Image Source: GroundUp
Local – Despite repeated housing promises from Cape Town’s municipality, thousands of residents remain without adequate housing, with critics arguing that little has changed after decades of announcements and pipeline projections.
Former Member of Parliament and Founder of The Transcendence Group, Faeiz Jacobs, said the city continues to prioritise private developers over ordinary Capetonians who need housing the most.
“It’s better for them to support their developer friends because there’s a symbiotic relationship there,” Jacobs said.
Developer Friendly Land Deals
The city has built fewer than 4,000 houses over the past two decades, despite a housing backlog exceeding 400,000 units, with much of the available land instead earmarked for private development.
Jacobs said the municipality’s talk of pipelines and social housing disguises a pattern of selling off well-located public land to private developers for profit, leaving working-class families priced out of areas close to the city centre, jobs and public transport.
“Capitalism has gone rampant and just doesn’t care. And we have a political system here in Cape Town that really doesn’t worry about the people,” Jacobs said.
Rental Prices Out Of Reach
Monthly rentals in parts of Cape Town have climbed as high as 15,000 rand, far beyond what most working families in the city earn.
Jacobs said government subsidies and housing pipelines mean little when the finished units remain financially out of reach for the families they claim to serve. That affordability must be measured against actual local incomes rather than market value.
“A house of 2 million rand isn’t affordable for someone who earns a salary of 20,000. When are we going to eat? When are you going to transport?” Jacobs said.
Jacobs is calling for an affordability compact, a public housing dashboard tracking land ownership and pricing, and stronger political will from the city ahead of the next local government elections.
