Pentek community says they want to build a school on the land instead

  • Residents of Pentek in Belhar are threatening court action to stop the state housing project.
  • They say they desperately need a school like the one promised by the City of Cape Town decades ago.
  • The City says it has engaged the community about the housing site and the project will provide 216 housing units.
  • Meanwhile, Pentek's backyard residents are torn between the community's demand for a school and its need for housing.

Residents of Pentek in Extension 23, Belharre, Cape Town, say they have been pleading for a local school for decades. The community of about 4,000 people says they are the only section with no primary or high school.

Their children have to travel to neighboring areas: secondary schools in Extensions 1, 3 and 6; and primary schools in sections 9, 10, 11 and 12, such as Riebeeck Street, Dr van de Ross and Matrosbergweg.

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Since the schools are within five kilometres, they are not eligible for State Scholar Transport. Parents say their children have to cross the busy Erica Drive on foot, which is dangerous.

There are frequent incidents of firing in Belhar area when children come or go to school.

Tensions between the City of Cape Town and the community have increased recently since construction of the Belhar infill housing project on Herschel Way began on land that residents say was earmarked for a school.

“I was there at the meetings,” says Cornelia Onkruid, who has lived in Pentek since 1993. “The city said we would get a school, a store and even a petrol station, but none of those things have been built here.”

Onkruid says that his children do not have a proper place for entertainment. She knows residents who rely on the SASSA grant but have to pay up to R630 a month to transport their children to school.

Ayesha Solari, who has lived in Pentek since 1991, also says the community participated in discussions with city officials and was promised a school decades ago.

“We even marched to the Western Cape Education Department in 2002 to ask when it would be built,” he said. “They told us there was no funding at that time and discussions could continue next year, but no one got back to us.”

Western Cape education department spokesperson Bronagh Hammond says no readily available records show any firm promise was made. Hammond said that many officials from that era have also left government service.

He said the department distributes schools based on objective criteria such as enrollment projections, population growth, land availability, budget considerations and demonstrated need.

People expressed their anger at a community meeting on 25 April, claiming that most residents wanted a school, not housing.

“In 2021, a small group was notified of a petition to object to the housing, which was signed and submitted, but there was no communication for years thereafter,” says Labica Anthony, spokesperson for the community committee.

According to the committee, most people in the community came to know about the changed purpose of the site only when the housing contractors arrived.

The committee says the area is already densely populated, and more housing will worsen the situation.

“If no schools are built, the land must remain communal. We cannot accept more housing without the necessary infrastructure,” Anthony said.

MECO member for human settlements Carl Popham says the Belhar project will provide 216 “housing opportunities to eligible beneficiaries”. The tender was awarded on 24 November 2025. Construction began on April 8 and if everything goes according to plan the project duration is ten months.