Public Protector dismisses Salt River Market complaint
02 October 2022
Acting Public Protector Kholeka Gcaleka has dismissed Brett Herron MP’s
‘unsubstantiated’ allegations that the City of Cape Town obstructed the release
of Salt River Market for social housing.
In a report released on 30 September, the Acting Public Protector found that the complainant's allegations are "not supported by the facts and applicable legal prescripts".
Further, that the City's Immovable Property Adjudication Committee (IPAC) did not obstruct the release of Salt River Market for housing.
In July 2018, IPAC twice referred the Salt River Market release matter back to the then Transport Urban Development Authority (TDA).
The Public Protector found IPAC acted lawfully and had referred the report back due to legal compliance deficiencies in the documentation submitted by the TDA - for which Mr Herron MP was the responsible Mayoral Committee Member at the time.
Advocate Gcaleka further dismissed an allegation that property valuations of the Salt River site were incorrectly applied at the time.
The City's Mayoral Committee Member for Human Settlements, Councillor Malusi Booi, said:
'The dismissal of these allegations finally puts to bed long-standing misinformation by Mr Herron that the Salt River Market site release was obstructed.
'In fact, once legal compliance issues had been remedied, the City Council gave in-principle approval for the Salt River Market social housing project in December 2018, and four months later in April 2019 rezoning approval was granted.
'The record clearly shows that land release milestones followed in steady succession after Brett Herron's departure in November 2018, and have continued to this day, putting to bed the falsehood that projects were cancelled.
While no inner city social housing units reached Council approval stage during Brett Herron's term (2016 – 2018), land release gained momentum with close to 600 inner city units approved within the year after Mr Herron's departure. A further 1 000 units have already been approved in the last few months under Mayor Geordin Hill-Lewis' Land Release Priority Programme.
'Currently, there are over 800 social housing units in the construction phase in the Cape Town area.'
Overall, the Salt River Market development comprises 700 mixed market units, including 216 social housing units. The development will benefit from capital and operational cross-subsidisation through the inclusion of the open market residential units.
The property is also in close proximity to key public transport interchanges. It is across the road from Salt River Station (where Northern, Central and Southern Lines converge), as well as MyCiTi Route 261, which connects Century City to the City Bowl via Voortrekker Road, and Route 102, which connects Salt River Station to the CBD via Woodstock, Walmer Estate and District 6.
The City currently has more than 6 500 social housing units in the overall pipeline across 50 land parcels city-wide.
End
Published by:
City of Cape Town, Media Office
