Good Party: Hill-Lewis 'denies the reality' of the effects of ongoing spatial apartheid in Cape Town

The Good Party has expressed concern over what it calls Cape Town Mayor Geordin Hill-Lewis's failure to acknowledge the ongoing effects of spatial apartheid in the city.

The party was responding to continued violence on the Cape Flats, including a shooting from Friday night that reportedly left seven people dead.

Good said the country must confront the complex social and structural conditions that continue to fuel crime and violence in historically marginalised communities.

The Good Party argued that spatial apartheid was not a myth, but a deliberate system of forced removals that pushed people of colour into underdeveloped, under-serviced townships with long-term impacts that are still being felt today.

The party said unemployment and crime were especially high in these areas and that better policing alone won’t solve the crisis.

Good secretary-general, Brett Herron, said the crisis demanded a comprehensive plan for social and spatial redress.

"We have to address the litany of interrelated built environment and socio-economic conditions. Obviously, unemployment and poverty, which are rife in these areas, are a major factor, but so too is overcrowding due to extreme residential densities, creating slum conditions. Unfortunately, the City of Cape Town's mayor, Geordin Hill-Lewis, denies the reality of these living conditions and that their origins are in apartheid, including the Group Areas Act," said Herron.

Herron also criticised the city's proposed planning by-law amendments, which will allow more housing to be built in lower-income areas, saying this could worsen overcrowding in already densely populated communities.

Hill-Lewis has not yet responded to the latest criticism from the Good Party.