Following proposed plans to redevelop the Mother City’s Mowbray Golf Course (KDM), the organisation has responded to comments from various role players.
This comes after the City of Cape Town recently proposed mixed-use affordable housing development on City-owned land currently used by the King David Mowbray Golf Course and Clyde Pinelands Association Football Club, saying it would release the 65.8-hectare piece of land, valued at R171 million.
Housing activists have for years advocated for affordable housing to be developed on public land.
But housing activists such as Ndifuna Ukwazi (NU), a non-profit organisation working to broaden access to well-located land and affordable housing, warned that without clear affordability measures, long-term protections and racial redress, the City’s plan to redevelop the golf course with 30% affordable housing could fall short.
“This is a historic opportunity for Cape Town to break with its exclusionary past,” said Dr Jonty Cogger, an attorney at Ndifuna Ukwazi.
“But without bold commitments, this could become another missed opportunity.”
Cogger said in a previous article that: “To truly serve Cape Town’s most vulnerable residents, the project must centre equity and redress. With over 58% of Cape Town households earning less than R10 000 per month, long-term sustainability measures are essential to prevent displacement and uphold the Constitutional right to housing.
"Instead of selling the land, the City should explore alternatives like 99-year leases and community land trusts to ensure affordability while maintaining public ownership.
"Transparency throughout the process is critical to achieving these goals. Housing policies must also include explicit racial redress. Race-neutral approaches fail marginalised communities and risk deepening apartheid-era inequalities.”
“As a vibrant and inclusive community, KDM wants to point out that activists, pressure groups and others - who are, quite rightly, fighting for spatial equality - are unfortunately also making assumptions about KDM that are simply incorrect," said KDM chairperson Mike Flax.
While stating that addressing spatial inequality and racialised property patterns are “absolutely necessary for Cape Town”, he advocated for the redevelopment of vacant land.
As KDM's board member, Samora Biko, stated: "Many argue it does not make sense to push for the demolition of a functional, historic and beloved urban asset, like KDM, rather than to seek ways of developing empty land, or ways of using vacant provincial and municipal sites across the metro."
“And it must be stated that there are many viable empty pieces of land in and around the metro.”
In addition, the City’s Property Development Department recently said it was in the process of preparing an urban design and concept plan for the redevelopment of the golf course.
This will be followed by statutory processes and applications to enable mixed-use development, including affordable housing.
The proposed development site is approximately 42.8 ha in extent, bounded by Settlers Way to the south, Links Drive to the north, and Raapenberg Road to the west. It consists of Mowbray Golf Course and Clyde Pinelands Association Football Club, located to the east of the golf course across the Elsies River canal.
As a significant public land parcel in a prime location, the Mowbray Golf Course is said to be of metropolitan significance, presenting massive development opportunities.
This project is said to seek to unlock the development potential of this strategic, under-utilised government-owned precinct.
Meanwhile, Reclaim The City (RTC) previously told “Independent Media” that it was important that spaces such as KDM and its surrounding vacant land in Pinelands work for everyone, not just a privileged few.
“The redevelopment of KDMGC is more than a change in land use; it is a reimagining of what public space can be in a city that continues to suffer from uneven distribution of green space and community facilities,” it said.
But Flax argued: “Would it assist the city to destroy a necessary green lung like KDM? And far from being a so-called 'green buffer', the club has not been a barrier but a unifier.”
He added that a recent petition against the development of the KDM site passed the 3000-signature mark.
“The people who have signed it do not champion spatial inequality or housing exclusion. They simply value a hard-working city asset. They do not want a community resource destroyed, while so many other vacant plots of land are available for development in the city,” he said.
He added: “And to label golf as a purely privileged pastime is to ignore the evolving landscape of the sport and Cape Town. From accessible courses and affordable playing options to the growing diversity of its player base, golf is increasingly becoming a sport enjoyed by people from all walks of life.”
The KDM chairperson also explained: “While certain private clubs do have an image of exclusivity, this does not accurately represent the broader reality of golf today.”
“Spaces like KDM have a history of working to dismantle the sport's outdated stereotypes. This has been achieved by numerous projects - stretching over decades - that have focused on making golf inclusive.”
He said that they offer an inclusive space for members who had been excluded based on race or religion and that some of their initiatives include youth development with grassroots programs, which offer after-school transport and lunch programs for children.
He added that KDM is also home to the South African Disabled Golf Association (SADGA) and that their closure will threaten the existence of the organisation.
Meanwhile, associate professor Francois Viruly, from the Department of Construction Economics and Management at the University of Cape Town (UCT), said South Africa "cannot continue with the tendency to develop housing units at great distances from places of work".
“To resolve housing accessibility means the country needs to have a very careful look at available land and the highest and best use of land from a social perspective," he said.
"The idea of inclusionary housing is not particularly new as it is being implemented in many countries in the world.
"In South Africa, the high inequality in income means that the difference between market and inclusionary house prices can be considerable.
The associate professor added that finally, it should be underlined that in South Africa, the affordable housing market, which an inclusionary housing policy attempts to serve, is not merely a segment of the market - it is the South African property market.
"Some 50% of residential title deeds are valued at below R 750 000 - a market that cannot be ignored and which should be central to housing delivery," Viruly said.
Last month, Tsekiso Machike, the Department of Human Settlements Minister's spokesperson Thembi Simelane, told this publication that access to affordable housing is a challenge in South Africa.
"Government alone cannot overcome it. It is for these reasons that we continue to implore the private sector to partner with us. Several programmes are being implemented, and these include First Home Finance and social housing.
"Recently, Minister Simelane handed over one of the biggest social housing projects in Midrand. This project has made it possible for people to have access to affordable and decent shelter closer to economic opportunities," Machike said.
Cape Argus