<div>The Save Our Sea Point residents association (www.SOSRA.org.za) was formed by area residents of East Sea Point, exacerbated by the proposed imposition of an over-massed block of flats in the midst of their historic residential community, in order to launch a legal challenge to what is known to be a non-compliant structure, and prevent an appalling precedent from being set for similarly oversized future development proposals.
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<div>The same community had previously co-ordinated an appeal against the City of Cape Town Planning Department's approval for a construction on St John's Road, which was believed to be in contravention of the City's own planning restrictions.
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<div>In quite unprecedented circumstances, the Executive Mayor, Alderman Geordin Hill-Lewis, in his capacity as the final Appeal Authority, upheld the appeal by finding fully in their favour: That the building plans for the proposed development were in contravention of the City's own Development Management Scheme (DMS) regulations, and that the scale of the building was over-massed and out of context with the existing urban form, with detrimental impact on the existing rights of surrounding area residents and their properties.
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<div>Approval for the single-massed block was consequently set aside by the mayor, whose report on the decision was published on 12th December 2025, and the application refused.
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<div>However, that proved to be a pyrrhic victory as construction works commenced apace in February 2026. By all accounts, according to plans that had been stamped for approval, without public consultation, prior to the submission of the application that was rendered non-compliant and refused on appeal.
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<div>The existing, pre-approved plans are allegedly for two separate buildings, one on each erf, but otherwise of identical proportions to that which had been found to be non-compliant. It would furthermore appear that, rather than being for two separate buildings, the existing plans are in reality for two halves of the same single structure to that which was decreed illegal and refused by the mayor.
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<div>Inexplicably, the City has steadfastly refused to intervene to prevent the construction, for a structure that it effectively declared to be in contravention of its own regulations as recently as December. We believe it to be incumbent on the CoCT Authority to carry out its statutory duty by enacting to prevent such known, illegal constructions, “to safeguard the welfare of its citizens and to uphold the integrity of planning regulations".
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<div>Instead, public representatives have absolved themselves from the responsibility for enforcement of regulations, electing to shift the onus for that responsibility back onto us, the community, to finance a high court review in order to cause the City to act to enforce its own laws.
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<div>Due to the nature of the mayor's appeal report in finding so strongly in our favour, it is thought that chances for a successful review of the case are promising. Sufficient funds were raised from amongst the immediate community to at least be able to initiate the necessary legal proceedings. However, the respondent, the developer, rather than attempting to defend the legitimacy of the existing building plans, is instead moving to employ delay tactics, no doubt in an attempt to exhaust the funds available to the community action before the court can come to a judgement.
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<div>The current action by the SOS residents association is being carried out in the public interest, and on behalf of the broader communities across Sea Point and the Atlantic Seaboard, who will undoubtedly have experience of similar issues.
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<div>Please play your part by becoming an SOS member at www.SOSRA.org.za, and by contributing what you can to our worthy, and possibly game changing, endeavour. 
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<div>From all of us at SOS,
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<div>With thanks..
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Kieran Flynn

Anonymous

K Iloni

SOS campaign against non-compliant developments in Sea Point

platform

Platform is iOS

Android

Adyen Google Pay Development Audience

$opt_dummy_attribute

English only

Deprecate Stripe Legacy

dyn_template_ids

Adyen V6 Bene Transfer & MyMoney Campaign Organizers - test01

Bene transfer V6 and AdyenV6MyMoney Campaign Organizers - production

OneTrust next-app audience

fundCountryCode

NextDoor Share Option Users

Fundraisers with Reactions feature capability

fundCurrencyCode

US + Non-charity COs Only

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fund country is US and user language is English

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comms-internal-person-ids

Enhanced Story Experience Users

Suggested Goal Experience Users

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Poster share - new funds eligible (newest 9/18)

Streaming widgets beta user

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3DS payment method

user language is English and fundCountry: US, AU, DK, FI, IE, NO, SE, CA, GB; 

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Money Box Donation List Prompt Experiment Audience

GoFundMe Employees

ipAddress

Mark Rieth IP Address

Version 9.2.0 and above

Fund is in English speaking country

desktop

Android v12.11.0 and above

Platform is Android

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checkoutType

Payment method type group to be vaulted on success

admin pr kit prod

EUR Donation Upsell

Share Text generation Skip Fundraiser

(prod) new funds eligible for amp12 (UGC gallery)

fintrac_cad_idv_form_v2 audience

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fallback mode accounts

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p2p legacy startfundraising page

AMP24 New Funds Only PROD (DO NOT MODIFY)

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UKCharities

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route.pathname community

US Donation Upsell audience 

Auto Thanks Feature Audience

Supporter Comments Eligible Funds

International Only

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braze fundraiser group 

Payment Identity Transfers ATO Risk Check (Targeted) - Production

Fundraiser Saved Payment Method Rate Limit Bypass (Production)

leaderboard-partner-id-audience-givepanel

Eligible for Profile Comment Badge

Version 9.2.1 and above

AUD Donation Upsell audience

fundraiserCountryCode is US/EN

Active Fundraiser - Smart Default Cadence

DAF Internal

Vault on success card payment method

Platform is iOS v11.0.0 and above

Desktop users

Person ids

United States (US) users

allow yuno fundraisers for test

Mexico country code

Posters INTL

NPO Profile Opted-In

iOS at or above 12.4.0

non-US recurring donors

Canada Campaign Owner Group

Fundraiser Without Meta Link

Scheduler payment tester gorup

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Charities allow to be claimed unclaimed (PRD)

Canada (CA) users

UC Tipping v20250115 International

pymk_production_xplr_fe_team

Android at or above 12.2.0

Profile photo entry point audience

smart goals (fundraiser/manage) on test01

Activity Tracking v1 Beta Testing

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Stream Notification

start gfm intl allowed locales

Platform is iOS v11.2.0 and above

NPO upsell education category

unclaimed charities

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AI Chatbot Audience

amp13 only new funds (prod) (anyword auto)

UC Flow Enabled (Prod)

Payment Identity Beneficiary Verification - Production

shared notification bell audience

Custom users

ach frontend audience

Android v11.0.0 and above

Users Receiving Payments Paused Notifications

smart goals test01

Manage Coach - US English Organizers Only + new funds only

Team EGG - IP Address list

NPO recommendations prod

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Native 11.4.0 and above

UC Tipping v20250107

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openai

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Native 11.3.0 and above

Native 11.4.0 and higher

New funds eligible - Video Sharing (PROD)

GB Donation Upsell audience 

Auto Thanks V3 Rollout Audience

Thank you V3 testing whitelist

isRecurringFriendly

Is Recurring Friendly

Excluded funds - Video Sharing

NPO upsell animals category

NPO upsell disaster relief category

Logged In Users

CH Donation Upsell audience

Android v10.6.0 and above

NPO upsell essential needs category

NPO upsell medical category

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Localized Currency

NPO upsell cancer category

v11.5.0 and above

testAudience

pathname

Survicate

appVersion is at or above 12.8.0

Non-charity fund

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challenge-fundraisers

Payment Identity Launch Verification - Production

New funds eligible - Posters v2

CAD Donation Upsell Audience

Braze Email Tester

NPO Profile Opted-Out

iOS App Version

hasKnownDonors

PYMK has donors

iOS v12.3.0 and above

SOS campaign against non-compliant developments in Sea Point

Still £3,400 to go. Help us build momentum.