Around 200 Reclaim the City activists on Thursday took over Rondebosch Golf Club to protest the City of Cape Town’s failure to redistribute public land for affordable housing.
“Rondebosch Golf Course uses about 45 full-sized soccer fields and only pays R1000 rent a year. That’s unfair, it could be used to build 2500 new homes,” Reclaim the City tweeted.
Membership at the club costs R15 750 a year while players fork out about R395 for a round of golf.
Reclaim the City spokesperson Zacharia Mashele told TimesLive: “We are here at the clubhouse explaining to golfers why this land should be released,” said Mashele.
“There are more than 200 of us here, with flags, placards and banners.”
Mashele said Metro Police officers were monitoring the protest, which was proceeding peacefully.
In a statement, Reclaim the City said: “As we commemorate Human Rights Day, we remember how our parents and grandparents struggle against discrimination and an oppressive racist regime.
“Our Constitution was adopted to guarantee poor and working-class people the right to decent housing and equitable access to land.
“But two decades later our best land is still captured by a few wealthy people while the majority of black and coloured residents continue to live on the outskirts of the city, far from good infrastructure, services and job opportunities.”
The organisation said government at all levels have failed to redistribute land to the poor, saying “there are empty fields, golf courses, bowling greens and parking lots across well-located areas”.
They called on Deputy Mayor Ian Neilson, “who is the real power in charge of the City’s finances and land”, to stiek uit at the larney golf course to “account for why Council is failing to meet its obligations.
Activists wants the City to end the lease of Rondebosch Golf Club and use the land for affordable housing instead.
“If the City of Cape Town refuses to meet its obligations, then the Province or National Government must expropriate the land for affordable housing,” Reclaim the City said.
Neilson said the protesters were breaking the law and he would not talk to criminals.
He said: “The golf course has a 25-year lease which was awarded by a previous Council. The City of Cape Town honours land rights, including leases.
“The limiting factor in the provision of housing is not land, but funds for development. There is over 1000 ha of land already earmarked for housing development in Cape Town. When the National Government provides the City and the Province with adequate funds, that land will be developed.”