GOOD Party Cape Town mayoral candidate Brett Herron has placed responsibility for the city’s deepening housing emergency on current municipal leadership, stating the administration lacks a coherent strategy to address a crisis affecting more than two million residents on the Cape Flats.
According to Herron, Cape Town faces 270,000 informal shacks across 800 settlements, a housing backlog of 600,000 units, and the delivery of only 928 subsidized homes in the past year. While the city continues to receive international recognition for tourism and lifestyle offerings, Herron emphasized that these accolades contrast sharply with conditions in historically marginalized communities.
“Tackling affordability and dismantling apartheid spatial planning are the master keys to a just city,” Herron stated. He described spatial injustice as a historical phenomenon rooted in forced removals and land dispossession, noting that while relocating two million people is not feasible, residents should not remain in the deteriorating conditions inherited from apartheid-era underinvestment.
Herron outlined a two-part strategy: first, urgently upgrading infrastructure in existing townships suffering from sewage overflows, burst water pipes, and inadequate stormwater drainage; second, utilizing publicly owned land and buildings in well-located areas to expand affordable housing supply, enabling young families and workers to live closer to employment opportunities.
Addressing concerns about property values, Herron dismissed the notion that dignified affordable housing negatively impacts surrounding real estate. “There is no evidence anywhere in the world where dignified affordable housing has affected property values,” he said, adding that such developments can improve neighborhoods by activating derelict public land often linked to antisocial behavior. He noted that rent-controlled public housing models were successfully implemented in well-located areas during apartheid—though exclusively for white South Africans—and that the financial framework remains viable today.
A central pillar of the GOOD Party proposal involves halting the sale of public land. Herron argued that land is finite and held by the city on behalf of residents, making its disposal for private development incompatible with public need. Beyond housing, he noted that retained public land could address shortages in clinics, parks, and community amenities, or support economic growth by providing space for small businesses currently operating informally from residential properties.
On funding, Herron proposed treating public housing as long-term infrastructure. He suggested the city issue long-term bonds to finance construction, with rent-controlled tenants paying affordable rates that include a maintenance component to service the debt. “The model exists,” Herron said. “We can do it if we’ve got the political will.”
Prioritization would begin in areas with the most severe infrastructure collapse. Herron referenced a study commissioned during former mayor Patricia de Lille’s tenure that identified communities most affected by poverty and underinvestment, urging officials to update and implement that work progressively.
Looking ahead to possible coalition governance following local elections, Herron acknowledged negotiations would be necessary but stressed that any partners must align on core priorities: resolving the housing and affordability crises, improving safety, and ensuring community input in decision-making. “Where people live matters,” he said, emphasizing that government cannot function through remote meetings disconnected from the realities faced by residents.