Brenda Hansen, councillor for Ward 111 in Brackenfell and Kraaifontein, took to social media on Friday to announce she is “being replaced as Ward councillor by the DA”. TygerBurger has since learned that Hansen’s name is absent from the party’s candidate list for the upcoming election.
This comes a week after the Bracken Heights Community Forum (BHCF) submitted a formal grievance blaming Hansen and the City for bypassing public consultation on the Brackenfell High School roadworks within Bracken Heights. The forum called for an immediate disciplinary investigation into Hansen over her handling of the Brackenfell High School infrastructure project.
In a letter sent to the Subcouncil 2 manager, the Speaker of Council and Mayco member for urban mobility Rob Quintas, the forum accuses Hansen of gross dereliction of statutory duty, failure to exercise her fiduciary duty of care, and direct breaches of the Code of Conduct for councillors under Schedule 7 of the Local Government: Municipal Structures Act.
“An audit of minuted Project Liaison Committee (PLC) meetings spanning 15 months from February 2025 to May 2026 found that Hansen, who was the sole political and community representative for the school’s construction, was absent from 12 of 14 meetings, an 86% absentee rate,” the forum alleges in the letter.
According to the audit conducted by the forum, 14 PLC meetings held between February 2025 and May 2026 shows the transport directorate attended 0% of meetings, while the WCED attended 7%.
“The exhaustive audit of the minutes, the Draft Traffic Impact Assessment (TIA), and the civil engineering approvals reveals a deeply concerning pattern where public participation is bypassed, as well as reckless engineering, as disclosed at the PLC meeting held on 18 August this year, which will result in the immediate structural and operational collapse of our local road network,” the BHCF states in the grievance.
“By vacating her seat, Hansen deliberately abdicated her oversight role, leaving the residents of Bracken Heights without political representation while critical infrastructure and traffic decisions were made behind closed doors.”
While the BHCF support the establishment of educational infrastructure, they reject the traffic and engineering planning proposal.
Promised meeting never happened
The forum alleges the PLC minutes show a documented pattern of delaying and ultimately abandoning community consultation. According to the BHCF, a community meeting was first mooted in April 2025, postponed to “early next year” and by July 2026 reduced to “flyer drops” before construction began. However, direct neighbours dispute ever having received pamphlets. The BHCF notes the City holds email addresses of every affected homeowner for municipal billing but never used them to solicit public comment.
The forum raises concern that as per the official minutes the external roadworks have expanded significantly beyond the original project scope, potentially rendering the original traffic impact assessment and environmental authorisation invalid. They argue that this significant expansion legally triggers a revised traffic impact assessment and a mandatory public participation process, neither of which appears to have occurred.
According to the position paper, the traffic impact assessment was drafted in December 2024, yet engineering drawings were continuously modified between August 2025 and May this year, with vehicle simulations re-engineered as late as January this year.
“Saul Street, a six-to-seven-metre-wide residential road, would be pushed to 480 vehicles per hour, 96% of its maximum capacity on day one. Plans for parents to stop, drop children and U-turn in the narrow street would guarantee blocked driveways and safety hazards,” they say.
They furthermore question why Frans Conradie Drive was dismissed as an access route, arguing a slipway off an arterial road would keep high-volume traffic off the residential grid entirely.
They also dismissed the June 2026 Wayleave, an internal permit allowing the contractor to dig trenches as an operational approval, not a substitute for statutory public consultation.
“Engineering sign-off on asphalt thickness and roundabout geometry does not satisfy the legal obligations of the Municipal Systems Act,” the forum says.
“Construction vehicles have been hammering residential roads beyond their design capacity for 18 months, yet there is no intention to structurally upgrade the sub-base pavement layers to handle the increased traffic load. Residents will not inherit structurally destroyed roads.”
No public participation
The forum refers to Chapter 4 of the Municipal Systems Act and the City’s public participation policies, in accordance with which ward councillors must inform residents of developments that materially alter their neighbourhoods. The BHCF says the external roadworks expanded significantly beyond the original scope, as minuted on 7 July this year to include routing 480 vehicles an hour, 96% of maximum engineering capacity, plus heavy construction fleets, down a six-metre-wide residential street (Saul Street).
“At no point did Hansen attempt to hold a public meeting, circulate correspondence, or alert her constituency to these devastating traffic plans,” the forum alleges. “She allowed the City’s transport directorate and private civil engineers to finalise technical road designs entirely without Paja-compliant public consultation.”
The BHCF furthermore says Hansen violated Item 2(b) of the Code of Conduct in failing to act in the best interests of the community, as well as Item 5, in failing to remain accountable to local communities and report back to her constituency.
The forum is demanding intervention and a public town hall meeting between affected ratepayers and the City’s transport directorates within 30 days.
“The ratepayers of Bracken Heights elected their ward councillor to be a bridge to the city, not a barrier to transparency,” the forum said. “We trust the subcouncil will handle this matter with the utmost urgency to restore democratic accountability to Ward 111.”
Speaker Felicity Purchase, a few days before Hansen’s announcement made the following statement: “The Office of the Speaker is in receipt of the aforementioned complaint and the matter will be attended to in keeping with our complaints procedures and complying with all stipulations in accordance with the applicable legislation and the Code of Conduct for Councillors.”
With regard to the other issues raised, the City furthermore stated that the Western Cape Government, as custodian of the project, will have to provide comment on the matter. The Western Cape Education Department (WCED) however, referred the newspaper right back to the City.
According to Bronagh Hammond, spokesperson for the WCED, the PLC of the New Brackenfell High School shared all relevant information and approvals regarding the external road upgrades in relation to the project with the BHCF and discussed the contents of their letter on 18 August 2026 at the previous PLC Meeting.
“The City of Cape Town is the competent authority regarding road infrastructure. The WCED is implementing all the requirements as stipulated by the City to allow for the development of the school, while mitigating the impact on the surrounding road infrastructure,” she stated adding that clarity regarding the road upgrades would have to be provided by the City.
Hansen did not reply to TygerBurger’s invitation to right of reply, but wrote the following on social media: “I have served the community for 15 years with joy, passion and so much love. Except service delivery and municipal issues, I built relationships, touched hearts and made a difference in the life of so many in need. I thank God for using me as an instrument to bring change.”
List finalised
DA Cape Metro Chairperson JP Smith confirmed the finalisation of the party’s candidates list.
“The DA follows a rigorous candidate selection process to ensure that our councillors meet the high standards expected of those entrusted with serving residents. The process involves training, ongoing performance assessment, assignments, an invigilated exam and an audited interview before a Selection Panel,” he said in a statement.
“We have taken great care to use every available measure to find the best possible candidates to represent the Democratic Alliance as ward and proportional councillors in every ward in the City of Cape Town to ensure residents continue benefiting from DA delivery.
“As the DA values commit us to an open opportunity society, this process — the competitive screening, assessment and selection processes have in some cases selected new candidates in favour of incumbent ward councillors as our candidates.
“As principled democrats, DA members and public representatives are all committed to respecting these transparent selection procedures and will be aware of the scores they achieved during ongoing assessments over the past four years and during the exam. We thank these outgoing councillors for their service and contribution to their communities and the DA,” he concluded.
“Refreshing our teams is part of ensuring that the DA continues to put residents first and fields the best available candidates to represent the communities. Soon, we will introduce the new ward candidates who will be engaging you about their vision and plans for their wards,” he concluded.
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