SABC Sea Point auction to private developers halted

Human Settlements, Water and Sanitation Minister Lindiwe Sisulu has reached an agreement between the Housing Development Agency (HDA) and SABC, averting the intention to auction the Rocklands Villas residential property in Sea Point to private developers.

The SABC intended to auction the building on Thursday after it received the go-ahead from the Western Cape High Court.

In May this year, the High Court issued an urgent interdict to the HDA and Department of Human Settlements, which resulted in the cancellation of the auction.

“We remain committed to redress the pre-1994 spatial segregation by ensuring that we acquire strategic land parcels for human settlements development. The building we have acquired from [the] SABC will make it possible for us to respond to the housing needs of our people in the City of Cape Town,” Sisulu said.

The SABC recently announced it intended to sell non-core properties, which include more than 20 houses and 60 flats, as part of its turnaround strategy.

The property sits on five erven with a block of flats boasting 14 units, set over three erven and the remaining two erven, which can be used as a parking, measures 900m².

Housing lobby groups have been calling on the SABC to consider its well-located Rocklands Villas residential property in Sea Point, which is up for public auction, for affordable housing.

The head of political organising for land activist organisation Ndifuna Ukwazi, Buhle Booi, said the sale paved the way for this strategic property to be used for the development of affordable housing in line with a decade-long call from land and housing activists.

“The sale of the Rocklands Villas to the HDA for affordable housing, along with our recent prevention of the sale of the Tafelberg property, is a victory for Ndifuna Ukwazi and Reclaim the City in our efforts to turn the tide on apartheid geography in Cape Town and create access to housing within the centre of the city for black, Indian and coloured people,” Booi added.