Rant about ‘nameless sources’ undignified
MAYOR Patricia de Lille’s article (“I will not be a stereotype”, Cape Times Insight, August 12) refers.
I can say, without fear of contradiction, that her place in history is secure as a doughty fighter in the struggle against apartheid, for her contribution to the production of one of the finest constitutions in the world and her fearless attempts to get to the bottom of the questionable arms deal.
It gives us no pleasure to do our duty – as citizens concerned with the direction that the city’s administration is heading in – by taking her to task when we perceive mistakes being made. In this process we always say who we are, so her rant about “nameless sources” is undignified.
We are particularly concerned when our mayor states as a fact something which is patently not so. Mind you, she is not alone in this regard; councillor Bloor made the same assertion (“Not a fact”, Cape Times Letters, August 8). To say that council agenda item C69290513 about changes in delegations was only a draft proposal “not formally brought to any structure of council”, just isn’t true.
The document says that it is “for recommendation by the executive mayor and decision by council”. The fact that this item was on the agenda at all meant that the mayor had agreed that it should be placed before a formal meeting of the city council, the highest decision-making body in the City of Cape Town, or someone had done so in her name without her knowledge.
If her councillors had not bravely refused to countenance the revised system of delegations proposed that day, that would have been the end of the matter. The system set out in item C69290513 would have been introduced, without any public participation.
We heard from councillor Bloor that the proposed changes to the delegations system have been modified, so it seems the public outcry and the mayor’s own councillors’ concerns have, fortunately, had an effect. We look forward to being able to engage constructively with the city on these fresh ideas.
From the mayor’s remarks about the decision to move the urban edge in the Philippi Horticultural Area, it would appear she has not taken any notice of, or her staff have kept from her, the mass of informed comment which, for an overwhelming mass of indisputable reasons, rejects the idea as proposed.
The reasons she now gives for the decision show no real appreciation of the damage that will be done or the simple route that exists to avoid the impending economic and ecological disaster: build the desired low-cost housing in the northern area of the PHA, where all knowledgeable opinion points out that the soil has been so polluted that continued farming is well nigh impossible. Len Swimmer