Protest planned against City of Cape Town's land auction

A coalition of political parties, civic and indigenous groups is calling on citizens to support tomorrow's protest against the City of Cape Town auctioning off 50 pieces of land. The auction is supposed to take place this Thursday, 26 February.

CapeTalk's Clarence Ford spoke to the GOOD party's Deputy Secretary, Suzette Little about the `Hands off our lands' protest, which takes place from 8:30am at the Good Hope Centre, which is also set to go under the hammer.

Little says they have been monitoring the City's auction of properties since 2021.

"We have seen an increase of sales. This is not the first auction or the first time that people have been calling for the stopping of the auction. What we have seen is the City getting rid of very lucrative land that could be used for the services of its community.

"We must bear in mind that the City is only the custodian of that land for the people. It does not belong to the City, it doesn't belong to a political party. They are the custodians to manage that in the best interest of the community."

So, how should they better utilise the properties?

"We had submitted a motion to the City of Cape Town in December of last year, asking them to bring forward a plan of action in terms of how best that property can be used.

We're sitting with 400,000 people on a waiting list. Some have been waiting for 40 years plus. Some have passed on and never received any sort of restitution. And we are saying that you cannot continue the selling of land when you have the obligation to the people that is on your waiting list, which is your residents in your city that you've got to look after.

"There are facilities that we need. We need ECDs, sporting facilities, we need safe houses, we need shelters, there are so many things that can be done with the property that can be done before the consideration for just selling off...

"This is public land, it must be used for public good. But what makes it worse is that the City of Cape Town has no public participation process," says Little.

The Oedasoa Cochoqua Royal Kingdom has served the City with a Constitutional notice and called for a Structural Indigenous Land Engagement Forum to be set up.

Tomorrow, some protesters will march from the Good Hope Centre to the High Court where matters relating to the sale of land will be heard.

To listen to Little's full discussion with Clarence Ford, click the link below: