Mowbray Golf Course redevelopment: We're watching you, Ndifuna Ukwazi warns COCT

Housing activist organisation Ndifuna Ukwazi has warned the City of Cape Town not to use ‘affordable housing tokenism’ when redeveloping the Mowbray Golf Course. 

The City has proposed mixed-use affordable housing development on City-owned land currently used by the King David Mowbray Golf Course and Clyde Pinelands Association Football Club, saying it would release the 65.8-hectare piece of land, valued at R171-million. Housing activists have for years advocated for affordable housing to be developed on public land.

NU said yesterday that, however, without clear affordability measures, long-term protections and racial redress, the City of Cape Town’s plan to redevelop Mowbray Golf Course with 30% affordable housing could fall short.

“This is a historic opportunity for Cape Town to break with its exclusionary past,” said Dr Jonty Cogger, attorney at Ndifuna Ukwazi. “But without bold commitments, this could become another missed opportunity.” 

Ndifuna Ukwazi, a non-profit organisation working to broaden access to well-located land and affordable housing, said it will closely monitor the redevelopment to ensure it is just, equitable and truly transformative for Cape Town’s residents.

Cogger said that for 113 years, Mowbray Golf Course symbolised exclusion, leased at a nominal rate while serving as a green buffer that reinforced apartheid-era spatial divisions.

The City’s proposal for a mixed-use development is "a step forward, but the 30% affordable housing allocation remains unclear and inadequate".

“To truly serve Cape Town’s most vulnerable residents, the project must centre equity and redress. With over 58% of Cape Town households earning less than R10 000 per month, long-term sustainability measures are essential to prevent displacement and uphold the Constitutional right to housing.

"Instead of selling the land, the City should explore alternatives like 99-year leases and community land trusts to ensure affordability while maintaining public ownership.

"Transparency throughout the process is critical to achieving these goals. Housing policies must also include explicit racial redress. Race-neutral approaches fail marginalised communities and risk deepening apartheid-era inequalities.”  

Meanwhile Associate Professor Francois Viruly, from the Department of Construction Economics and Management at the University of Cape Town (UCT) said South Africa "cannot continue with the tendency to develop housing units at great distances from places of work".

To resolve housing accessibility means the country needs to have a very careful look at available land and the highest and best  use of land from a social perspective, he said.

"The idea of  inclusionary housing is not particularly new as it is being implemented in many countries in the world.

"In South Africa, the high inequality in income means that the difference between market and inclusionary house prices can be considerable.

"In developing an inclusionary housing intervention one would consider well-located land and target housing units for households who would not benefit from RDP housing - namely those who are in the gap market. A well-functioning city must be able to offer a gradient of housing values," Viruly said

The associate professor added that finally it should be underlined  that in South Africa, the affordable housing market - which an inclusionary housing policy attempts to serve - is not merely a segment  of the market - it is the South African property market.

"Some 50% of residential title deeds are valued at below R 750 000 - a market that cannot be ignored and which should be central to housing delivery," Viruly said.

The City’s Property Development Department recently said it was in the process of preparing an urban design and concept plan for the redevelopment of Mowbray Golf Course. This will be followed by statutory processes and applications to enable mixed-use development, including affordable housing.

The proposed development site is approximately 42.8 ha in extent, bounded by Settlers Way to the south, Links Drive to the north and Raapenberg Road to the west. It consists of Mowbray Golf Course and Clyde Pinelands Association Football Club, located to the east of the golf course across the Elsies River canal.

As a significant public land parcel in a prime location, Mowbray Golf Course was said to be of metropolitan significance presenting massive development opportunities. 

This project is said to seek to unlock the development potential of this strategic under-utilised government-owned precinct. 

Last month, Tsekiso Machike, spokesperson to Department of Human Settlements Minister Thembi Simelane told this publication that access to affordable housing is a challenge in South Africa.

"Government alone cannot overcome it. It is for these reasons that we continue to implore the private sector to partner with us. Several programmes are being implemented and these include First Home Finance and social housing. Recently, Minister Simelane handed over one of the biggest social housing projects in Midrand. This project has made it possible for people to have access to affordable and decent shelter closer to economic opportunities," Machike said. 

Reclaim The City (RTC) told Independent Media last month that it was important that spaces such as  King David Mowbray Golf Course (KDMGC) and its surrounding vacant land in Pinelands works for everyone, not just a privileged few.

“The redevelopment of KDMGC is more than a change in land use; it is a reimagining of what public space can be in a city that continues to suffer from uneven distribution of green space and community facilities,” RTC said.

Independent Media Property