A former advisor to Premier Helen Zille has been fingered as a potential buyer of disputed land in Sea Point, which domestic workers want to build homes on.
Zille has denied anything irregular took place in the proposed sale of the land on which the Tafelberg Remedial School is situated or the land near the school.
A Sunday newspaper article named her former advisor, Gary Fisher, as a potential buyer of the land that group Reclaim The City wants to be used for low-cost housing.
Dozens of domestic workers have been protesting against the sale of the property to the Phyllis Jowell Jewish Day School.
They’ve learnt that Fisher’s company Capital Gro allegedly bought two buildings near the Tafelberg site while he oversaw the disposal of the site to the private sector.
They believe their efforts to get cheap housing in the city, and closer to their jobs, is being “sabotaged” by those with “vested interests”.
But Zille says Fisher had not been involved when the decision was taken to include the property in the Provincial Regeneration Programme’s mandate or the Department’s initial proposed disposal of the site to cabinet.
“Cabinet will make a determination on the property once all the approximate 5 000 submissions have been fairly considered, and in accordance with the constitution and other applicable laws,” she says.
Thandeka Sisusa, a domestic worker and member of Reclaim the City said they had been fighting to live and own property in the area where they worked for many years. She lives in a single room near her work and has no family in the city.
“That land was promised to us a long time ago. We were told that it would be for domestic workers,” says Thandeka.