Escalating crisis in the Cape under arrogant Zille administration
PROSPECTS for a better life for the working class in the Western Cape remain very bleak.
It was with complete dismay that the SACP in the Western Cape assessed the narrow and empty content contained in Premier Helen Zille’s recent State of the Province address (Sopa).
The SACP noted the arrogance in which the premier dismissed the need to highlight a progress report since her previous address: “I am not going to spend time telling ‘good news’ stories from our previous term. Most speak for themselves.”
The reality on the ground for the workers and the poor in the Western Cape, who did not get the opportunity to assess the content of the address – which should contain plans to improve their lives – have once again fallen prey to neoliberal elitism. It is this arrogance of the DA administration that the SACP has consistently condemned and demonstrated against in the Cape.
The premier’s address, albeit aborted, bears a now common thread that needs further scrutiny. Accounting for the progress and challenges during the Sopa is an important source of access to information for provincial public intake, and the fact that the premier dismisses this, with arrogance, is something the SACP will not tolerate.
What has been done with the national budget allocated to the Western Cape?
What has been done to resolve the growing groundswell of anger and frustration aimed at poor service delivery in the province, specifically housing and sanitation?
What progress has been made in tackling the scourge of gangsterism and drugs? What were the preventative measures implemented to thwart the ever-increasing prevalence of shack fires and flooding that cause deaths and leave thousands destitute on an annual basis?
Unfortunately for the people residing in a colony of “good news” where the grass is always greener on the other side of the Cape Flats, this information apparently does not warrant assessment.
The frustration of “perceived progress” and spun “good news” among the masses boiled over on February 28 in the SACP Brian Bunting District (Cape Metro).
Community members of BM Section in Khayelitsha took to the streets in protest, blocking the N2 and later setting fire to the OR Tambo Community Hall.
This sporadic demonstration of frustration is ever increasing in the DA-governed province.
The community of BM Section are just one group of thousands of other families left destitute by annual shack fires – their tragedy occurred in 2013.
Subsequent promises from the DA mayor, Patricia de Lille, that her administration would house the 790 families who lost everything have once again turned into spin.
While the SACP in the province condemns acts of vandalism and lawlessness, the continuous negligence of the DA city and provincial government – through crippling community safety initiatives, removing security personnel guarding community facilities to “cut costs”, and demonising any and every progressive community structure fighting for societal justice as a ploy of destabilisation – has, by all accounts from our branch and district structures, led to frustrations boiling over into desperation.
Lastly, it must be raised once again that the DA provincial administration has no plausible policy in addressing the triple crisis of unemployment, inequality and poverty, instead it has perpetuated this crisis into a fourth tier, class-based racism in the Western Cape.