WC govt, CoCT head to SCA to challenge high court ruling on Tafelberg property
A social movement called Reclaim the City took government to court in 2017 in order to stop the sale of the land. The Western Cape High Court ruled in the group's favour.
CAPE TOWN - The Western Cape government and the City of Cape Town will on Monday head to the Supreme Court of Appeal (SCA) to challenge the 2020 High Court judgment regarding the Tafelberg property in Sea Point, Cape Town.
A social movement called Reclaim the City took government to court in 2017 in order to stop the sale of the land.
The province planned to use the revenue to buy property for the Western Cape Education Department (WCED).
But the group wanted the land to be used for affordable social housing.
The Western Cape High Court ruled in the group's favour.
There has been a call for the Sea Point property to be used for affordable housing since the 1980s.
Social movement Reclaim the City was formed when then-premier, Helen Zille, made the decision to sell the property and approached the court to stop the sale from going ahead.
Now the provincial government is taking its bid to the Supreme Court of Appeal, not to appeal the decision on the sale of the land but rather the process of consultation for its use.
Reclaim the City's lawyers said that at the heart of the matter was the government’s obligation to promote equitable access to land and to redress spatial apartheid and injustice through the provision of affordable housing in central Cape Town.
Eyewitness News reached out to the city and the province for comment and both declined.
