We need change, not more of the same

THE other day I received in the post a few papers from my local DA councillor, Ian Iverson.

It included what must be the main pamphlet of the DA’s campaign: “Cape Town works. Let’s do more.”

I wondered about how Cape Town works.

It still works as it always did under apartheid as a city which is deeply divided racially – and very inequitably.

It works as a most unsustainable city that continues to abuse its natural systems, threatens food security by growing roughshod over agricultural land and wastes huge amounts of energy because of its low density.

It still works as a massively spread out city, making it very inefficient and very difficult to run a viable public transport system. So thousands of people spend a third of their income getting to work.

It still works as a city whose movement system is dominated by motorcars, when 60-70% of Cape Town’s population don’t own one.

It still works as a city in which it is almost impossible to start informal business. That needs intense urban activity which in Cape Town is concentrated in the CBD, tens of kilometres from where most informal business people live.

It still works as a city which has no clear direction and thus where developers and land invasions lead and the authorities follow, cap in hand with the former and aggressively with the latter.

So please, dear mayoral candidate Hill-Lewis, no more of that please! We don’t need more, we need a change.

Looking at the main things you intend to get done, in detail, it’s clear that your programme is indeed to do more of the same. Only one of the seven points (“Do the basics better so everyone can live in dignity”) hints, vaguely, at the fact that we are a city of 4.7 million people of whom over a third live below the poverty datum line.

The words “poverty” or “unemployment” or “inadequate housing” or anything related do not appear in your programme of action. No, I can’t read anything in the list that suggests core issues of our city are going to be addressed seriously – poverty, inequality, unemployment. It’s all short term things, palliative.

What about: “release state-owned land to the private sector to deliver more affordable housing”, you may ask.

We do need more affordable housing, but that will not touch the city’s 400 000 household backlog in housing.

So why only affordable housing by the private sector? Why don’t you say anything about the big problem, and opportunity?

So what is your big idea, your vision for our future? End loadshedding – can’t be that. Easy place to do business – can’t be that. Deploy safety officers – can’t be that. No, even collectively, the points don’t add up to an idea. There is no idea here.

It’s more of the same. More bureaucrats ticking boxes. More service delivery protests. More homelessness. More flooding of homes.

More fires that destroy hundreds of houses. More hounding of people invading land. “Hundreds more local safety officers.”

More dysfunctional public transport. More and more of the two-economy city. More inter-racial conflict.

A world class city? I’ve just googled through the cities called world class. Mega consumer cities, “easiest places to do business”, high shiny towers, great motorways swarming with shiny cars.

No, surely Mr Mayoral Candidate, that’s not appropriate for us. Nor is it appropriate for any city in the world, if we genuinely want to deal with its serious problems like massive migration, pandemics and global warming.

We don’t need any of this done, thank you. We badly need change, a new way, a paradigm shift. We want a city that every citizen can call home.

JULIAN COOKE | Kenilworth