Multi-million-rand Table View land deal faces scrutiny

A LAND purchase in Table View for more than R64 million has come under scrutiny, as questions mount over why the Western Cape Government bought the site when a neighbouring parcel, larger and more developable, had cost the state just R9 million.

- MURRAY SWART

Provincial Infrastructure has since refuted the claims, citing that the price tag was the same the City itself negotiated for.

The GOOD party said the property was bought under the "pretext" of "the 'urgent' relocation (in 2018) of the Siyahlala informal settlement," but seven years later, the relocation has not occurred and the trains are still unable to run. The party added that "the purchase was unnecessary because the City of Cape Town already owned land suitable for housing development in the immediate vicinity."

GOOD secretary-general Brett Herron said the Western Cape Government "must explain its irrational purchase of a piece of land in the Table View area for R64.4m, when it paid just R9m for a larger, more developable piece of land right next door."