Cape Town’s social housingbetrayal pensioners locked out, citizens locked in

By Faiez Jacobs

Cape Town is at a moral crossroads. Our city’s housing system was meant to offer dignity, hope, and equity but recent events reveal a grim reality.

Vulnerable residents, especially pensioners, are being evicted without procedure, burdened with crippling service charges, and punished for demanding respect.

It is unconscionable and it must end.Locked In and Locked Out: The Story of Mrs. Valerie GatesIn late May 2025, pensioner Mrs. Valerie Gates was told her annual lease at the Station Road Social Housing complex in Goodwood would not be renewed.

No reason was given. No renewal offered.

When she tried to leave during an inspection, DCI locked her out denying her access to her own home. She remains trapped: unable to exit, yet without legal eviction or relocation.

Only after intervention by the Housing Assembly, Inspire Network, the People’s Legal Centre, and a refreshed Rental Housing Tribunal order was the unlawful lock out reversed.

But Mrs. Gates and others like her lost weeks of security and dignity.This is not a glitch. It is a structural failure.

Systemic Injustice: A Business Model Disguised as Social Responsibility

Social housing was created for a purpose: to provide affordable, secure homes for low income residents and pensioners.

In Cape Town, however, the practice has devolved into a profit vehicle.

Developers gain access to state land, subsidies, and infrastructure grants. They offer affordable leases for short periods, film the forms, and then evict vulnerable tenants only to replace them with higher paying occupants.

This is not social housing it is speculative real estate cloaked in social rhetoric.

Reports from multiple residents describe identical patterns:
• One year leases that end without warning or extension.
• Excessive, opaque service and administration fees none of which go toward public utilities or municipal services.
• Draconian rules and locked gates, where biometric control systems are used to manage and punish tenants exercising their rights.

This is not accountability. It is cruelty.

The City’s Betrayal: A Mayor in the Pocket of Developers

Mayor Geordin Hill Lewis has made grand pronouncements: 12,000 affordable homes on city-owned land; land use changes to “kick affordable housing into high gear”; incentives for micro developers; utility discounts; and more land rezoned for social housing developments.

Yet a year in, not a single social housing unit has been completed, and not one penny of utility relief has trickled down to residents reversing unjust charges levied by developers. In fact, pensioners like Mrs. Gates are being rerouted into service charge spirals and arbitrary evictions under watchful municipal authority.

Hill Lewis claims “affordable housing delivery is moving at a faster rate than ever before” and that rezoning and pipeline projects reflect genuine progress.

But Capetonians, especially the hundreds of thousands waiting for relief, know the difference between announcements and action.

400,000 Waiting, Zero Solutions

Over 400 000 Capetonians remain on the social housing waiting list.

Many live in informal settlements, paying crippling transport costs and lacking access to basic services.

Despite rhetoric, the national housing backlog grows, with tens of thousands of homes delivered each year below targets this is apartheid’s unfinished legacy.

Meanwhile, our Mayor touts development pipelines and rezoning efforts but provides no accountability, no transparency, and no relief for those currently trapped in housing injustice.

Charging for Blackouts: Profiting from People in Need

Residents of DCI facilities report paying R700–1,000 monthly for water, electricity, sewage, and garbage fixed charges disconnected from consumption with no municipal engagement or oversight.

Many live on pensions of around R2,300 per month; over 40 percent of their income is siphoned off for essentials that should be subsidised or free.

No indigent relief. No mercy.

What the Mayor Could Have DoneInstead of public pronouncements, we demand:
1. Immediate suspension of all unlawful evictions and biometric lock outs until formal leases are renewed, tribunal rulings enforced, and tenant rights respected.
2. A full audit of all service and fixed charges, to rebate residents for any over collection or illegal charges.
3. Enforcement by municipal authorities of utility relief, ensuring that tenants are included in indigent tariff structures.
4. Fast tracked leasing extensions for current tenants in their units renewing leases for a minimum of three years whenever tenants pay rent and abide by rules.
5. Greater transparency: real time publication of progress on rezoned land, broken out between genuinely affordable/social units versus market or mixed income units.
6. Recall the Mayor to council to explain why no affordable unit has been delivered, despite repeated statements that pipelines are being acted upon.

A Call to Capetonians: Time to Choose Integrity Over Illusion

We stand at a juncture. We can accept more spin but we know the truth: Cape Town is housing fewer pensioners, delivering fewer homes, and pressuring low-income residents to pay more.

The Mayor’s tenure could be defined by rebranding abuse as progress. This must not stand.

If you are a Capetonian, a community leader, a legal advocate, or a civic-minded homeowner: this is a moment for civic action.
• Write to your ward councillor and Mayor, demanding immediate action.
• Support tenants like Mrs. Gates in accessing legal aid.
• Seek accountability by attending council meetings and public hearings on social housing.
• Demand proper indigent relief for tenants in social housing.
• Volunteer or donate to organisations such as Inspire Network, Housing Assembly, Ndifuna Ukwazi, and the People’s Legal Centre.

The Moment for Moral Leadership

Mayor Hill Lewis says he leads a city that “stitches apartheid's spatial wound.”

Yet his actions, absent genuine houses, absent genuine support, but abundant in empty words suggest another reality.

Are we building homes or hospitality for developers? Who does he serve: pensioners or property portfolios?

This is Cape Town’s test of conscience. Pensioners deserve homes, not headlines.

Families deserve security, not service charges. Residents deserve citizenship, not commodification.

Mayor Geordin Hill Lewis: Stop being the mayor of private property developers. Start being the mayor of Cape Town’s 400,000 homeless and housing-insecure residents.

It’s time to fulfill the promise of housing reform or step aside for those who will.

* Faiez Jacobs is a community activist, former Member of Parliament, advocate for housing justice and dignity.

** The views expressed do not necessarily reflect the views of IOL or Independent Media.