Cape Town - Salt River residents in Shelley Road have linked letters from the City of Cape Town – indicating an intent to sell the properties which many of them have lived in their whole lives – to a new 10-storey residential building currently under construction and visible from their front doors.
The City confirmed that nine households were issued with notices and that the properties were surplus to the City’s needs. The council approved the disposal in 1999.
“The disposal method has not been decided upon. The City will be engaging the occupants and it is too early in the process to speculate about matters such as alternative accommodation,” the City said. Deputy Mayor and Mayco member for spatial planning and environment Eddie Andrews said the building plan was approved on April 6, 2023, and the new structure would consist of apartments and a boarding house, with approximately 223 units.
“It consists of 31 flats and 192 units as part of the boarding house,” Andrews said.
On June 26, a string of households in Shelley Road received a notice from the City informing them that their tenancy and lease might be terminated due to the City’s intention to sell the properties.
The residents were also told to make the properties accessible for scheduled viewings.
The tenants of at least nine affected properties – predominantly pensioners – said they have nowhere else to go and that their lives were rooted in the area, with work and schooling within walking distance.
Salt River Residents Association executive member Sulaiman Appoles linked the issuing of the notices to the 10-storey residential development currently under construction at 17 Shelley Road.
“It’s a principal position, it’s a political position of the City of Cape Town.
“Gentrification is a position of the City of Cape Town to have the long-standing residents of Salt River replaced by wealthier classes of people and it fits in with the DA’s inner-city reurbanisation development plan and basically these people are in the way. It’s as simple as that.”
shakirah.thebus@inl.co.za
Cape Argus