Reclaim the City calls for collective effort to address apartheid spatial planning in CT

CAPE TOWN - Reclaim the City is calling for a collective effort to address apartheid spatial planning in Cape Town.

The call comes after the Constitutional Court this week confirmed it will hear Reclaim the City’s appeal against the Western Cape government's intent to redevelop the Tafelberg school site in Sea Point.

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This development follows a nine-year court battle after the provincial government sold the land in 2015 instead of using it for social housing.

The housing organisation said that 30 years after democracy, the legacy of apartheid is still visible in Cape Town.

Ndifuna Ukwazi attorney Disha Govender said: "The Tafelberg court case seeks to hold the Western Cape and City of Cape Town governments accountable in addressing at a systemic level how public land and particularly well-located public land must be valued, used and redistributed to deliver on the constitutional mandate to transform our society and to ensure a truly inclusive and spatially just city.”

Govender said while litigation was a powerful tool to advance spatial justice, it is equally crucial to build the power of the people to hold government accountable.

"We are calling on people to not only support the court case but to call for social housing to be developed on the Tafelberg site because action is what is needed urgently to transform the city."

The Western Cape government has opted not to comment on the matter at this stage.