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Mandisa Shandu, director of Ndifuna Ukwazi, reads the High Court ruling before a crowd of jubilant supporters on Keerom Street in central Cape Town on Monday. (Murray Williams, News24)
- The Tafelberg school property case has been running for five years.
- Finally, the Superior Court has ruled, confirming the legal challenge of two non-profit organizations.
- The land sale has now been reversed – to the delight of applicants.
A landmark High Court ruling overturned the sale of the Tafelberg school property at Sea Point, ordering the Western Cape government and the city of Cape Town to “address the legacy of apartheid spatial planning in central Cape Town and its surroundings “.
This was the instruction of Western Cape Superior Court Judge Patrick Gamble, with Judge Monde Samela in the long-running case surrounding the Tafelberg school in Sea Point, Cape Town.
The provincial government sold the site to the Phyllis Jowell Jewish School NPC in November 2015 for 135 million rand.
But this was questioned by the organizations Reclaim The City, Ndifuna Ukwazi and several people. Among them was Thomaza Angela Adonisi, a nurse, who collaborated with various residents of the “working class” to promote “the right to land” in Cape Town.
Respondents in the case were various provincial departments, the prime minister, the day school and the provincial government as a whole.
Table Mountain School at Sea Point. (Adriaan Basson, News24)
News 24
In summary, the court explained 10 basic rulings in its full sentence.
First, “the Court annulled the sale of Tafelberg to the day school, as well as the province’s subsequent decision in March 2017 not to withdraw from the sale, for various reasons.”
“The Court determined … that the pertinent Provincial Regulations on which the Province was required to rely upon concluding the sale were unconstitutional and invalid.”
Second, “the Court also held that the province had not correctly applied the provisions of the Government Real Estate Management Act of 2007 by disposing of the state lands on which Tafelberg is located, in the sense that it did not offer first the land for use to the provincial housing department. “
READ | Sea Point land sale: Western Cape government failed to inform human settlements department of sale, court hears
Third, “the Court further held that the province was wrong to conclude that the Tafelberg site was not within a redevelopment zone for the purpose of developing affordable housing under the Social Housing Act of 2008.”
“The designation of said zone would have allowed the province to request a subsidy for the reconstruction of the National Department of Human Settlements in case it decided to develop [housing] on the Tafelberg site. “
In addition, the court also issued a declaratory order that “the province and city of Cape Town breached their obligations under articles 25 and 26 of the Constitution (and the legislation enacted thereunder) to promote access to affordable housing for those who qualify for that form of housing. “
“The Court held that the Province and the City did not have adequate policies to facilitate and promote such access. The Court determined that, as a consequence of these constitutional violations, the Province and the City had not taken adequate measures to address the legacy of apartheid spatial planning in and around the center of Cape Town “.
In its ruling, the Court ordered the Province and the City to now “develop a combined policy to address their respective infractions of the Constitution” and to inform the Court about it by May 31, 2021.
The province and city were ordered to pay the costs of Reclaim the City.
But the trial did not stop there. In response to a second request filed in the matter, the court also ruled that the nation’s Minister of Human Settlements should have been consulted on the sale of the land.
Again confirming its previous ruling, the Court also granted the request of the Minister of Human Settlements and her department to review and annul the sale of the property, and ordered the province to pay the national minister’s legal bill.
In response to the ruling, Mandisa Shandu, director of Ndifuna Ukwazi, told News24: “We argue that the City, as well as the province, have an obligation to correct apartheid spatial planning, using the land for affordable housing.” The court had agreed.
Shandu said they had argued that the sale of the land had been “very shortsighted, in the context of a huge crisis of land and housing … and people struggling to access housing, in places like Sea Point.” The site had been “a huge and important opportunity” to begin undoing the legacy of space apartheid.
“Second, the sale of the Tafelberg land has been shelved. So this is a great victory! There is great enthusiasm. We look forward to the next steps to advance urban land justice.”
He said he was looking forward to the May 31 deadline, when provincial and municipal administrations would have to appear in court.
