R50 million Khayelitsha housing development lost to land invasions

28 July 2020

A Khayelitsha housing development set to deliver 1100 housing opportunities for local residents has lost land earmarked for 420 of the 1100, to an illegal land invasion.

The City of Cape Town has allocated capital budget of R50 million - R15 million for the 2020/2021 financial year, R15 million for the 2021/2022 financial year and R20 million for the 2022/2023 financial year - to develop the Mahama site, which has a planned total of 1100 housing opportunities, in Makhaza, Khayelitsha.

Unfortunately 420 families who have waited patiently on a housing waiting list have had their rights undermined as the land was illegally invaded over the weekend.

With R1,3 billion in housing developments at risk due to land invasions, I appreciate the commitment from the Western Cape Police Commissioner that the South African Police Service (SAPS) will lend their full support to planning anti-land invasion operations with the City’s Chief of Metro Police.

This afternoon I will be meeting with the National Minister of Human Settlements, Lindiwe Sisulu, to discuss ongoing land invasion operations that are not only affecting Cape Town, but are taking place across South Africa.

I will also be raising with Minister Sisulu, the pending court case by the South African Human Rights Commission (SAHRC), supported by the Legal Resource Centre (LRC) and Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF), which aims to prevent the City from carrying out anti-land invasion operations.

The City of Cape Town is ready to oppose the SAHRC’S court application for the common law right to protect property from land invasion to be declared unlawful.

The SAHRC is asking the courts for an interdict preventing landowners from removing empty, unoccupied structures as a means of protecting property from invasion.

Further, the SAHRC is asking the court to declare unlawful the well-established common law principle of ‘counter-spoliation’, which permits all landowners to protect their property against the erection of illegal structures.

The application also seeks the voiding of existing court orders explicitly permitting the City to protect specific sites from illegal invasion using counter-spoliation.

If successful, the SAHRC’s application – joined by the EFF and Legal Resources Centre – will open the floodgates on illegal land invasions, leading to a breakdown in law and order. The R50 million housing site lost this weekend will only be the start if this case is successful.

City land earmarked for housing, schools and basic services as well as private land that will no longer be protected, would be permanently lost to unlawful land occupations with devastating consequences.

Issued by Greg Wagner, Spokesperson to the Executive Mayor, 28 July 2020