Police have been informed that activists from the organisation Reclaim the City are occupying the Helen Bowden Nurses Home, part of the Somerset Hospital precinct near Cape Town Stadium and V&A Waterfront in Green Point, on Sunday evening.
In a statement, Reclaim the City spokesperson Emile Engel said the occupation is part of their radical response to the sale of the Tafelberg School property by the Western Cape government.
In a statement on Wednesday, the Western Cape government announced the sale of the Tafelberg property in Sea Point to the Phyllis Jowell Jewish Day School for R135m. The proceeds from the sale will be used to cover the refurbishment of provincial government buildings in Dorp Street.
The provincial government also said it was considering developing the Woodstock Hospital and the nurses’ home for affordable housing.
But at a Reclaim the City meeting on Thursday, Engel said this was not a concrete commitment by the province.
“People will tender for it [the properties] and then there will be a condition attached for affordable housing,” he said.
“Unfortunately there’s no detail about what that condition will entail. How many units will it be? Will it be 10 units, will it be five units? And we don’t imagine that it will be much.”
Source: News24
