Milkwood City: R140 billion plan promises jobs, homes, schools

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26-02-2026
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Cape Town Etc
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Wescape, the project previously reported by Cape {town} Etc is now promoted as Milkwood City on the developer website says it will keep its long-term promise of homes and jobs while questions over funding and delivery remain.

It proposes up to 200 000 homes and capacity for roughly 800 000 people, with schools, healthcare and employment built into a phased plan.

Developers say the scheme will be privately funded and have previously quoted headline figures, including an R140-billion estimate that circulated in earlier coverage. BusinessTech summarised those early cost and job projections.

Project leaders continue to present Milkwood City as a transport-oriented, mixed-income city that will generate construction work and longer term employment through staged growth.

Gita Goven, chairperson of the developer group, told reporters in 2016 that construction could start soon and that ‘realistically, 2019 or 2020 will be when the spades hit the ground’.

Community voices and planning experts have repeatedly raised practical concerns about the model, especially whether industry and permanent jobs will follow new housing.

Nancy Odendaal, senior lecturer in city planning at the University of Cape Town, previously told GroundUp that ‘infill development and densification are difficult to achieve, but frankly, it can be done’.

A careful read of the record shows a gap between ambition and delivery. The Milkwood City planning set out an optimistic timeline and large job forecasts. Those targets have not materialised on the schedule as suggested and public consultation, environmental processes and finance remain central to any next phase.

Today the project team continues to publish masterplan material and technical brochures that describe phased infrastructure, affordable housing quotas and environmental measures.