{"id":96784,"date":"2026-04-02T12:24:49","date_gmt":"2026-04-02T12:24:49","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/minister-macpherson-considers-military-bases-for-housing"},"modified":"2026-04-02T12:35:44","modified_gmt":"2026-04-02T12:35:44","slug":"minister-macpherson-considers-military-bases-for-housing","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/minister-macpherson-considers-military-bases-for-housing","title":{"rendered":"Minister Macpherson Considers Military Bases for Housing"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><span style=\"color: #ff6600\"><strong>Africa-Press &#8211; South-Africa. <\/strong><\/span>The Department of Public Works and Infrastructure plans to unlock prime military real estate to address Cape Town\u2019s extreme housing backlog.<\/p>\n<p>Estimates suggested that the sites could accommodate thousands of housing units, particularly Wingfield and Youngsfield.<\/p>\n<p>Department Minister Dean Macpherson said the government is formalising its discussions with the South African National Defence Force to declare the land surplus to their needs.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cPeople are living in informal settlements along the edges of these areas because we don&#8217;t have land to build mixed development houses.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Macpherson is optimistic about the process, aiming to have a clear policy direction and proclamation by the end of the year, enabling construction to start.<\/p>\n<p>He explained that the vision was to create viable human settlements and economic opportunities, rather than just keeping unused military land.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;We&#8217;re not interested in closing down an active air force base&#8230; we are looking at rationalising the five military bases in the City of Cape Town&#8230; We&#8217;re also looking at military land in the northern part of Pretoria that&#8217;s not being utilised.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThis is an access to human settlements question. And I think that the response that I&#8217;ve received so far really indicates that people get this as an answer to a growing problem in South Africa, which is a lack of opportunities and lack of access to housing across the country.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p><strong>For More News And Analysis About <span style=\"color: #ff6600\">South-Africa<\/span> Follow <span style=\"color: #ff6600\">Africa-Press<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Africa-Press &#8211; South-Africa. The Department of Public Works and Infrastructure plans to unlock prime military real estate to address Cape Town\u2019s extreme housing backlog. Estimates suggested that the sites could accommodate thousands of housing units, particularly Wingfield and Youngsfield. Department Minister Dean Macpherson said the government is formalising its discussions with the South African National [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":84,"featured_media":96783,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2,3],"tags":[275],"class_list":["post-96784","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-all-news","category-community","tag-south-africa-2"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v26.1 (Yoast SEO v27.0) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-premium-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Minister Macpherson Considers Military Bases for Housing - South Africa<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"The Department of Public Works and Infrastructure plans to unlock prime military real estate to address Cape Town\u2019s extr ...\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/minister-macpherson-considers-military-bases-for-housing\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Minister Macpherson Considers Military Bases for Housing\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"The Department of Public Works and Infrastructure plans to unlock prime military real estate to address Cape Town\u2019s extr ...\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/minister-macpherson-considers-military-bases-for-housing\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"South Africa\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/AfricaPressTunisiaa\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2026-04-02T12:24:49+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2026-04-02T12:35:44+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/sites\/31\/2026\/04\/sm_1775120708.089817.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1200\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"630\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"cfeditoren\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"cfeditoren\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/minister-macpherson-considers-military-bases-for-housing#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/minister-macpherson-considers-military-bases-for-housing\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"cfeditoren\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/#\/schema\/person\/068c7ab4e9634ae78ec5d54ec46598bb\"},\"headline\":\"Minister Macpherson Considers Military Bases for Housing\",\"datePublished\":\"2026-04-02T12:24:49+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2026-04-02T12:35:44+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/minister-macpherson-considers-military-bases-for-housing\"},\"wordCount\":247,\"commentCount\":0,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/minister-macpherson-considers-military-bases-for-housing#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/sites\/31\/2026\/04\/sm_1775120708.089817.jpg\",\"keywords\":[\"South-Africa\"],\"articleSection\":[\"all news\",\"community\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/minister-macpherson-considers-military-bases-for-housing#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/minister-macpherson-considers-military-bases-for-housing\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/minister-macpherson-considers-military-bases-for-housing\",\"name\":\"Minister Macpherson Considers Military Bases for Housing - South Africa\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/minister-macpherson-considers-military-bases-for-housing#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/minister-macpherson-considers-military-bases-for-housing#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/sites\/31\/2026\/04\/sm_1775120708.089817.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2026-04-02T12:24:49+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2026-04-02T12:35:44+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/#\/schema\/person\/068c7ab4e9634ae78ec5d54ec46598bb\"},\"description\":\"The Department of Public Works and Infrastructure plans to unlock prime military real estate to address Cape Town\u2019s extr ...\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/minister-macpherson-considers-military-bases-for-housing#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/minister-macpherson-considers-military-bases-for-housing\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/minister-macpherson-considers-military-bases-for-housing#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/sites\/31\/2026\/04\/sm_1775120708.089817.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/sites\/31\/2026\/04\/sm_1775120708.089817.jpg\",\"width\":1200,\"height\":630,\"caption\":\"Minister Macpherson Considers Military Bases for Housing\"},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/minister-macpherson-considers-military-bases-for-housing#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Minister Macpherson Considers Military Bases for Housing\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/\",\"name\":\"South Africa\",\"description\":\"Just another Africa News Agency Sites site\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/#\/schema\/person\/068c7ab4e9634ae78ec5d54ec46598bb\",\"name\":\"cfeditoren\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/7417380fa9e23b5c57fdbfdaf3fdf92ee478f759a084addda5faa3732853e74a?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/7417380fa9e23b5c57fdbfdaf3fdf92ee478f759a084addda5faa3732853e74a?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"cfeditoren\"}}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO Premium plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Minister Macpherson Considers Military Bases for Housing - South Africa","description":"The Department of Public Works and Infrastructure plans to unlock prime military real estate to address Cape Town\u2019s extr ...","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/minister-macpherson-considers-military-bases-for-housing","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Minister Macpherson Considers Military Bases for Housing","og_description":"The Department of Public Works and Infrastructure plans to unlock prime military real estate to address Cape Town\u2019s extr ...","og_url":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/minister-macpherson-considers-military-bases-for-housing","og_site_name":"South Africa","article_publisher":"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/AfricaPressTunisiaa","article_published_time":"2026-04-02T12:24:49+00:00","article_modified_time":"2026-04-02T12:35:44+00:00","og_image":[{"width":1200,"height":630,"url":"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/sites\/31\/2026\/04\/sm_1775120708.089817.jpg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"cfeditoren","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"cfeditoren","Est. reading time":"2 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Article","@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/minister-macpherson-considers-military-bases-for-housing#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/minister-macpherson-considers-military-bases-for-housing"},"author":{"name":"cfeditoren","@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/#\/schema\/person\/068c7ab4e9634ae78ec5d54ec46598bb"},"headline":"Minister Macpherson Considers Military Bases for Housing","datePublished":"2026-04-02T12:24:49+00:00","dateModified":"2026-04-02T12:35:44+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/minister-macpherson-considers-military-bases-for-housing"},"wordCount":247,"commentCount":0,"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/minister-macpherson-considers-military-bases-for-housing#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/sites\/31\/2026\/04\/sm_1775120708.089817.jpg","keywords":["South-Africa"],"articleSection":["all news","community"],"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"CommentAction","name":"Comment","target":["https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/minister-macpherson-considers-military-bases-for-housing#respond"]}]},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/minister-macpherson-considers-military-bases-for-housing","url":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/minister-macpherson-considers-military-bases-for-housing","name":"Minister Macpherson Considers Military Bases for Housing - South Africa","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/minister-macpherson-considers-military-bases-for-housing#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/minister-macpherson-considers-military-bases-for-housing#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/sites\/31\/2026\/04\/sm_1775120708.089817.jpg","datePublished":"2026-04-02T12:24:49+00:00","dateModified":"2026-04-02T12:35:44+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/#\/schema\/person\/068c7ab4e9634ae78ec5d54ec46598bb"},"description":"The Department of Public Works and Infrastructure plans to unlock prime military real estate to address Cape Town\u2019s extr ...","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/minister-macpherson-considers-military-bases-for-housing#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/minister-macpherson-considers-military-bases-for-housing"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/minister-macpherson-considers-military-bases-for-housing#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/sites\/31\/2026\/04\/sm_1775120708.089817.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/sites\/31\/2026\/04\/sm_1775120708.089817.jpg","width":1200,"height":630,"caption":"Minister Macpherson Considers Military Bases for Housing"},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/minister-macpherson-considers-military-bases-for-housing#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Minister Macpherson Considers Military Bases for Housing"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/","name":"South Africa","description":"Just another Africa News Agency Sites site","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/#\/schema\/person\/068c7ab4e9634ae78ec5d54ec46598bb","name":"cfeditoren","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/7417380fa9e23b5c57fdbfdaf3fdf92ee478f759a084addda5faa3732853e74a?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/7417380fa9e23b5c57fdbfdaf3fdf92ee478f759a084addda5faa3732853e74a?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"cfeditoren"}}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/96784","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/84"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=96784"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/96784\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":96788,"href":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/96784\/revisions\/96788"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/96783"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=96784"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=96784"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=96784"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}