Government may finally be heeding calls for Cape Town military land to be developed for housing

About 400,000 households are on the housing waiting list in Cape Town. Archive photo: Steve Kretzmann

For decades, housing activists have been calling for under-used military land in Cape Town to be released for housing. This includes about 668 hectares of well-located land at the Wingfield and Ysterplaat airbases, adjacent to Century City, and at Youngsfield, between Wynberg and Ottery.

Recently, human settlements minister Thembi Simelane told GroundUp that public works minister Dean Macpherson is “dealing with the paperwork” and engaging with the army.

Public Works spokesperson Lennox Mabaso said there is “complete agreement that public land owned by the State must be urgently unlocked to support its new housing model of working with the private sector to build housing opportunities”.

He specifically said this included Wingfield, Youngsfield and Ysterplaat.

“Macpherson has also indicated that land release must increasingly move beyond isolated transactions and form part of a more strategic approach to the management of the state’s property portfolio,” said Mabaso.

Macpherson told Cape Talk last month that he was aiming to have a clear policy direction and proclamation by the end of the year, enabling construction to start.

Jens Horber, a researcher with housing activists Ndifuna Ukwazi, said estimates show 67,000 homes could be built on the three military sites.

He cautioned that without co-ordination across the various departments, such as human settlements, public works and defence, and “collective implementation strategies and aligned funding, land release alone does not translate into delivery”.

With about 400,000 families on its housing waiting list, the City has also, for over a decade, been calling for the military land to be released.

Mayor Geordin Hill-Lewis reiterated the call in 2024, saying, “There are huge portions of mainly military land, all poorly utilised. Some of these have to be unlocked for housing development”.

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