Abstract
Twenty-eight years after the end of apartheid, Cape Town remains one of the most unequal cities in the world, and reflects persistent race and class segregation. Inclusionary housing is one in the range of tools required to tackle this enduring spatial inequality. The unique potential of this tool lies in its ability to create affordable homes within private developments in well-located areas. This chapter reflects on the advocacy efforts of civil society organisation Ndifuna Ukwazi between 2017 and 2022 to compel the City of Cape Town to implement a municipal inclusionary housing policy. This experience provides insight into the severe disjuncture between the progressive redress-orientated Constitutional and planning framework, and the reality of urban governance in South African cities. While many factors have limited the progress of NU’s advocacy strategy, this chapter focuses on the role of political instability and the limitations of the Municipal Planning Tribunal as a democratic space. The chapter ultimately makes the argument for thicker forms of participation in decision-making around city-making, greater transformation of decision-making bodies and highlights the importance of sustained justice-oriented civil society pressure for redress.
This chapter has been adapted into a full Ndifuna Ukwazi publication which can be found at: https://nu.org.za/regulating-the-private-sector/ (Ndifuna Ukwazi, 2022).
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Notes
- 1.
A list of Cape Town mayors in the pre-democracy-era can be ascertained at https://en-academic.com/dic.nsf/enwiki/5227671.
- 2.
By the City’s own estimates, with 359,277 people on the City’s housing waiting list as of January 2022, it is estimated that it will take over 70 years to eradicate Cape Town’s current housing backlog.
- 3.
Ndifuna Ukwazi (NU), a non-profit activist organisation and law centre that combines research, community organising and litigation in campaigns to advance urban land justice in Cape Town. See www.nu.org.za for more information. Further details of the objection strategy and the inclusionary housing contributions will be provided in a publication entitled Ndifuna Ukwazi ‘Regulating the Private Sector: Case Studies of Inclusionary Housing Developments in Cape Town’ (2022).
- 4.
Inclusionary housing is in place in cities in the USA, Western Europe and parts of the Global South, including Malaysia, India, Brazil and Columbia.
- 5.
As per exchange rate on 01.03.2022.
- 6.
- 7.
Section 25(5) and 26(2) of the Constitution of the Republic of South Africa.
- 8.
Adonisi and Others v Minister for Transport and Public Works Western Cape and Others; Minister of Human Settlements and Others v Premier of the Western Cape Province and Others (7908/2017; 12327/2017) [2020] ZAWCHC 87.
- 9.
Section 6 of SPLUMA.
- 10.
Section 7(a)(iii) of SPLUMA.
- 11.
Section 24(1)(d) of SPLUMA.
- 12.
Section 59(1)(a) of LUPA.
- 13.
At the time of writing, the Gauteng provincial government is drafting an inclusionary housing bill and the Draft Western Cape Provincial Government Inclusionary Housing Framework Policy is awaiting final council approval—see Western Cape Provincial Government (14 May 2021).
- 14.
See Section 79–88 of the Municipal Planning By-Law 2019 (MPBL).
- 15.
See Section 79–87 of the City of Cape Town Municipal Planning By-Law 2019 (“MPBL), and the City of Cape Town Standard Operating Procedure for the Notification of Land Use Development Applications, 2019, Table 1, pp. 9–12; See Section 81 of the MPBL, read with Section 21(1) of the Local Government: Municipal Systems Act, Act 32 of 2000.
- 16.
Section 35 of SPLUMA.
- 17.
Section 98 and 99 of the MPBL.
- 18.
See Section 36(1) of SPLUMA, and Section 115(2) of the MPBL.
- 19.
See Section 109(1), read with Section 114(3), of the MPBL; See Section 108 and 109 of the MPBL. The decision letter will include the email address of the appeal authority.
- 20.
See Section 121 of the MPBL.
- 21.
Section 100(2) of the MPBL.
- 22.
There is currently no draft or interim policy in place in Cape Town while the municipality is still in the policy drafting process.
- 23.
The MayCo approved a research document titled ‘City of Cape Town Inclusionary Housing Concept Document’ in August 2018.
- 24.
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Cogger, J., Park-Ross, R. (2023). Cleaving Open the Space to Advance Spatial Justice: Promoting Inclusionary Housing in Cape Town. In: Rubin, M., Charlton, S., Klug, N. (eds) Housing in African Cities. GeoJournal Library(). Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-37408-1_2
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