Developers of a new R4.5 billion mixed-use project in Cape Town, destined to be home to Amazon’s new African base of operations, are being pressed to increase the proportion of residential space in the scheme for affordable housing as a contribution to ‘overcoming the legacy of spatial apartheid’.
The developers, Liesbeek Leisure Properties Trust, which bought the 15-hectare parcel of land from state-owned rail and port authority Transnet in 2015, say 20% of the residential space in the new project will be set aside for affordable housing.
NGO Ndifuna Ukwazi has objected to this, saying 20% is not enough.
Ndifuna Ukwazi attorney Jonty Cogger said: ‘It raises questions in an urban land setting where we are trying to overcome the legacy of spatial apartheid.’
The organisation’s Robyn Parkross was quoted by IOL as saying that the 20% set aside for affordable housing ‘equates to just 4% of the total development’.
However, Liesbeek Leisure Properties Trust spokesperson Jody Aufrichtig said the developers had ‘engaged extensively and openly with various organisations, including those for and against’, and that it was ‘proud to be incorporating developer-subsidised inclusive housing in proximity to economic opportunities as part of our private development’.
Aufrichtig added: ‘It’s perplexing that any organisation claiming to work for better inclusive housing opportunities wouldn’t support these plans.’
The project faces opposition from environmental, neighbourhood and heritage activists, too – but the City of Cape Town, which this month gave initial approval for the project, has argued that the development will have a significant positive economic impact.
It estimates that more than 5 200 jobs will be created in the construction phase alone, and that the entire project could create up to 19 000 indirect jobs. The development will include shops, restaurants, offices, a hotel and a school, and also cultural and heritage features and facilities to acknowledge the significance of the site for descendants of its original Khoisan inhabitants.
[Image: Shaun Childerley from Pixabay]