The GOOD Party has welcomed the Constitutional Court’s judgment, which has set aside the Western Cape Government’s plans for the Tafelberg school site in Sea Point, ruling that both the provincial government and the City of Cape Town have failed to meet their constitutional obligations to provide social and affordable housing in well-located urban areas.
In a landmark judgment handed down this week, the apex court found that the authorities’ approach to housing has reinforced apartheid-era spatial inequality rather than addressing it. The ruling brings to a close a legal battle that has stretched over nearly a decade over the future of the prime Sea Point property.
As part of its order, the court directed the Western Cape Government to submit a sworn report detailing its plans for affordable housing at the site. It must also disclose how many affordable housing units have actually been delivered in Cape Town’s inner city and surrounding neighbourhoods since litigation over the property began in 2017.
GOOD Party Secretary-General and Cape Town mayoral candidate Brett Herron welcomed the judgment, saying it struck at the heart of the City’s and province’s housing policies.
“The fact that public land has a high value should not preclude it from being used to fulfil government’s constitutional obligations to transformation,” Herron said, describing the ruling as a significant victory for spatial justice.
Herron said the Constitutional Court found that the City and provincial government’s approach to social and affordable housing had “perpetuated spatial inequality” and “fell short of constitutional standards.”
He argued that the court’s order requiring government to disclose its delivery record would ultimately be more revealing than any policy commitments.
“They’ll have lots of old speeches to roll out” when asked about their plans, Herron said, “but the answer is zero” when it comes to affordable homes actually built in the inner city and surrounding areas since 1994.
The dispute dates back to 2015, when the Western Cape Government decided to sell the former Tafelberg Remedial School site to the Phyllis Jowell Jewish Day School for R135 million.
Housing advocacy organisations Ndifuna Ukwazi and Reclaim the City challenged the sale, arguing that well-located public land should be used to develop affordable housing and help reverse the legacy of apartheid spatial planning.
In 2020, the Western Cape High Court ruled in favour of the activists, setting aside the sale and finding that both the City and the province had failed to meet their constitutional obligations to address spatial apartheid.
Although the matter proceeded through the Supreme Court of Appeal before ultimately reaching the Constitutional Court, the High Court’s core findings were never overturned. The Constitutional Court heard arguments in February 2025 before reserving judgment for more than a year.
Herron said the judgment builds on the Constitutional Court’s landmark 2000 Grootboom ruling, which established that the state has a constitutional duty to progressively realise the right to adequate housing.
According to Herron, the Tafelberg judgment goes a step further by making it clear that the location of housing is an essential part of whether government has acted reasonably in fulfilling that obligation.
He said the court rejected arguments from the City and the province that budget limitations and reliance on national government funding justified their inability to provide affordable housing in well-located areas.
Herron also criticised what he described as a longstanding tendency by the City and province to focus housing investment on the Cape Flats while avoiding meaningful integration of historically white suburbs.
He argued that no affordable housing has been developed in areas previously designated as White Group Areas under apartheid and that new public housing projects have largely continued to follow the country’s historic spatial patterns.
The Constitutional Court also found that the Western Cape Government failed to conduct a meaningful public participation process before making decisions about the future of the Tafelberg site.
Herron said that aspect of the ruling would set an important precedent by strengthening oversight over future decisions involving the disposal of public land.
The judgment follows several shifts in the provincial government’s plans for the property. In January 2025, the Department of Infrastructure proposed using part of the Tafelberg site for affordable housing while reserving the remainder for social services linked to the property’s heritage status, pending the Constitutional Court’s decision.
IOL News
Karabo Ngoepe
iol.co.za