Five key findings from the Constitutional Court's Tafelberg judgment

[Nerfherder]

Seems like this issue was created by the extra and unnecessary conditions in the sales agreement, which I would agree with the court it should be declared unconstitutional. Just in the other direction. The new owners should have more freedom to develop as they see fit.

What extra conditions ?

Its the sale that is being contested. The complainants are saying that the city can't sell the property because it should be used for housing.

 

[L-Dog]

England has the same issue with counsil housing, don't really see a feasible solution unless the state provides developers with tax incentives or massive rate cuts.

 

[Sideshow Bob]

Wtf would they need to attend school?

Post in thread 'Over 85% of South African schools are dysfunctional'

Jul 6, 2026

We don't need no edukashion!

• ShaunSA

• 

Agree. I mean you landed up on this forum despite your Howard degree so what is the flipping use of education.

 

[ShaunSA]

Agree. I mean you landed up on this forum despite your Grade R so what is the flipping use of education.

ftfy

 

[Nerfherder]

WOW this is quite damning. If true then there must be an appeal on the way:

Right of reply: Cape Town’s affordable housing progress is undeniable

Kevin Bloom’s report on the Constitutional Court judgment on the Tafelberg school sale distorts and omits essential context.…

www.dailymaverick.co.za

Cape Town has made considerable progress in affordable housing, especially in this term of office, with more City-owned land being released for this purpose than in the 10 years prior to that combined.

About 4,000 affordable units are entering construction in Cape Town’s inner city, including at the Salt River Market, New Market Street (Foreshore), Pickwick (Salt River) and Fruit & Veg (CBD).

This is part of an overall 12,000-unit pipeline, and is aside from projects already completed and tenanted, including the inner city’s Maitland Mews (204 units), Goodwood Station (more than 1,000 units) and Bothasig Gardens (more than 400 units).

Uniquely in South Africa, the City has in recent years adopted public guidelines for selling land at below market value to maximise social housing yield.

and

Unfortunately, the national human settlements department gets off scot-free in this court case, even though their policies and lack of social housing grant funding is the number one obstacle to moving projects forward faster, and at greater scale.

There are even more seismic national government failures too, which those crusading against the province and City in the media (including Bloom) never seem to actually report on:

• The SABC building, the only other significant piece of unused/underutilised state land in Sea Point, was sold to the Housing Development Agency (HDA) for affordable housing five years ago. The HDA is the development arm of the national Department of Human Settlements. The site has a potential yield of 280 apartments. Since then, nothing has happened on that site whatsoever to progress the aims of more affordable housing in Sea Point;
• District Six is a 40-hectare gaping reminder of apartheid spatial planning right in the heart of the city. The Department of Land Reform and Rural Development has made painfully slow progress in restoring this land to its long-identified beneficiaries, many of whom are dying before they can see any progress on the land they were evicted from. The potential yield on this land is a massive 5,000 affordable housing units;
• The Transnet Culemborg site, right adjacent to the CBD, is 45 hectares, 455,000 square metres. It is derelict, unkempt, an eyesore and unused. For years Transnet has been promising to release this site for much-needed development in this most central of locations. But all we see happening on-site is more illegal occupation and crime; and
• It is also worth noting the Constitutional Court’s finding that spheres of government should consult one another on land release, and that this responsibility must now also apply to the national government’s various well-located mega-properties which could yield more than 100,000 affordable units on nationally owned land, including underused military bases and the parliamentary village.

None of this gets even a mention. In comparison, the Tafelberg site has a potential yield of just 250 dedicated social housing units, alongside roughly a similar number of market and intermediate affordable units.

 

[rietrot]

What extra conditions ?

Its the sale that is being contested. The complainants are saying that the city can't sell the property because it should be used for *housing.

Affordable housing specifically, not just housing.

The entire issue is about what can be build on the site, which is conditions imposed by city bylaws or the sales agreement. That's how these activist win. They weaponise socialist laws against the very libtard governments who created the laws. And liberals have no standing to tell them no. Not everything needs to be turned to shít to accommodate the poor.

Uniquely in South Africa, the City has in recent years adopted public guidelines for selling land at below market value to maximise social housing yield.

From the above post.
The City has retarded social housing laws and now that is used against them, because now they need to implement it in all projects.

 

[ghaye]

WOW this is quite damning. If true then there must be an appeal on the way:

Right of reply: Cape Town’s affordable housing progress is undeniable

Kevin Bloom’s report on the Constitutional Court judgment on the Tafelberg school sale distorts and omits essential context.…

www.dailymaverick.co.za

and

So 2 points;
1. The ANC delivering on their promises as usual.
2. Why was this not brought up in the court proceedings and if it was, why did the court seemingly ignore it?

 

[Grant]

I wonder why the national government would not rather give up Wingfield, much better location for poor people to travel to Epping, Milnerton, C-City for job opportunities than been stuck in Sea Point.

Look at this eye sore next the V&A.
View attachment 1919951

housing is definitely needed in atlantic seaboard area.

there is checkers x 2 large stores, spar - 1 large store, woolworths x3 large stores.
then the multitude of other retailers: mac d, kfc, steers, nandos etc.
all the hotels & restaurants.
domestic staff at residential properties.

thousands are travelling long distances every day.
someone living in a township typically takes mini bus taxi from home to local train station.
train into city
mini bus taxi into atlantic seaboard.
then repeated to go home

there will never be accommodation for all in the area, but there are other areas around the cbd close to main transport routes.

its going to be interesting to see how low cost homes are allocated,
giving preference to ppl that work in the area sounds feasible - but what happens if they leave the local employer after 6 months ?

 

[Sideshow Bob]

WOW this is quite damning. If true then there must be an appeal on the way:

Right of reply: Cape Town’s affordable housing progress is undeniable

Kevin Bloom’s report on the Constitutional Court judgment on the Tafelberg school sale distorts and omits essential context.…

www.dailymaverick.co.za

What is a separate sphere of government ? Was it ANC government in WC a decade ago ?

First, the old Tafelberg school sale was more than a decade ago, and was sold by a completely separate sphere of government

 

[Grant]

The entire issue is about what can be build on the site, which is conditions imposed by city bylaws or the sales agreement. That's how these activist win. They weaponise socialist laws against the very libtard governments who created the laws.

zoning overlay map
purple = the school

purple is rather vague: essentially temporary zoning until coct approves building plans / site use

 

[rietrot]

So 2 points;
1. The ANC delivering on their promises as usual.
2. Why was this not brought up in the court proceedings and if it was, why did the court seemingly ignore it?

What the ANC does is completely irrelevant.

 

[ghaye]

What the ANC does is completely irrelevant.

Unfortunately not. They have not yet halted their destruction of this country. Probably irrelevant if you live elsewhere.

 

[rietrot]

Unfortunately not. They have not yet halted their destruction of this country. Probably irrelevant if you live elsewhere.

Irrelevant to this specific issue and court case and thread.

Yes we all know the ANC is worse.

 

[rietrot]

its going to be interesting to see how low cost homes are allocated,
giving preference to ppl that work in the area sounds feasible - but what happens if they leave the local employer after 6 months ?

It's important to understand what is low cost housing(legally) then you would understand why you can't really have it especially in cape town.

It's not RDP homes that get allocated. It is just small flats under a certain price point. R800k?

So it would just be brought up by investors and rented out.

It is not for domestics or poor people. It is a very illogical requirement.

In South Africa, the primary affordable housing grant is First Home Finance (formerly known as FLISP). It provides a once-off government subsidy ranging from R38,878 to R169,264 depending on your income

The poors get a grand but is you do the math this works at R300k developments in a sqautercamp.

 

[TheChamp]

WOW this is quite damning. If true then there must be an appeal on the way:

Right of reply: Cape Town’s affordable housing progress is undeniable

Kevin Bloom’s report on the Constitutional Court judgment on the Tafelberg school sale distorts and omits essential context.…

www.dailymaverick.co.za

and

They are not beating the allegations,

with more City-owned land being released for this purpose than in the 10 years prior to that combined.

Looks like they knew where this court challenge was headed and there was a major scramble, this argument would have worked very well if it was the ANC in charge for the past ten years.

 

[Nerfherder]

They are not beating the allegations,



Looks like they knew where this court challenge was headed and there was a major scramble, this argument would have worked very well if it was the ANC in charge for the past ten years.

I don't think you can squeeze 10 years into "major scramble".looks like they have achieved the goals they have set out to meet.

 

[TheChamp]

I don't think you can squeeze 10 years into "major scramble".looks like they have achieved the goals they have set out to meet.

Looks like they were doing nothing and then they realised the courts were going to give them a smackdown and the scramble began, to pride yourself in the fact that you have done more in one term than you have for two terms simply means you were sleeping on the job during the past two terms.

 

[rietrot]

I don't think you can squeeze 10 years into "major scramble".looks like they have achieved the goals they have set out to meet.

The goal is always a moving target. There's still poor people in shacks so you need more affordable housing. Always.

 

[ghaye]

Irrelevant to this specific issue and court case and thread.

Yes we all know the ANC is worse.

Again, the ANC is very relevant in this thread. They are sitting on multiple options to relieve some of the burden on housing and their inaction has created a problem that local government now has to solve.

 

[ToxicBunny]

WOW this is quite damning. If true then there must be an appeal on the way:

Right of reply: Cape Town’s affordable housing progress is undeniable

Kevin Bloom’s report on the Constitutional Court judgment on the Tafelberg school sale distorts and omits essential context.…

www.dailymaverick.co.za

and

Nah, not really an appeal type of material.

But this court judgement can and very likely will be used against the national government as well when it tries to offload valuable land.