The Freedom Front Plus (VF Plus) firmly supports the residents of Fish Hoek, Bloubergstrand, Big Bay, Sea Point and Green Point who are justifiably outraged at the City of Cape Town’s ill-considered plans to force thousands of low-cost housing units into established middle-class areas.
While the party recognises the need for housing, the City’s reckless and one-sided approach – which ignores decaying infrastructure, unemployment and environmental damage – amounts to economic sabotage of hard-working taxpayers who built these communities.
This crisis stems from the uncontrolled influx of people into the Western Cape.
Official census data reveal a net influx of more than 646 000 people into the Western Cape between 2011 and 2021, most of whom are unemployed and homeless.
This depletes resources and exacerbates unemployment, homelessness and urban decay. The Freedom Front Plus has been warning for years that such uncontrolled migration – without job creation or integration – risks turning prosperous suburbs into melting pots of poverty, traffic congestion and crime.
The City’s proposal for erecting 10 000 low-cost units in precious open spaces in Fish Hoek defies all logic. Roads are already congested and public transport is a farce; there are not enough schools and the single small hospital is inadequate.
With no industries, large factories or industrial agriculture in the area, there are no jobs for new residents.
The growing visible presence of homeless and unemployed people is already a humanitarian tragedy. Cramming in thousands more will push it to breaking point, causing property values to plummet.
The ones bearing the brunt will be existing homeowners who pay municipal and utility fees.
The draft Local Spatial Development Framework (LSDF) for Erf 1117 in Blouberg is equally catastrophic: low-cost housing for 25 000 people in a key evacuation zone, far from employment, with buildings completely out of scale for coastal suburbs.
It disregards biodiversity laws, threatens tourism – the lifeblood of the West Coast economy – and could result in an evacuation crisis.
The City’s MyCiTi bus system, 87% subsidised by taxpayers while serving only 4% of all commuters, will not resolve this crisis. Already congested roads such as the R27 will become impossible to navigate and coastal properties will lose value.
Even in Sea Point and Green Point, where the LSDF process remains on the table with recent approvals for mixed-use developments on prime land, public participation feels like a meaningless ritual.
A green light given in November 2024 for affordable housing in Green Point ignores the same pitfalls: strained services, no economic anchors and a trajectory towards suburban decline seen worldwide in forced density experiments.
Taxpayers are not the enemy; they are the backbone of Cape Town’s prosperity. The Freedom Front Plus calls on Mayor Geordin Hill-Lewis to open-mindedly engage and find viable solutions.
Put these destructive development plans on ice for now, integrate migration with skills training and job creation, and prioritise infrastructure upgrades before laying one more brick.
