My door is open to Cape Town housing activists, says Alan Winde

In the early hours of Monday last week, hundreds of housing activists from Reclaim the City and Ndifuna Ukwazi protested outside Western Cape premier Alan Winde’s official residence in Cape Town.

Among other demands, they called for accountability for R500m for housing that was apparently not spent; the release of provincial-owned parking sites and the Tafelberg site for social housing; and clarity on public participation in the proposed developments.

In a petition, more than 400 people have called on Winde to release the Tafelberg site for social housing despite the recent Supreme Court of Appeal ruling that went against the housing activists.

Ndifuna Ukwazi recently announced it was taking the Tafelberg case to the Constitutional Court.

“The upcoming Constitutional Court challenge should not be used as an excuse for inaction,” reads the petition.

The provincial government also announced a public participation process for the site. The department of infrastructure said it was exploring options for “this strategically located and underutilised public land”.

GroundUp asked the premier about some of these issues. Replies have been edited slightly for brevity.

If housing activists say they want to meet you, surely it means they want to try to find a way forward?

I have met them probably seven times in the past two years. I have a totally open door, they come almost every single ‘first Thursday” [when the provincial cabinet holds a public meeting].

Their main driver is Tafelberg. They don’t want to talk about Helen Bowden, they don’t want to talk about District Six.

They’ve even registered [as an interested party on the Tafelberg site]. What do they want to negotiate about now? Now, I think they are more of a political party than an activist group. That is unacceptable. I don’t know what they want to do.

Was there a move to evict occupiers at Helen Bowden Nurses Home when it was first occupied in 2017?

It became quite complex. They [Reclaim the City] were creating a protest action. To evict we would have to procure land. We want to develop a prime piece of land for social and low-cost effective housing. Is there any piece of property on the African continent as valuable?

We want to do exactly what they want us to do. Then they invaded it, which has stopped us being able to do it. To evict, we have to put budget aside.

They keep on saying, what about the costs of the court case? Well, they are the ones that are going to cost it even more [now]. It costs a lot of money, this piece of infrastructure [Helen Bowden] that we can do nothing with. We want to do what they want to do.

You are well renowned for your negotiating skills — is there room for compromise with groups like Ndifuna Ukwazi and Reclaim the City?

Let’s also see some goodwill from their side, and I will put goodwill on the table from my side. [As] we have already shown. We have already gone to the public to say what should be done with the Tafelberg site and what should we use it for? They said to me that they have registered. That’s exactly where we should be having that discussion.

The housing crisis is not just affecting the Western Cape. How have the fiscal challenges affected housing delivery?

Of course, budget cuts affect every single department and housing delivery is one of them. In their [Reclaim the City] statement, they asked about the R500m sent back. We all know what that was [about/the cause]; it’s called extortion.

Infrastructure is a pipeline, and it takes a while. When you can’t get a development going because of extortion m we need to end it. We are a responsible government when it comes to finances.

We believe in good governance. We could just put that money into something else but then it would be taking away from housing.

Rather give it back [to the Treasury] and then get it back again the next year so that you can spend it on housing. If that reason is not good enough then challenge us on the reason. We really want that money to come back for the same purpose; we don’t just want to give it away.

GroundUp sought further clarity on the R500m.

According to MEC Tertuis Simmers, “illegal invasions and extortion in all its forms obstructed many projects of the department of infrastructure, preventing us from completing planned projects. As a result, the national government cut our budget by R521,495,000 in the 2023/24 financial year, placing even more strain on our ability to deliver. Subsequently, our targets had to be downwardly adjusted.”

The projects halted and their value were, in total, R391m: R3.7m Valpark Primary School; R386,183 Clarke Primary School; R105.3m Ravensmead CDC; R21.4m Driftsands relocations; R248m airport infills and R12m Delft South.

“Due to an increase in illegal invasions, especially at our project in Cape Town, we have had to go to drastic and expensive lengths to protect them. Since 2019, the department has spent R987m on security alone.”

GroundUp