Pinelands groups oppose Cape Town plan for 116-year-old golf course

Three community organisations have called on residents and the broader Cape Town public to oppose an extensive draft development concept for the King David Mowbray precinct.

The City of Cape Town is proposing a high-density, mixed-use development that would include the current King David Mowbray Golf Club and Clyde Pinelands Football Club.

The plan includes around 6 700 residential units, as well as commercial and light industrial space across the precinct.

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The Pinelands Ratepayers and Residents Association, along with the two sport clubs, have urged stakeholders to submit formal objections to the proposed development before the public participation process closes on 6 July.

The association has warned that the planned development could place strain on infrastructure while permanently reducing recreational space.

Pinelands Ratepayers and Residents Association chair Desray Britz says the scale of the proposal is significant.

“The sheer scale of what is being proposed is astonishing.”

She notes that the planned housing units would amount to more than half the current number of residential units in Pinelands.

Pressure on traffic, infrastructure 

Britz says the development could worsen existing traffic congestion in Pinelands and surrounding areas, while placing additional pressure on municipal services such as water and sewerage infrastructure.

She also raises concerns about social infrastructure, saying the proposal includes only one school despite existing capacity constraints in the area.

“Clyde Pinelands is home to football. We would mourn the loss of a sporting recreational space in Pinelands. Once gone, [there’s] no coming back from that.”

Moneyweb reported in November 2024 that the city had launched a public participation process for a proposed mixed-use development on the King David Mowbray Golf Course and an adjacent vacant site.

The 42.8-hectare precinct is located between Settlers Way (N2) to the south, Links Drive to the north and Raapenberg Road to the west, and includes the Clyde Pinelands Football Club grounds east of the golf course across the Elsies River canal.

At the time, the city said the site presented an opportunity for well-located affordable housing, retail and commercial space as well as public facilities.

It also noted that studies dating back to 2015 had identified the golf course and adjacent land as having mixed-use development potential.

A pre-feasibility study was completed in 2022 and development guidelines were subsequently incorporated into the 2023 Table Bay District Plan.

‘This about rational decision-making’ 

King David Mowbray Golf Club chair Mike Flax says the debate extends beyond the future of the golf course itself.

“This is not, and has never been, just about a golf club. It is about whether the city is making rational decisions with a very valuable public asset.”

According to Flax, the 116-year-old club is one of the country’s most diverse golf clubs and serves as the only viable home of the South African Disabled Golf Association.

He argues that the golf course performs an important environmental function as a winter flood barrier between two rivers.

He also questions whether the site is suitable for large-scale development, saying there are other vacant or underutilised parcels of land that could be developed without requiring extensive and costly civil engineering works to address environmental challenges.

Important community role

Clyde Pinelands Football Club chair Viren Jagarnath says the organisation, which describes itself as South Africa’s oldest non-amalgamated football club, plays an important role in youth development and community participation.

“Our fields support youth development, grassroots sport, and community participation. People from every background come together here.

“Once a space like this is gone, or reduced to a single field, it is gone forever.”

The organisations say they support responsible development and the provision of affordable housing, but believe the current proposal fails to provide sufficient public benefit relative to what would be lost.

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They also question the development’s affordable housing component, noting that the draft concept proposes that 30% of units be classified as affordable housing rather than social housing.

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The groups argue that this raises concerns over whether private developers, rather than the broader public, would be the primary beneficiaries of the project.

“This is a once-in-a-generation decision,” says Britz .”Development at all costs on recreational sporting spaces is short sighted.”

“We cannot afford for people to sit this one out,” says Flax.