Housing activists have slammed the City of Cape Town for blaming the delays in building inner-city housing on building hijackings. 

The City this week secured heritage approval to commence its biggest inner-city social housing development, which will see around 700 housing units being built at the site of the old Woodstock Hospital.  

Addressing the long wait, acting MMC for human settlements James Vos said the hijackings were the main obstacle to commencing work at Woodstock Hospital.

Both the Woodstock Hospital site and the Western Cape government-owned Helen Bowden Nurses Home were occupied by a movement led by Reclaim the City in early 2017.

"There are now pending eviction proceedings following the Western Cape High Court granting the City an order to survey the number of occupants and [their] individual circumstances," he said. 

Cape Town Mayor Geordin Hill-Lewis said the heritage approval for social housing at Woodstock Hospital was "welcome progress towards our goal of faster affordable housing land release in well-located parts of the City".

"Five inner-city land parcels totalling over 1 300 social housing units reached critical land release milestones in the first year of our priority programme, and we are aiming for several more by the end of 2023.

"We also passed guidelines for discounting public land to maximise affordable housing units on the land we release and ensure project viability."

Hill-Lewis added that securing well-located, affordable housing was a complex undertaking.

"The Social Housing Regulatory Authority, which administers national subsidies, does not have the budget to support the social housing sector at scale. This is impacting social housing companies, which are struggling to complete the construction of viable projects once the City releases land to them," he said. 

In October 2018, the Western Cape High Court granted an order interdicting and restraining Reclaim the City from "inciting persons to enter or be upon property for the purpose of unlawfully occupying or invading [it]". 

Housing advocacy group Ndifuna Ukwazi said the recent progress was long overdue, with the City having promised to develop the land in 2017.

"It is dishonest that the City claims that occupation is the biggest obstacle when it has failed to produce any inner-city affordable housing since the dawn of democracy. If anything, the recent progress should be partially attributed to activist pressure."

The group said several city projects are on the verge of cancellation because of government failures.

Reclaim the City leader Karen Hendricks said the City tends to shift blame for its failures, delaying the building of affordable, well-located housing in the Cape Town inner city.

"Woodstock and Salt River are two inner-city suburbs closest to the CBD. Geographically and historically, they have been diverse areas but are now plagued by rampant gentrification. They are a skeleton of their former character," Hendricks said.