3 April 2025
Ndifuna Ukwazi welcomes the City of Cape Town’s plan to redevelop Mowbray Golf Course with 30% affordable housing but warns that without clear affordability measures, long-term protections, and racial redress, the project risks becoming mere ‘affordable housing tokenism.’
For 113 years, Mowbray Golf Course has symbolised exclusion, leased at a nominal rate while serving as a green buffer that reinforced apartheid-era spatial divisions. The City’s proposal for a mixed-use development is a step forward, but the 30% affordable housing allocation remains unclear and inadequate. To truly serve Cape Town’s most vulnerable residents, the project must center equity and redress.
Read the full NU Submission here: NU Submission on Mowbray Golf Course Redevelopment
With over 58% of Cape Town households earning less than R10,000 per month, long-term sustainability measures are essential to prevent displacement and uphold the Constitutional right to housing. Instead of selling the land, the City should explore alternatives like 99-year leases and community land trusts to ensure affordability while maintaining public ownership. Transparency throughout the process is critical to achieving these goals.
Housing policies must also include explicit racial redress. Race-neutral approaches fail marginalised communities and risk deepening apartheid-era inequalities.
“This is a historic opportunity for Cape Town to break with its exclusionary past,” said Dr. Jonty Cogger, Attorney at Ndifuna Ukwazi. “But without bold commitments, this could become another missed opportunity.”
Ndifuna Ukwazi will closely monitor the redevelopment to ensure it is just, equitable, and truly transformative for Cape Town’s residents.
* Read the full NU Submission here: NU Submission on Mowbray Golf Course Redevelopment
Read more:
- Mixed reactions to affordable housing development on Mowbray Golf Course
- City Leases: Cape Town’s Failure to Redistribute Land
- Objecting to Bellville Bowls Green and Golf Club Lease Renewal
