Cape Town and national government clash over affordable-housing subsidies
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Cape Town says it has received no national subsidy payments for its affordable-housing projects since 2021, while the national Department of Human Settlements accuses the city of misrepresenting the facts and failing to prioritise well-located housing.
The City of Cape Town and the national Department of Human Settlements are locked in a public dispute over affordable-housing funding, with the metro accusing national government of failing to provide subsidies for its projects since 2021 and the department rejecting the claim as a misrepresentation that perpetuates spatial segregation.
The City's Mayco member for Human Settlements, Carl Pophaim, said the municipality had submitted six qualifying bids for national grant funding but had received nothing for its affordable-housing projects since 2021, when funding came through for the now-completed Maitland Mews development. He said progress over the past two years had largely been driven by the City's own policies, including the release of municipal land for development. "The city has many more ready or near-ready developments that would greatly benefit from national funding," he said.
Department spokesperson Tsekiso Machike countered by citing approvals for three projects as evidence of national support: Regent Villas Extension 2 in 2023, Somerset West in 2024 and the Salt River Market development, which is expected to deliver 970 homes. "A few weeks ago, the mayor of the city launched an affordable housing project to deliver 970 homes, and this was through the approved national funds," Machike said, dismissing the City's account as "falsehoods".
Pophaim said Regent Villas Extension 2 and the Somerset West project were not City projects, and that funding for Salt River Market remained outstanding despite construction having started, with the site initiated through the City's discounted land release. He added that the allocation of the Social Housing Regulatory Authority subsidy also remains unresolved, with no certainty on when an agreement will be concluded, and called on national government to increase affordable-housing funding and channel it directly to capable metros rather than through what he called a "red-tape-laden" SHRA. The SHRA did not respond to requests for comment.
The row has drawn in housing activists and opposition parties ahead of local elections. Reclaim the City leader Bevil Lucas said the City had on more than one occasion returned money to national government because it failed to spend it, despite a long formal housing waiting list, while GOOD mayoral candidate Brett Herron argued that well-located affordable housing needs to be fast-tracked to change a spatial pattern of dormitory suburbs far from economic activity. EFF Western Cape campaign manager Nazier Paulsen also criticised the City's housing priorities.