Cape Town: Mayor Geordin Hill-Lewis has handed over the keys to lawful beneficiaries of the City of Cape Town Belhar-Pentech housing project after a four-year court process. He did this to evict unlawful occupants who staged an eleventh-hour hijacking of completed units, the night before handover on May 16, 2021.
Mayor Lewis was joined by the Member of the Mayoral Committee for Human Settlements – Councillor Carl Pophaim on June 27, 2025.
Reportedly, Belhar-Pentech is a Breaking New Ground City Housing Development of 340 state-subsidised units that aim at the metro’s most vulnerable residents. Till date, 332 units have been handed over to lawful beneficiaries, with the remaining eight hijacked units subject to a protracted court eviction process.
Mayor Geordin Hill-Lewis said that this situation was brought to his attention shortly after he took over office in 2021, and his office immediately launched eviction proceedings. For over four years of court delays, the legal system unwittingly permitted the grave injustice of the illegal hijacking of these homes.
According to Mayor Lewis, it has been a long journey in the court, but they won, and they are overjoyed to hand the rightful beneficiaries keys to these dignified homes.
“All of us were emotional seeing Oom Karel stepping into his first home and how he couldn’t wait to have a hot bath, and Uncle Errol who lives in one room, now lives in a home with two bedrooms, a kitchen, a lounge and a bathroom,” said Mayor Hill-Lewis.
Hijacking was led by people who are already living in the area, and relocated from their homes elsewhere in the neighbourhood to seize these new homes.
The matter was delayed several times by the unlawful occupants for various reasons, including last minute changes to their legal counsel, from failure to secure legal representation despite extensive notice and a lengthy delay due to a newly-appointed lawyer not being familiar with the case.
Considering this Councillor Carl Pophaim said that the City’s R44,2m Belhar-Pentech Housing Project was constructed between February 2018 to December 2023 with a total of 340 units delivered.
As per Pophaim, almost all units have long been occupied and they were relieved to reclaim the eight unlawfully occupied units via a court order in September 2024 and subsequent appeal order in February 2025. The City pointed out to the court that unlawful occupants had already been living in homes in the area, and to the extent required housing kits were offered to those who were evicted.
Notably, the City of Cape Town is calling on communities, tenants and neighbourhoods to help them prevent criminal activities and unlawful occupation in the rental and subsidy units. “See something, say something is our campaign call to action – if we work together we can create safer communities,” said Councillor Pophaim.