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Promises unfulfilled amid urgent need for affordable housing in Cape Town's inner city

Brett Herron
By Brett Herron
3 Mar 2025
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The struggle for inner-city affordable housing in Cape Town is not new. Since the end of apartheid, numerous initiatives have been launched, yet progress has been painfully slow.

The City of Cape Town’s failure to provide affordable housing in well-located areas is not just an urban planning issue, it is a continuation of apartheid’s spatial legacy. Working-class communities, particularly black and coloured residents, are pushed to the periphery, far from economic opportunities.

In his State of the Nation Address, President Cyril Ramaphosa reaffirmed the need to dismantle apartheid’s spatial legacy. He acknowledged that “the practice of building housing developments on the periphery of urban centres has perpetuated inequality and urban sprawl”. He promised that “going forward, we are going to build more housing in our city centres and closer to work and business opportunities”.

But the City of Cape Town seems oblivious to the problem. In its submissions to the Constitutional Court regarding the Tafelberg School site, the City of Cape Town said “there’s no obligation” on it to “address spatial apartheid”.

The struggle for inner-city affordable housing in Cape Town is not new. Since the end of apartheid, numerous initiatives have been launched, yet progress has been painfully slow:


  • In 2004, the N2 Gateway Housing Project was launched to deliver 22,000 units. It faced significant delays due to mismanagement, construction issues and community resistance. The current state of the project is still shrouded in ambiguity, leaving thousands in uncertainty.

  • In 2008, Woodstock Hospital was identified as a site for affordable housing, no tangible progress has been made towards developing the property.

  • In 2011, the first feasibility study for the Tafelberg school site was conducted — the site remains at the centre of legal battles rather than housing development.

  • In 2016, the housing activist organisation Reclaim the City was formed after the Western Cape provincial government abandoned its commitments to use the Tafelberg school site and the bordering properties for affordable housing.

  • In 2017, after standing vacant for years, Reclaim the City supporters occupied the Woodstock Hospital and Helen Bowden Nurses’ Home to protest against the lack of affordable housing in well-located areas.

  • In 2017, the City announced affordable housing projects on 11 sites around Woodstock and Salt River, all within 5km of the city centre and with good access to public transport. The City’s leadership cancelled the projects and has been attempting to re-launch them piecemeal. To date, nothing has materialised on any of the sites.

  • In 2023, the Woodstock Hospital received heritage clearance but the site is now home to more than 800 families.


At the heart of this crisis is a fundamental distinction: the difference between housing people can afford and true affordable housing. A free house is not necessarily an affordable house.

A house far from jobs, schools, and public transport is not truly affordable if its residents must spend a fortune on commuting or remain cut off from economic opportunities.

True affordable housing is transformative, it places people in well-connected areas that allow them to thrive, not just survive.

The latest Household Affordability Index report compiled by the NGO Pietermaritzburg Economic Justice and Dignity (PMBEJD), paints a bleak picture of transport costs. The report highlights that the average South African worker is spending more than 57% of their monthly earnings on transport and electricity.

While politicians announce housing initiatives, prime land remains vacant, feasibility studies pile up, and sites quietly shift to commercial or other uses.

Left waiting indefinitely


Land designated for affordable housing makes headlines, allowing the City to claim it cares about the poor, but the long delays mean vulnerable communities are left waiting indefinitely. The pattern is clear: delay, deflect, and ultimately deny the housing that people so desperately need.

Even when land is designated for housing, the process drags on for years, leaving those in need trapped in overcrowded conditions or forced into long, expensive commutes.

Meanwhile, those who occupied the sites because of the City’s own failures are criminalised by the City for their “illegal invasion”.

Residents have been told they may not qualify for the housing that is to be built. If they leave, they risk becoming homeless unless an alternative solution is provided, yet the City has not outlined any such solution.

Until the City commits to a clear and just plan, the displacement of these residents remains a looming crisis. Adding to this grim reality is the fact that, despite decades of promises, no affordable housing units have actually been built in Cape Town’s inner city.

This stark figure underscores the City’s failure to deliver on its commitments and highlights the urgency of breaking the cycle of inaction.

The City boasts about releasing land and launching affordable housing projects, but the reality tells a different story. Instead of celebrating, it should be ashamed, because all it’s really doing is patting itself on the back for failing its mandate.

The declaration of alternative use for key sites, as is the case with Tafelberg, is not just an administrative decision, it is an active choice to exclude working-class people from the heart of Cape Town.

President Ramaphosa has put the issue of apartheid’s spatial legacy on the national agenda. Now, the City of Cape Town must be the “pro-poor” city it claims to be.

Dismantling apartheid’s spatial planning means building affordable housing in the places where people need it most, near jobs, schools, and public transport. Anything less is a betrayal of the promise of justice, inclusion, and a truly transformed city. DM

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