GOOD Speech delivered during today’s debate on the Housing Waiting List by Brett Herron, GOOD Secretary-General & Member of the Western Cape Parliament:
The name of South Africa’s national free basic housing programme “Breaking New Ground” is deeply ironic in the Western Cape. Very little “ground” has in fact been broken when it comes to affordable housing in Cape Town and across the province.“
According to the Minister of Infrastructure, a resident of Drakenstein has been waiting 62 years for a home. Delivery numbers remain dismal, with only 3,046 houses were built in the last financial year. At that rate, it will take over 220 years to clear the backlog.
The so-called “housing demand database” is another myth. It is simply a list of 688,000 names of people who have applied for public housing. There is no genuine ranking system, and the database does not determine where new housing projects are built.
This from a government that brags about being “data-led” and “innovative.” Yet when it comes to housing, evidence-based decision-making vanishes, because housing is not a priority.
But this crisis is not only about bricks and mortar. It is also about spatial justice. Communities remain trapped in apartheid geographies – pushed to the periphery, disconnected from economic opportunities, and forced to rely on unsafe, costly transport.
It is 2025, not 1975.
The Western Cape has well-located land available for free basic housing, social housing, and affordable housing. Yet, under Premier Winde, no significant new developments have been undertaken. The projects his government will point to were all conceived, planned, and built under the Zille administration.
Meanwhile, families wait decades. Backyards have become mini-cities, overcrowded and unsafe. The way forward must be a shift in priorities: land release in well-located areas, partnerships with social housing institutions, and a genuine focus on densification – in the right areas, with dignity.
Unless bold steps are taken to integrate communities where opportunity lies, and to actually build houses rather than recycle promises, the housing backlog will remain a permanent scar of inequality in this province.
GOOD Manifesto on Community Development: Involvement in various community development projects.
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