The City of Cape Town wants to auction off the land where the Mowbray Market is held to the highest bidder. We’re asking the City to choose our community instead. Sign this petition to demand this public land stays a public good in our community’s hands.

For four years, the Mowbray Market has given small-scale farmers and producers a place to sell directly to our community without vendor fees. Vendors travel from Cape Town and from rural towns as far as Genadendal, Suurbraak, and Calitzdorp, bringing organic vegetables, seed-saved produce, fynbos, honey, and homemade goods. For many vendors, this market is their only source of income.

Our market is at risk of disappearing.

The site is city-owned land next to the Liesbeek River, currently leased to Gordon’s Gym. That lease has expired, and instead of working with the people already using and caring for this land, the City of Cape Town is moving to sell it off to the highest bidder through an open “competitive process” (see this Ground Up Article).

This choice isn’t inevitable. It is the option the City is likely opting for. TCOE approached the City last year proposing a shared future for the site. After months of negotiation, the City rejected it, saying it could not “fairly motivate for the preference of any single proposal.” We do not need more commercial development, which an auction is meant to attract, in our community. This land should stay in public, in our community’s hands. We are not the only ones asking the City to reconsider. Gordon's Gym, which has held this lease for 26 years, is also fighting the auction and has said publicly it sees value in sharing this site with the market. Public land is a public good. We will not allow it to be sold off to the highest bidder.

We, the undersigned, call on the City of Cape Town to:

1. Halt the auction. Protect the public space for people and activities, including the Mowbray Market and the livelihoods that depend on it.
2. Secure TCOE a long-term community lease so our markets can continue and grow.
3. Pause for real public participation so spaces made available for people and activities like the Mowbray Market are protected. Halt the auction process until vendors, farmers, and the surrounding community, not only commercial bidders, have been formally consulted and given standing to respond.

This market belongs to the farmers who built it and the community that shows up every month to support it. Add your name and help us keep this community tending from being shut down.

Join us: Our next TCOE Mowbray Market is 10am-2pm on Saturday, 4 July, 2026  at Gordon’s Gym, 9 Hill Park Lane, Mowbray, Cape Town, 7705