WES-KAAP. – Die Stad Kaapstad se veiling van 50 erwe munisipale grond het voortgegaan, nadat vier dringende aansoeke om dit te keer, in die hooggeregshof misluk het. Al vier aansoeke is met koste van die hand gewys.
Kaapstad se burgemeester, Geordin Hill-Lewis, sê op sosiale media honderde miljoene rand is met die veiling ingesamel en sal bestee word aan noodsaaklike infrastruktuur, veral in laerinkomste-gemeenskappe. Dit sluit die vervanging van pype, padopgraderings en verbeterde parke in. Hy sê nuwe huise sal op die grond gebou word om die behuisingsvoorraad te verhoog en pryse te help verlig.
Die veiling het plaasgevind ondanks besware van die Suid-Afrikaanse Menseregtekommissie, wat ’n uitstel versoek het weens kommer oor moontlike menseregte-implikasies van die verkoop van openbare grond.
Die Stad hou egter vol dat die verkoop van onderbenutte grond belegging, werkskepping en ekonomiese groei sal bevorder en dat die geld direk in gemeenskappe teruggeploeg sal word.
Lees meer hier onder wat die burgemeester en die SA Menseregtekommissie gesê het:
Four separate applications to the High Court were made to interdict this land auction this week. All 4 were dismissed, with costs.
Today the auction went ahead. Hundreds of millions was raised, all of which will be spent on essential infrastructure in Cape Town, much of it in lower income communities. New pipe replacements, road upgrades, better parks, and much more. Many new homes will be built on that land, providing much needed new housing supply, and easing prices. And dead assets, often a source of urban decay, will be revitalised to add to their local surroundings rather than detract from them.
The attempts to stop this are all political of course (including, sadly, the SAHRC) – we do these land auctions often, they’ve never tried to stop them before. But we’re in silly season now, so we expect much silliness.
But there is a more important point at play here. Their opposition is rooted in a refusal to accept that we have a different understanding to them of the proper job of government.
In their view, everything must be owned by the state. Every failing state company, every derelict building, every fallow asset – it must stay just that way forever, and none of it can be sold, no matter how derelict, loss-making or under-utilised it is.
In our view, the proper role of the government is not to own everything. It is to stop standing in the way of investment and growth, and to help unlock it. By freeing up under-utilised land, we allow these dead assets to be brought to life – with new housing supply, new investment, and new jobs. That in turn helps spur other investment, and so the economy grows, and delivers more people out of poverty.
Cape Town is not run by the ANC. We have a mandate to do things differently here. We do not subscribe to the ANC’s view of the state as the solver of every problem. How has that worked in reality?
The DA sees the state as a facilitator of a growing economy that lifts more people out of poverty and into work. That is the only way we will build a successful, working South Africa.
Beware of those claiming to speak for the poor, but wanting to keep people poor and keep everything in the hands of the state.
