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#LAND4PEOPLE
NOT4PARKING

How can the parking of government cars for part of the day be more important than providing roofs over people’s heads? Could the storage of immobile government vehicles on prime land be a higher priority than addressing the housing and segregation crisis? On Saturday 27 April, Freedom Day, we will launch this campaign by touring each of these four underutilised sites. 

There are four pieces of public land in the city centre that are used to store government vehicles and we are putting forward an alternative vision with concrete design and financial proposals. The four sites are:

  • Parliament parking lot (owned by National Government)
  • Top Yard (owned by the Western Cape Government)
  • Two government garages on Hope Street (owned by the Western Cape Government).

Our proposals reveal that a precinct level development of these four state-owned parking lots could create a racially and economically diverse neighbourhood by providing

  • 969 social housing apartments,
  • 969 market related apartments
  • homes for 732 people in transitional housing
  • The same amount of parking for Parliament (in a multi-storey parking)
  • new communal and public space to improve the urban realm
  • encourage economic stimulation by accommodating shops and informal traders

We challenge Parliament and the Western Cape Provincial Government to put policy into practice by seizing the opportunity to transform the face of Cape Town and address its violent history of spatial injustice.

#Land4PeopleNot4Parking #DesegregateCT

Join us for a walking tour of 4 pieces of public land currently wasted for storing and parking government cars that could be used for 2000+ homes! See the sites for yourself and learn about what else is possible on this land!

– Date: Saturday 27 April
– Time: 10am
– Place: Meet @ Ndifuna Ukwazi offices, 18 Roeland Street, Gardens

All welcome, free

Join the dialogue to learn more about the proposals for how these 4 sites could be used for 2000+ homes, including social and transitional housing! Get a free copy of the publication.

– Date: Tuesday 7 May
– Time: 5 -7pm
– Place: Ndifuna Ukwazi Office

All welcome, free

Young Urbanists Monthly Meetup: Anyone is welcome to join an evening with young people interested in urban issues as we dig deeper into the vision for these 4 sites and how we can all get involved with making this vision a reality!

– Date: Wednesday 8 May
– Time: 5:30-7:30pm
– Place: Urban Think Tank Empower office, 76 Church Street, CBD, Cape Town

All welcome, free

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To combat deepening urban inequality, Ndifuna Ukwazi focuses on advancing and giving practical meaning to the intersecting constitutional rights of access to land on an equitable basis (section 25(5)), and the right to adequate housing (section 26).

What we do

One of the greatest challenges to realising a more just, equal and and inclusive city is that the state – at all levels – has not meaningfully restructed society to address the effects of colonial and apartheid era planning through the redistribution of well-located land for the development of affordable housing. Since 2016, we have worked with partners to challenge decisions concerning the use of strategically located parcels of land and buildings that are vacant, underutilised or used inefficiently or in a manner that perpetuates colonial and apartheid era planning. 

 

We support the need for broadened access to land through public campaigns and strategic litigation aimed at compelling the state to meet its obligations to make land available on an equitable basis, and advance spatial justice through the use of well-located land for the development of affordable housing. We simultaneously advocate for truly affordable inclusionary housing in private developments.  

 

Through this work we aim to shift the public imagination towards acting on a more just and equal society, and contribute to restructuring our city.