Still enjoying the perks of privilege in Sandton
SEVENTEEN years ago this week, Sandton’s white residents and business owners prepared to win a massive case to protect their privilege at the newly formed Constitutional Court. Claiming the revolutionary style of liberation activists during the apartheid era, they’d run a massive rates boycott that had gone on for nearly two years.
The newly elected ANC-controlled Greater Johannesburg Metropolitan Council (GJMC) had imposed a substantial increase in property rates throughout the metro. And, as part of its one city, one tax base policy, it had announced a further levy on Sandton, which had been paying far less than other areas.
The council didn’t count on the level of white people’s fear of losing their status, though. To most, the sunset clauses had meant nothing. Choosing to forget the emotional spirit in which they’d queued to vote the year before, they insisted on protecting themselves against the greater good.
Apartheid had come and gone with its many rent and rates boycotts by civil society, but white people hadn’t felt any need to protest then. It was only in 1996 that those who hadn’t yet packed for Perth raised their red flags.
There’d been a lack of progress in establishing new local government structures to fight racism and properly integrate. And so a special electoral court had made a ruling in 1995 that saw the GJMC embrace the Eastern Metropolitan Sub-Structure (EMSS), which included Sandton.
This was in line with South Africa’s bright new constitution, which prioritised equity and the redistribution of resources. The early hope was of using the increased tax base of Sandton’s wealthy to help finance improvements especially in Soweto, rather than its neighbour, Alexandra. But the first-time councillors hadn’t counted on the arrogance of white capital, which balked at the rocketing increases.
Sandton’s rich quickly formed ratepayers’ associations and, together with big business, took on the black-led city through the courts. And although the Constitutional Court eventually found that taking the EMSS’s surplus to the GJMC was legal, the damage to cohesion had been done. Or not. Everywhere there is talk about how income disparity can create the conditions for social upheaval. The city has just honoured French economist Thomas Piketty, and its officials listened intently as he pronounced on the link between inequality and violence. This week, British-American economist Angus Deaton was awarded the Nobel Prize in Economics for his studies of consumption, poverty and welfare.
The ANC too bemoaned enrichment at its national general council at the weekend, and contemplated a wealth tax to meet increasing need.
These are now-ubiquitous theories in an era that is even relooking Marx. Yet Sandton appears to experience little of that.
The EcoMobility Festival, which has seen mayor Parks Tau relocate to the metropolis for the month, has shown off its shimmer. The ravishing curve of the Norton Rose building competes with the glamour of Alexander Forbes on Katherine. Penthouses start at R6.8 million.
But while the experiment in shifting our perceptions about transport in one of the continent’s most opulent spots grapples with green consciousness, there are more cranes than jacarandas. Mighty construction is under way for Sasol and Mutual & Federal. Investec’s property is being refurbished. Discovery’s lot is covered in hard hats.
Only the tuk-tuk drivers, the recyclers plotting clean tarmac and hawkers spotting an opportunity around the building sites may see it another way.
The Constitutional Court declared that Sandton’s rates went up in 1998, saying the function of local government was to eliminate the disadvantages that are a consequence of the past. But that didn’t bring about marked redistribution, or the dream of the verdict.
Not enough has changed yet for the people still on its fringes.