Press Release 2 October 2024
On Monday 1 October 2024, the City of Cape Town announced that the mayoral committee had given its approval to conduct public participation for the redevelopment of the Mowbray Golf Course. The City has stated that it intends to create a mixed-use, mixed-income development at Mowbray Golf Course including affordable housing and genuinely accessible public green space. The matter will now be taken to a full council meeting to secure final approval to begin the public participation process.
We are very pleased that the City has recognised that inefficient, unjust and exclusive land uses inherited from apartheid cannot be sustained indefinitely. It makes little sense to have 10 golf courses situated on well-located public land in the midst of our extreme housing and segregation crisis, so we welcome this progress with open arms. Cape Town desperately needs affordable housing and inclusive densification, and the redevelopment of the golf course should therefore be encouraged and supported.
Cape Town’s urban form is currently socially, environmentally and fiscally unsustainable, and pursuing a mixed-use, mixed-income development at Mowbray Golf Course including genuinely public green space therefore makes sense from multiple perspectives. Ndifuna Ukwazi and various land and housing movements have been advocating for the release of various golf courses located on public land since 2018 so that they can be put to better, more rational use as mixed-income housing and public open space.
In 2019, we published a report which laid bare that reserving pieces of well-located public land the size of entire neighbourhoods for the leisure activities of a small group of people is highly inappropriate given the many other pressing challenges facing Cape Town.
On the basis of that report, on Human Rights Day in 2019, Reclaim the City, along with residents from Khayelitsha, Philippi, other informal settlements, Unite Behind, Equal Education and the Social Justice Coalition, peacefully occupied the Rondebosch Golf Club to raise awareness about the irrational use of the site.
There is now a great opportunity to convert what was originally intended as a buffer zone between areas catering to different races into an integrated development that genuinely serves the public interest.
We commend the City for taking this step and call on it to both maximise the number of affordable homes to be included in the development and to ensure that this crucial project is approached with the necessary urgency. Our priority will be to ensure that the development includes as many genuinely affordable homes as possible and that it is not subjected to endless delays. We will monitor progress closely and encourage all residents to get behind what is a crucial project.
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