Double red card for city planners

A very small notice with huge impact: Cape Town is praised for being SA’s fastest city in terms of issuing permits for construction, among other things (Hits & Misses, September 23).

The World Bank Group “study” has obviously not looked at the reasons for this remarkably “positive feat”.

The reasons for an 88-day turnaround include: a council with greed for money, underqualified and inadequate staff in the (buildings) planning department, political interference in the passing of (large) building plans, contempt for the negative effects of passing building plans without environmental-impact studies and lack of planning for associated infrastructure requirements when passing plans for large building projects.

Had the World Bank looked into just a few reasons behind this remarkably short period for issuing permits, Cape Town would have received a double red card.

Citizens are reeling under the inadequate planning of the past decade while the city collects millions in fees from passing hundreds of plans for mega-sized structures.

These are just some of the real issues and reasons behind this “ease of doing business” study. It won’t pull the wool over our eyes!

Peter Smulik, Cape Town