Episode 37: Fields of Dreams (or just 'plain dreaming') - Release of state-owned land for public housing

Talking Transformation

Today's Talking Transformation Podcast tackles the issue of state-owned land and its importance in supporting spatial transformation and city-building, in particular, for affordablehousing programmes. It comes at a time when Illegal land occupations and the quantum of informal settlements in many of the towns and cities continues to increase as tangible indicators of urbanisation.

Legislative reforms considering land expropriation without compensation are unfolding at the same time when the state is accused of paralysis and inertia in releasing well-located land it owns for the purposes of affordable housing and social amenities.

Many advocacy groups are critical in their assessment that spheres of government are unable to release state land for public benefit and much-needed housing programmes to address urbanisation and substantial housing backlogs.

In June this year the Development Action Group (DAG), along with Ndifuna Ukwazi (NU), SASDI alliance, the Legal Resources Centre, the Community Organisation Resource Centre (CORC) and UCT’s Professor Vanessa Watson held a virtual public meeting to discuss the merits of releasing three state-owned land parcels in Cape Town, namely: Wingfield, Ysterplaat and Youngsfield. These advocacy groups suggest these well-located land parcels could house in excess of 120,000 Capetonians and 40,000 homes.

This episode revisits the propositions made at that meeting and we hear from three of the participants: Adi Kumar from (DAG), Chadernnay Glenn (CORC) and Michael Clark (NU).

The public sectors voice is missing from this episode and, as you’ll hear, it’s something we aim to address in the coming weeks and months. In the meantime, enjoy the episode and thoughts from passionate representations from the NGO sector.

Recorded Tuesday 17th August 2021.