The Congress of South African Trade Unions (COSATU) in the Western Cape welcomes with great satisfaction today’s landmark judgement by the Constitutional Court, which has declared the 2015 sale of the Tafelberg site by the DA run City of Cape Town and the Western Cape Provincial Government as unlawful and unconstitutional.

This ruling is a monumental victory for the fundamental right to adequate housing and a decisive rebuke of the misguided ideology that treats public land as mere commercial assets. For years, COSATU has argued that strategically located, state owned land must be leveraged to undo the spatial apartheid legacy that still condemns the majority of our people to the fringes of our cities. Today’s judgement affirms that public property exists for public good, not for private profit.

While we celebrate this legal milestone, we are outraged that yet again, the hard earned monies of taxpayers and workers have been squandered on wasteful litigation and disastrous policy decisions by the Democratic Alliance led administrations. Instead of using this prime asset to build affordable, integrated human settlements, the City and Province chose to fight the people in Court every step of the way. This stubbornness has come at a colossal financial cost that our cash strapped Municipalities and Provincial fiscus cannot afford.

COSATU Western Cape is therefore calling for full accountability. Heads must roll. The Officials and Political Office Bearers who pushed this unlawful sale against all legal advice and public sentiment must face consequences. This is not a witch hunt, it is a demand for good governance and fiscal discipline.

We now call on both the City of Cape Town and the Western Cape Provincial Government to immediately comply with this judgement, halt any further alienation of public land, and commence a transparent, community led process to develop the Tafelberg site into affordable, well located housing for the working class.

The era of putting developer profits before people’s dignity must end.

Issued by COSATU Western Cape

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