Public land for the public good: Tafelberg ruling puts Cape Town on notice

On the 2nd of July 2026, the Constitutional Court handed down an unanimous judgement that will reshape how we understand the right to housing in South Africa.

The Tafelberg judgment (Adonisi v Minister for Transport and Public Works, Western Cape; Minister of Human Settlements v Minister for Transport and Public Works, Western Cape [2026] ZACC 29 (2 July 2026)) declared the 2015 sale of the Tafelberg property at 353 Main Road, Sea Point, Cape Town, unlawful.

This ruling highlighted the failure by the Western Cape government and City of Cape Town to fulfil their constitutional duties to redress spatial injustice by providing affordable housing in well-located areas. This battle was championed by urban land movement, Reclaim the City, with support from NGO, Ndifuna Ukwazi. In a celebrated outcome, both levels of government were ordered to submit detailed reports to the high court within three months (2 October 2026).

But as we celebrate this victory, we must confront the sobering truth. This was only one of the City’s many failures. The same week the Constitutional Court affirmed the importance of spatial justice, the Public Protector released a devastating report on the City’s failure to provide basic municipal services to Langa Flats in Langa and in the township of Khayelitsha. The contrast could not be clearer. While the city and provincial governments fought for a decade to sell off prime public land in Sea Point, residents in Langa and Khayelitsha have been living without functioning sewers, fire safety equipment, clean water, and without the dignity that the constitution promises them.

Two cities, one constitution

The Public Protector’s report, Systemic Investigation into Alleged Failure by the City of Cape Town to Provide Basic Municipal Services in Langa Flats and Khayelitsha Township, reads like an indictment of a city that has forgotten half its residents.

In Langa Flats, sewer infrastructure has been in a state of disrepair for 14 years. Firehose reels and extinguishers that were promised to be repaired in March 2022 are still broken.

Residents have been forced to contribute R100 per household to hire cleaners for communal areas, a responsibility that rightfully belongs to the municipality. Housing units have cracked walls that, despite repeated commitments, are years later still to be assessed.

According to the report by the Public Protector, Town Two Clinic does not have smoke detectors or CCTV cameras. Earlier this year, the security company at the clinic fell victim to extortion rackets that are ravaging the community.

In Khayelitsha, the picture is no better. At SST-Marikana, residents who were relocated by the City to make way for sewer repairs were moved to a site without access to electricity or adequate water.

In multiple inspections of the area, the Public Protector found none of the 143 water taps that the City claimed to have provided. Relocated families relied on a self-connected communal tap – a pipe pressed down with a cement block, providing only a trickle of water.

An elderly wheelchair-bound resident was left alone without accessible water or electricity, in conditions “neither safe nor conducive to his health and wellbeing”.

At the Matthew Goniwe and Town Two clinics, there were no smoke detectors, and no functional CCTV cameras, with paper records stored in rooms without fire detection. Staff at Matthew Goniwe reported that the clinic could go without electricity for two to three weeks at a time. This is not a failure of resources alone, but a failure of priorities.

The spatial logic of neglect

What connects Tafelberg to Langa and Khayelitsha is not just geography but a spatial logic that has persisted since Apartheid. Well-located land in Sea Point is fiercely protected for the wealthy, while poor and working-class communities are pushed to the urban periphery and are neglected there – out of sight, out of mind!

The Constitutional Court’s Tafelberg judgment recognised this explicitly. Justice Mhlantla, in her judgment, said that the location of housing must be treated as a “relevant factor” in decisions about public land, particularly where such decisions affect efforts to redress apartheid spatial injustice.

But spatial justice is not only about where housing is built, it is also about how communities are served once they are there. The Public Protector’s report reveals a pattern of systematic neglect that mirrors the spatial logic of apartheid: well-resourced, predominantly white areas receive attention and investment, while black townships are left to decay.

The City’s own responses to the investigation laid bare this reality. When asked about the absence of CCTV cameras at clinics in Khayelitsha, the City cited “significant unbudgeted costs”. When asked about fire safety equipment at Langa Flats, the City cited “community interference”. When asked about the lack of electricity for relocated families, the City pointed to Eskom’s jurisdiction. Each excuse, on its own, may seem reasonable. Together, they paint a picture of a municipality that has become expert at justifying away its failures rather than fixing them.

The price of inaction

The Public Protector’s findings are damning: the City’s conduct constitutes maladministration and improper prejudice under the constitution. The sustained pattern of service delivery failures, encompassing fire safety, housing defects, sanitation, healthcare, and electricity, violates residents’ fundamental rights to dignity, health, housing, and a safe environment.

But the report also reveals something deeper: a system that reproduces spatial injustice. The City repeatedly cited budget constraints, yet the evidence shows that significant portions of the municipal budget had been diverted or reprioritised due to land invasions, vandalism, and escalating maintenance demands.

In other words, the very conditions created by spatial neglect, such as illegal land invasions, desperate informal settlements, and infrastructure decay, have become the justification for further neglect.

South Africa faces a housing backlog of at least 2.6 million units, for more than 12 million people, according to the Department of Human Settlements. Archive Photo by Mzi Velapi

This is the vicious cycle of spatial injustice. When communities are pushed to the periphery and denied adequate services, they are forced into survival strategies that further degrade infrastructure. Illegal connections, land occupations, and vandalism are not the cause of service delivery failures. These are the symptoms of a system that has abandoned entire communities and then the City uses those symptoms as an excuse to do even less.

A city at a crossroads

The Tafelberg judgment and the Public Protector’s report arrive at the same moment, demanding the same thing: a fundamental reimagining of how Cape Town uses its resources and land to serve all its people, not just the wealthy few.

The Constitutional Court has now made it clear that well-located public land is a “constitutional instrument” that must be used to advance spatial justice, not treated as a “balance-sheet entry”.

The Public Protector has made it equally clear that the City cannot hide behind budget constraints while failing to provide basic services to its most vulnerable residents.

What is needed now is not just policy changes but a shift in political will. The City must stop treating Langa and Khayelitsha as problems to be managed, and start treating them as communities to be served. That means:

Prioritising infrastructure maintenance in historically neglected areas, with concrete timelines and accountable officials, as the Public Protector has ordered.

Signing lease agreements with the residents of Langa Flats to provide security of tenure and regularise occupancy.

Ensuring access to water and electricity for relocated families, through genuine cooperation with Eskom and other spheres of government.

Investing in the City’s own healthcare infrastructure in townships, including fire safety, security, and digitisation of records.

The fight continues

The Tafelberg judgement is a victory, but it is not the end. It is a beginning, a recognition that the constitution demands more than symbolic gestures, that spatial justice requires concrete action, and that public land must serve the public good.

Ndifuna Ukwazi, the organisation I work for, and other housing activists, will continue to fight for that vision, not only in the courts but in the communities that have been left behind. We will hold the City accountable to the Public Protector’s remedial action. We will push the Western Cape government for the Tafelberg site to deliver the maximum possible number of social housing units. And we will continue to organise, research, and litigate for a Cape Town that is truly inclusive, where a child in Khayelitsha has the same right to dignity, safety, and opportunity as a child in Sea Point.

As the Public Protector’s report makes clear, the right to housing is not just about bricks and mortar. It is about land, services, infrastructure, and the basic human dignity that comes from living in a safe and healthy environment. The Tafelberg judgment affirms that where people live matters. The Public Protector’s report reminds us that how we serve communities once they are built matters just as much.

The constitution promises a society based on human dignity, equality, and freedom. That promise is not fulfilled in Sea Point alone. It must be fulfilled in Langa and Khayelitsha too.

Noziphiwo Sigwela is a researcher at Ndifuna Ukwazi