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100 signatures reached
To: The President, The Minister of Minister of Land Reform and Rural Development, The Minister of Justice, and the South African Human Rights Commission, The Minister of the Department of Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs (COGTA)
HANDS OFF OUR LAND – STOP THE “NEOCOLONIAL” LAND GRAB IN CAPE TOWN
To: The President, The Minister of Land Reform and Rural Development, The Minister of Justice, and the South African Human Rights Commission, The Minister of the Department of Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs (COGTA)
We, the diverse communities of South Africa and beyond, demand that the auction of over 50 parcels of land in Cape Town that took place on Thursday 26 February immediately be declared unlawful, and that it be stayed.
We consider the sale a “slap in the face” to the poor and landless. The proposed auction proceeds in the absence of meaningful public participation. Consultation cannot be reduced to procedural compliance. It must be accessible, inclusive, responsive, and capable of shaping outcomes.
The auctioning of valuable public assets prioritises wealthy private developers over the constitutional right to housing and dignity. It represents a form of neocolonialism, denying black and indigenous people access to land while reinforcing historical patterns of exclusion.
We hold that public land is not surplus stock. It is one of the last remaining instruments available to address the enduring violence of apartheid spatial planning – a system of practice conceived by the colonial Dutch and British and engineered into policy under the National Party that forcibly removed communities, segregated opportunity, and entrenched generational inequality. We recognise that land in Cape Town holds the memory of genocide, dispossession, and the ongoing epistemic trauma and violence against the living descendants of the |Xam and Khoena peoples.
That Cape Town remains one of the most spatially unequal cities in the world. The daily commute from the periphery to economic centres, the overcrowded informal settlements, the persistent land hunger. We know these are not accidents: they are the living architecture of apartheid, still embedded in land ownership and urban design.
We believe that to dispose of public land without first exhausting its potential for social housing, restitution, affordable housing, and community infrastructure is to perpetuate that injustice.
Furthermore, we affirm that when involving Indigenous communities, principles of the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (UNDRIP) must be adhered to.
Procedural Failures and Legal Challenge
At the core of our opposition is a fundamental failure in the public participation process. We, as community leaders and public officials within the coalition, assert that affected communities were not adequately informed of the sales, rendering the process invalid under Section 14 of the Municipal Finance Management Act (MFMA) and municipal asset transfer regulations. We allege that the City has centralised disposal functions, removing oversight from sub-councils and effectively dismantling any meaningful community engagement.
The Public Participation Process has not been dealt with adequately because communities were not even aware of these sales. This is a failure on the part of government.
This sale adversely affects millions of poor Black, Indigenous and so-called ‘Coloured’ communities who remain homeless, backyard dwellers and shack dwellers in the City of Cape Town, as well as negatively affect cultural activities, spiritual connections to heritage sites and land in the City. The City of Cape Town must be an inclusive city that accommodates all people from all walks of life. Instead, the City of Cape Town must hand these pockets of land to communities, so that we can develop the land for the benefit of the poor and working class.
We, the diverse communities of South Africa and beyond, demand that the auction of over 50 parcels of land in Cape Town that took place on Thursday 26 February immediately be declared unlawful, and that it be stayed.
We consider the sale a “slap in the face” to the poor and landless. The proposed auction proceeds in the absence of meaningful public participation. Consultation cannot be reduced to procedural compliance. It must be accessible, inclusive, responsive, and capable of shaping outcomes.
The auctioning of valuable public assets prioritises wealthy private developers over the constitutional right to housing and dignity. It represents a form of neocolonialism, denying black and indigenous people access to land while reinforcing historical patterns of exclusion.
We hold that public land is not surplus stock. It is one of the last remaining instruments available to address the enduring violence of apartheid spatial planning – a system of practice conceived by the colonial Dutch and British and engineered into policy under the National Party that forcibly removed communities, segregated opportunity, and entrenched generational inequality. We recognise that land in Cape Town holds the memory of genocide, dispossession, and the ongoing epistemic trauma and violence against the living descendants of the |Xam and Khoena peoples.
That Cape Town remains one of the most spatially unequal cities in the world. The daily commute from the periphery to economic centres, the overcrowded informal settlements, the persistent land hunger. We know these are not accidents: they are the living architecture of apartheid, still embedded in land ownership and urban design.
We believe that to dispose of public land without first exhausting its potential for social housing, restitution, affordable housing, and community infrastructure is to perpetuate that injustice.
Furthermore, we affirm that when involving Indigenous communities, principles of the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (UNDRIP) must be adhered to.
Procedural Failures and Legal Challenge
At the core of our opposition is a fundamental failure in the public participation process. We, as community leaders and public officials within the coalition, assert that affected communities were not adequately informed of the sales, rendering the process invalid under Section 14 of the Municipal Finance Management Act (MFMA) and municipal asset transfer regulations. We allege that the City has centralised disposal functions, removing oversight from sub-councils and effectively dismantling any meaningful community engagement.
The Public Participation Process has not been dealt with adequately because communities were not even aware of these sales. This is a failure on the part of government.
This sale adversely affects millions of poor Black, Indigenous and so-called ‘Coloured’ communities who remain homeless, backyard dwellers and shack dwellers in the City of Cape Town, as well as negatively affect cultural activities, spiritual connections to heritage sites and land in the City. The City of Cape Town must be an inclusive city that accommodates all people from all walks of life. Instead, the City of Cape Town must hand these pockets of land to communities, so that we can develop the land for the benefit of the poor and working class.
Why is this important?
The auctioning of valuable public assets prioritises wealthy private developers over the constitutional right to housing and dignity. It represents a form of neocolonialism, denying black and indigenous people access to land while reinforcing historical patterns of exclusion.
We hold that public land is not surplus stock. It is one of the last remaining instruments available to address the enduring violence of apartheid spatial planning – a system of practice conceived by the colonial Dutch and British and engineered into policy under the National Party that forcibly removed communities, segregated opportunity, and entrenched generational inequality. We recognise that land in Cape Town holds the memory of genocide, dispossession, and the ongoing epistemic trauma and violence against the living descendants of the |Xam and Khoena peoples.
That Cape Town remains one of the most spatially unequal cities in the world. The daily commute from the periphery to economic centres, the overcrowded informal settlements, the persistent land hunger. We know these are not accidents: they are the living architecture of apartheid, still embedded in land ownership and urban design.
We believe that to dispose of public land without first exhausting its potential for social housing, restitution, affordable housing, and community infrastructure is to perpetuate that injustice.
We hold that public land is not surplus stock. It is one of the last remaining instruments available to address the enduring violence of apartheid spatial planning – a system of practice conceived by the colonial Dutch and British and engineered into policy under the National Party that forcibly removed communities, segregated opportunity, and entrenched generational inequality. We recognise that land in Cape Town holds the memory of genocide, dispossession, and the ongoing epistemic trauma and violence against the living descendants of the |Xam and Khoena peoples.
That Cape Town remains one of the most spatially unequal cities in the world. The daily commute from the periphery to economic centres, the overcrowded informal settlements, the persistent land hunger. We know these are not accidents: they are the living architecture of apartheid, still embedded in land ownership and urban design.
We believe that to dispose of public land without first exhausting its potential for social housing, restitution, affordable housing, and community infrastructure is to perpetuate that injustice.