The former African National Congress-run Western Cape administration approved the transfer of more than 1 000ha of prime provincial housing land to the national government the day before the April 22 elections.
”This land, worth about half-a-billion rand, and large enough to accommodate nearly 100 000 houses, was transferred free of charge … without informing the public or the City of Cape Town,” the province’s new Premier, Helen Zille, told a media briefing in the city on Friday.
She said most of the land fell within the Cape Town Metro.
Zille handed out copies of an agreement to transfer the land from the province to the national Housing Development Agency, dated April 22 this year, and signed off by then-provincial minister of transport and public works Kholeka Mqulwana.
According to an attached annexure, among the properties is the 18,8ha Oude Molen property, as well as land in other parts of the Cape Town Metro, including erven in Constantia, Parow, Plumstead, Southfield and Philippi. It also lists land in other parts of the province.
Zille said her new provincial administration would seek legal advice to try to stop the transfer.
”It represents a massive loss of assets to the province and appears to have been designed to undermine the new administration’s capacity to deliver on housing and other projects in partnership with the City of Cape Town.
”The new cabinet of this province has resolved this morning [Friday] to take steps to reverse this move, if possible.”
Responding to a question, she said the province still legally owned the land up to the point the deeds office completed the transfer-of-ownership process.
She said the attempted land transfer had been ”done secretly, in bad faith and with an ulterior motive”.
The land was one of her administration’s key assets, and it was inappropriate to try to ”strip” the province of the properties.
The former administration had acted for political reasons, she said.
Contacted for comment, former premier Lynne Brown acknowledged the transfer had been approved and signed off, but said this had been long planned.
”There was nothing illegal in what was done. It undermines nothing. There is a huge backlog in housing in this province.
”We had to ensure the land was used for housing. This agreement … was first entered into long ago,” she told the South African Press Association. — Sapa