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The City of Cape Town has announced that it will develop the False Bay coastline between Muizenberg and Strand, including the run-down Strandfontein Pavilion. The stretch of Coastline has long been surfers’ favourite, but for some reason, it has never been developed and left to decay.
Cape Town has more than 300km of coastline, but due to apartheid spatial planning most Capetonians have been excluded from owning property along the coast.
The Strandfontein Pavillion was constructed between 1974- 1985, and under apartheid’s separate development policy, was intended as recreational amenities for the growing Cape Coloured population. We don’t roll like that anymore, so it is high time that something is done about this relic of a shameful past.
Derelict Strandfontein Pavilion has been earmarked as a new development node with almost 1,200 residential units as well as retail and recreational facilities.
The plan is to keep the tidal pool and part of the existing pavilion, re-establish the adjacent canalised river, and make it a place where people want to live by building four and seven-storey residential blocks with courtyards that let the sun in.
Have a look at the below video of the old relic:
Strandfontein beach also gets its name from traditional Khoi San who used to drink fresh water from a fountain on the beach. The area has a beautiful blue flag beach with a giant tidal pool that has been used by the local communities for years. Mayor Geordin Hill-Lewis has now fast-tracked the redevelopment and upgrade of this once-vibrant area. Residents are tentatively in favour.
“We want investment in the billions to come in so there can be work opportunities linked to skills development and not just a little development around the pavilion,”
The plans follow a recent uproar about the upgrades to Muizenberg’s iconic beachfront. Muizenberg is a surfer’s paradise and at the time it was feared that the development would shift natural sandbanks and affect the surf.
