housing equity as a minor line item shows where the real priorities lie.
What the City Chooses to Fund
Cape Town can plan perfectly, protect strategic infrastructure, and mobilize billions when tourism, investor confidence, or formal suburbs are at stake.
Yet when backyard dwellers, informal‑settlement residents, and working families ask for well‑located houses, the conversation shifts to feasibility, complexity, pipelines, and future phases.
Salt River Market – A Case Study
The mayor recently celebrated handing over the Salt River Market site for 970 units.
Originally meant for social housing over ten years ago, only 300 of those units are truly social housing; the remaining 670 are “affordable” units slated for completion in 2028.
That’s not speed—it’s repackaging delay as progress.
What the Court Demands
The Constitutional Court ordered the province and city to report, under oath, within three months on:
- Completed projects
- Projects under construction
- Projects still under consideration
- Allocated and spent budgets
- Inter‑governmental coordination
- Actual implementation timelines
No more glossy videos or mayoral newsletters—just honest, sworn accountability.
The court also found that the province failed to hold meaningful public engagement around Table Mountain and broke collaborative‑governance rules by not consulting the national government.
People must be consulted before deals are sealed, not after the fact.
Concrete Steps for the Mayor
- Publish all public property that could be used for housing.
- Release every housing budget line and show what’s unspent.
- List each delayed project and name the official responsible.
- Disclose any agreements with private developers.
- Set annual, measurable targets for completed social housing—not just land releases or announcements.
- Invite residents, housing movements, and affected communities to the decision‑making table before any deal is finalized.
Why I’m Still Writing
I don’t write because I dislike Cape Town.
I write because I love this city too much to let it stay divided by inequality.
The domestic worker, security guard, teacher, nurse, pensioner, trader, student, and factory worker have the same right to the city as the real‑estate investor, tourist, or developer.
The Cape Flats are not Cape Town’s dump‑site.
Our children shouldn’t inherit exile as their birthright.
Mayor Hill‑Lewis, Cape Town isn’t your personal real‑estate portfolio—it belongs to all of us.
Release the land. Spend the money. Build the houses. Break the apartheid‑era spatial legacy.
Five years ago we demanded to be seen and heard.
The Constitutional Court has now seen us.
It’s time for the DA government to hear us—or make way for a leadership that will.
This piece is written for a teenage audience, using clear language and straightforward headings to make the issue easy to follow.
