A R1.5bn plan by the City of Cape Town to develop Maiden's Cove, a scenic headland and beach in Camps Bay, is facing a court challenge from city residents. The development of the cove area, devised in 2015, includes plans for 52 residential homes, a boutique hotel, retail and restaurant spaces, and a parking garage for 700 vehicles.

Maiden's Cove remains a special place for many people from the Bo-Kaap and Cape Flats, who were forbidden to use the beaches of Clifton and Camps Bay during apartheid, says GroundUp. The Clifton Precinct Development Plan has been met with outrage, expressed in affidavits from the Bo-Kaap Civic Association and community activists. They say they were left in the dark and excluded from public consultations.

Maiden's Cove for All (MCA), a non-profit organisation dedicated to maintaining public access to the cove, was permitted by the Western Cape High Court on 17 July to join as a fifth applicant in the court battle. MCA will also present a new process that involves the public from the beginning to decide what to do with Maiden's Cove.

Applicants include the Bungalow Owners Association, Attorney and Member of the Bungalow Owners' Association Billy Gundelfinger, and residents of Clifton Mark John Willcox and Gavin Howard Varejes.

The respondents are (1) the City of Cape Town, (2) the Chairperson of Immovable Property Adjudication Committee of the City of Cape Town, (3) Heritage Western Cape, (4) SA Heritage Resources Agency, (5) National Minister of Environmental Affairs, (6) SA National Parks, and (7) the shareholders of a private development company called K2015298271.

MCA says the City has no legal authority to impose the plan, since the Constitution and many statutes deem the land a public trust and a protected open coastal reserve and says the development benefits affluent people and limits opportunity for the majority.

Full GroundUp report