Mayco member cites bureaucratic challenges since the announcement of the Annandale housing project in 2018
Peter Luhanga
Despite recent advancement, plans for affordable housing in Dunoon, announced by former Cape Town mayor Patricia De Lille six years ago, have encountered further delays due to ongoing bureaucratic processes.
In 2018, just before her expulsion from the Democratic Alliance, de Lille announced to an audience at the Dunoon municipal hall that the City had acquired land along the N7, across from Dunoon and adjacent to the Richwood residential neighbourhood and Killarney Gardens.
She said the land would be used to build housing for Dunoon residents in a development known as the Annandale project. To date, no houses have been built.
Mayco member for human settlements, Carl Pophaim, has told GroundUp that the municipal planning by-law application was submitted in September 2022, and presented before the municipal planning tribunal in April this year, more than 18 months later. The approval was granted on 30 May.
Following the by-law application, an environmental assessment administered by the Department of Environmental Affairs and Development Planning (DEADP) was initiated and is ongoing. This process is estimated to be finalised in December next year.
When asked about the inclusion of Dunoon residents in the housing project, Pophaim said the number of qualifying Dunoon applicants still needs to be determined.
He said construction would begin once all statutory processes were completed, and the City finalises its land release, procurement, and implementation strategy.
Although the environmental assessment is only due for completion in December next year, he said several milestones had been achieved so far. These included a site feasibility study, an assessment by the design team, preparation of development alternatives for the site, preparation of a development framework plan, submission of both the Environmental Impact Assessment and municipal by-law application, and the approval of rezoning the land to a subdivisional area.
The City of Cape Town stated its development management department confirms that the rezoning of this site was approved on 16 April 2024 and no appeals were received.
Responding to concerns about overcrowding among Dunoon residents, he said the project aims to provide opportunities through various housing programs to qualifying beneficiaries.
The selection of applicants for housing opportunities, he said, is based on the date they registered on the Housing Needs Register.
He encouraged residents to check and update their personal and contact details on the Housing Needs Register to ensure they are reachable for potential opportunities.
The development aims to include various facilities and amenities, including areas for commercial development to stimulate economic opportunities. The site is intended to feature a mix of Gap, Social, and Market housing, catering to various income groups and offering different tenure options, including ownership and rental.
Dunoon is among the townships that benefited from early state-subsidised housing developments during the post-apartheid era. Between 1996 and 2000, the construction of 2,964 RDP houses took place. However, there have been no new state-funded housing projects in Dunoon in the last 24 years, leading to residents in need of housing occupying municipal and privately owned land as the population continues to grow.
Community activist and chairperson of the South African National Civic Organisation (SANCO) Dunoon branch, Sinethemba Matomela, said the lack of housing development in Dunoon since 2000 has resulted in 33 informal settlements within Dunoon and its surrounding area since being established.
Matomela said the slow progress of the Annandale housing project is concerning as families grow and children seek privacy move out of their parents’ shacks and build their own on any open space they can find. This was particularly the case for those who cannot afford rent in other informal settlements or in backyards
He said people moved to Dunoon due to it being surrounded by work opportunities in the industrial areas of Killarney Gardens and Montague Gardens, as well as being close to affluent homes in Blaauwberg.
He also stated another factor contributing to density in Dunoon was the high rate of unemployment, leading to some residents who already have shacks in other informal settlements invade vacant areas in Dunoon and building shacks which they rent out to earn an income.