De Lille accuses DA’s Hill-Lewis of ’cheap politicking’

Public Works Minister Patricia de Lille

Public Works Minister Patricia de Lille

Published Sep 23, 2021

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CAPE TOWN - “Cheap politicking” is what Public Works Minister Patricia de Lille has labelled DA MP Geordin Hill-Lewis’s calls, for the release of the Parliamentary housing village, in Acacia Park.

She has instead called on him to focus on developing well-located hectares of land, owned by the local and provincial government.

De Lille said Acacia Park was used to accommodate members of Parliament, who live and serve their constituencies, in towns and cities outside of Cape Town, which included 60 DA members of Parliament.

“The fact that no inner City affordable housing has been built while the DA has been in government in Cape Town and the Western Cape, is because the DA prevented this from happening.

“The proposal to release public land in the Cape Town inner city was the genesis of my fallout with the DA, whose conservative inner-cabal, and their funders, were heavily opposed to.

“The DA, as the government in Cape Town and the Western Cape, has custodianship of several thousand parcels of land and public buildings, totalling more than a million hectares, available for urban development.

“They share the responsibility to make suitable and well-located public land, in their custodianship, available for housing purposes.

“I will advise Hill-Lewis to read the immovable asset register, of both the city and province, to see the thousands of hectares of land they are sitting on, in well-located areas, but they refuse to integrate the city. If he needs help to access the immovable asset registers, I can help him,” De Lille said.

The DA handed a memorandum over to De Lille and the Cabinet calling for the “surrender” of its lease over Acacia Park and other Parliamentary villages.

Hill-lewis said: “These facilities currently house a handful of members of Parliament, while the people suffer homelessness and housing shortages. Once the lease has been surrendered, the DA-led City of Cape Town will negotiate to buy Acacia Park and partner with the private sector, to build homes for thousands of Capetonians on this well-located land.”

Hill-Lewis also called for the government to lease land used by the military “to the City of Cape Town, for development in partnership with the private sector: Ysterplaat, Wingfield, Youngsfield and Culemborg.”

Since 2019, De Lille said she has released six properties to the provincial government for social services, and several for land restitution purposes in Franschhoek, District Six and Strand.

A further six land parcels were released for housing purposes in Stellenbosch, Driftsands, Mossel Bay, and Wellington, said De Lille.

Cape Times

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