Erf 1117: When Housing Targets Trump Safety, Biodiversity and the Law

7 September 2025 by MyPR

By Michelle Collins, Chairman CRB Blaauwberg(Community Representation Blaauwberg):

Cape Town, Blaauwbergstrand, September, 6, 2025: The City of Cape Town and the Department of Public Works are forcing an unsafe and unlawful LSDF onto land inside Koeberg’s evacuation zone and mapped as critical biodiversity — all to justify calling it a PHSHDA.

The City of Cape Town and the Department of Public Works & Infrastructure are moving ahead this week to finalise a Local Spatial Development Framework (LSDF) that would enable thousands of new housing units on Erf 1117, Blaauwbergstrand. This land lies inside Koeberg Nuclear Power Station’s Urgent Protective Zone (UPZ), where evacuation in an emergency is already in doubt, and it is mapped in the City’s 2025 Biodiversity Spatial Plan as Critical Biodiversity Area (CBA1a) and wetlands within the UNESCO Cape West Coast Biosphere Reserve. Yet the project is being justified on the false claim that Erf 1117 was gazetted as a Priority Human Settlements and Housing Development Area (PHSHDA).

Erf 1117 sits within the Koeberg UPZ (5–16 km radius), a zone where national regulations demand rigorous evacuation modelling before any large-scale population increase. No such modelling has been provided for this land.

The dangers are not theoretical. During the unrest on the Dunoon/Malibongwe corridor, a key evacuation route, roads were blocked and impassable. If this can happen during protest, it will certainly compromise emergency evacuation. To concentrate thousands of new households here without proven evacuation feasibility is reckless, unlawful, and a breach of the National Nuclear Regulator’s mandate to protect public safety.

In its Human Settlements Strategy (May 2021), the City of Cape Town made clear that housing focus in Blaauwberg should be on Du Noon and Joe Slovo, not Erf 1117. The strategy further stressed that any development in the Koeberg UPZ must carefully weigh nuclear evacuation concerns.

To now promote Erf 1117 for high-density housing under the LSDF contradicts the City’s own strategy. This inconsistency raises serious questions about the political motivations behind targeting this site.

Erf 1117 is not only unsafe; it is ecologically irreplaceable. The 2025 City of Cape Town Biodiversity Spatial Plan identifies the majority of the land as CBA1a — the highest category of conservation priority — as well as wetlands. These ecosystems regulate water, buffer flooding, and sustain biodiversity already under immense pressure.

Moreover, the site falls within the UNESCO Cape West Coast Biosphere Reserve, which obliges South Africa to protect critical ecosystems against precisely this kind of inappropriate development. Proceeding with the LSDF here would undermine both local conservation planning and international obligations.

Even more troubling are indications that DPWI and Human Settlements are pursuing a Public–Private Partnership (PPP) on Erf 1117. This suggests direct state involvement in shaping development on this land — despite it being unsafe, unlawful, and environmentally sensitive.

A PPP would align government and developer objectives, raising the risk that safety and biodiversity safeguards will be overridden to meet housing targets or private profit. No partnership can set aside constitutional rights to life, safety, and a healthy environment.

Community organisations and residents , throughout the LSDF process for Big Bay, since early 2021, have witnessed a pattern of procedural abuse: selective disclosure, sidelining of community input, and the premature assumption that Erf 1117 is “already gazetted” for housing.

This approach undermines democratic planning. Instead of genuine consultation, the City and DPWI are rushing a process that presents residents with a fait accompli.

If this LSDF is finalised on its current terms, Cape Town will have committed to:

Building thousands of new dwellings in a nuclear evacuation zone without proof of evacuation feasibility.
Destroying wetlands and biodiversity formally recognised in the 2025 Biodiversity Spatial Plan.
Undermining the integrity of the UNESCO Cape West Coast Biosphere Reserve.
Contradicting its own 2021 Human Settlements Strategy.
Advancing a PPP agenda that prioritises politics and profit over public safety and ecological sustainability.

This is more than a planning misstep. It is a collision of safety negligence, environmental destruction, and governance failure.

Housing delivery is an urgent national priority. But it cannot come at the cost of nuclear safety, biodiversity, and lawful process. The Gazette does not compel development on Erf 1117. The broader Blaauwberg Development Area provides safer, more suitable sites for affordable housing.

We call on:

The Minister of Human Settlements to clarify that Erf 1117 was never individually gazetted as a PHSHDA.
The National Nuclear Regulator to prohibit development in the Koeberg UPZ until full evacuation modelling is published.
The Parliamentary Portfolio Committees on Human Settlements and Public Works to investigate the PPP agenda and procedural failures.
The Western Cape Government to enforce the 2025 Biodiversity Spatial Plan and honour UNESCO biosphere protections.

This is not only about Erf 1117. It is a test case for Cape Town’s future: will planning be guided by safety, science, and sustainability — or by expedience and special interests?

If officials force through high-density housing on Erf 1117, they will not only put thousands of families at risk and erase irreplaceable biodiversity, they will also set a precedent that Cape Town’s planning system can be bent to political will at the expense of public safety and environmental law.

Cape Town deserves better. South Africa deserves better. Erf 1117 must not be sacrificed