Public Works Minister Patricia de Lille and the Democratic Alliance's (DA's) Cape Town mayoral hopeful Geordin Hill-Lewis have engaged in a war of words over the release of state-owned land for affordable housing in the City of Cape Town.

The two have been at each other's throats since Hill-Lewis wrote to De Lille last week, requesting that she cancel the lease on the Acacia Park parliamentary village so that the City could buy the land and release it for the development of affordable housing.

De Lille branded Hill-Lewis "stupid’’ following his request.

On Wednesday, Hill-Lewis led a picket outside the Department of Public Works offices on the Foreshore, along with DA activists, to hand over a memorandum to department officials.

In the memorandum, the DA demands that De Lille's department immediately surrender its lease over Acacia Park and other parliamentary villages to provide housing.

It also wants national government to immediately begin the process of selling, terminating lease agreements, or otherwise releasing mega-properties to the City of Cape Town.

The party gave De Lille seven days to respond.

Hill-Lewis stressed there was a huge shortage of well-located land in Cape Town.

"The City of Cape Town has a few pockets of land, and we will speed up the release of those pockets. But to be honest, these parcels of land are tiny in comparison with these enormous pieces of land the state owns in the city," he said.

"If we really want to make a massive impact in the housing shortage, we have got to have access to state-owned land, and its not being used, that’s the thing, surly we can all get around the table as a group and agree that this land is not being used to its full potential," he added.

While picketing DA activists loudly chanted "houses for all", members of De Lille’s GOOD party they arrived in a branded party bakkie and used speakers to play on repeat an earlier interview De Lille had with News24, in which she called Hill-Lewis "stupid".

In response to the picket and memorandum, De Lille said: "The arrogance of Geordin Hill-Lewis, who's a Johnny-come-lately to housing development, shows clearly today."

"He cannot expect that, after two years as a minister, that I can correct what the DA has failed to do in Cape Town for more than 10 years."

The minister said she planned next week to take the media on a walkabout to all the vacant land sites that the DA had refused to develop for affordable housing.

"Because they don’t want people of colour anywhere near the city centre, I will illustrate an example to the DA on how to integrate the City of Cape Town. We have started the process to release Customs House right in the city centre, within walking distance from transport for affordable housing in the city centre."

DA MP Emma Powell has over the last year been requesting clarity over whether De Lille’s department intended releasing six large tracts of land under its custodianship for housing.

These land parcels - which include Ysterplaat, Denel, Culemborg, Youngsfield, Wingfield and Upper Darling Street - could yield in excess of 93 000 affordable housing opportunities for low-income Cape Town residents.

Powell said the situation had become urgent.  

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"The national Department of Human Settlements has moved away from providing houses because the housing budget no longer allows for it, so we have Human Settlements who has been advocating for a rapid land release programme, and we have Public Works under Patricia’s leadership sitting on 14 000 hectares of developable land." 

GOOD's Cape Town mayoral candidate Brett Herron said: "The DA must own up to the fact that, in the 15 years it has led Cape Town, it has not built a single affordable home in a well-located part of Cape Town to begin the process of integrating the post-apartheid city – and that it has no intention to do so."

Herron added that, instead of decoy marches on national government to divert attention from its own track-record, the DA should explain why it had cancelled then-mayor De Lille's and his initiative to develop affordable homes on five inner-city sites three years ago.