GOOD Statement by Brett Herron,
GOOD Secretary-General & City of Cape Town Mayoral Candidate
09 August 2026
When the City of Cape Town announced it was disposing of the Bellville Velodrome, Africa’s only Olympic-standard indoor cycling track, it sought to placate cyclists by announcing the redevelopment of the cycling track at Vygieskraal Stadium.
“While it is not sustainable to retain the existing cycling track as part of the Velodrome redevelopment, the City recognises the important role this facility has historically played for the cycling community. For this reason, the City is prioritising the upgrade of Vygieskraal Stadium to serve as a central hub for cycling, ensuring that the sport continues to be supported through a dedicated and sustainable facility,” a City press release said.
The announcement, under the heading, “Major public sector upgrade of Bellville Athletics Track, Velodrome” was styled as fantastic news for Capetonians, Mayor Geordin Hill-Lewis described it as “a win-win scenario “.
But not for cyclists, it turns out.
What the City has not publicly disclosed is that the re-developed Vygieskraal will be a “moderate speed outdoor municipal cycling track… for recreational and training use”. That use, revealed in a due diligence briefing to Council in June 2026, is totally incomparable to a modern indoor high-speed velodrome.
Nor has the Mayor explained why handing the Velodrome to a property developer on a 60-year lease to develop an events and concert facility is a win-win, given that the City recently auctioned off its own events and concert venue, the Good Hope Centre.
Would a real win-win not be for a City of Cape Town’s size and wealth to boast both an events venue and a velodrome?
Where is the logic in sacrificing a functioning, centrally located events venue, and then privatising South Africa’s only international-standard indoor cycling track, (and selling off surrounding land) to create an events venue?
Nowhere in its public messaging did the DA-run City state plainly that the replacement track would not be built to a standard capable of hosting competitive or international cycling. That wasn’t an oversight; the facts were deliberately greyed/blued to mitigate public controversy.
High-performance and community sports infrastructure is expensive and slow to build, and near impossible to justify developing from scratch in the current fiscal environment. That is precisely why a responsible city should not dispose of what it already has. The default position of any government serious about sport, youth development and spatial justice should be to retain, maintain and upgrade existing purpose-built facilities. The truth is that Cape Town will not get another Olympic-standard velodrome; once converted into a concert venue, it is gone.
This is not win-win; it is lose-lose. It is two separate disposals of public assets, each justified in the moment, that together make no strategic sense or create any public benefit.