Cape Town - Cape Town’s informal settlements and the spatial injustice they represent became the focus of the local government election campaign over the weekend with political parties and candidates all addressing the issue.
PAC Robert Sobukwe Branch Chairperson Nyameko Sinandile said he would be campaigning on the slogan: No land, No houses, No vote for ANC and DA councillors on November 1.
Campaigning to represent Ward 94 in Khayelitsha, Sinandile said the City and the province must agree to rezone the open spaces of land for houses for the poorest of the poor and by so doing create more housing opportunities, especially for the youth.
In a statement on the issue, Good Party leader Patricia De Lille said: “Nowhere is our apartheid heritage more painfully visible than in the spatial layout of our towns and cities.
“Deliberately designed to divide the population, 27 years of democracy have failed to break this urban pattern of injustice. We say, public land must be used for public good. Maintaining the apartheid shape of our urban areas is a gross injustice,” said De Lille.
DA provincial Human Settlements spokesperson Matlhodi Maseko said that the City was working hard to create inclusive and affordable housing opportunities.
“Since 2012, this has led to more than 60 000 housing opportunities and 17 000 title deeds handed over to residents.
“In the last year, the City has seen the release of draft spatial development frameworks for District 6 and the Bo-Kaap, as well as the City’s new maintenance and repair initiative,” said Maseko.
She said the City’s Human Settlements Strategy, which took two years to draft, aims to partner with the private sector in creating affordable and inclusive housing, to cut red tape to fast track housing developments, and to leverage its work to economically support micro, small and medium developers.
mwangi.githahu@inl.co.za