City tarnished under De Lille

TV

Who Wants to be a Millionaire? should be taken in its literal sense when you consider DStv keeps feeding us repeat shows. Maybe DStv stands for Dull, Stupid, Terrible Viewing. – DC IT SEEMS to me that under the reign of Mayor Patricia De Lille the transparent image of the City of Cape Town is being tarnished.

I have read the city wants to reduce public participation and transparency, when it comes to decisions on land-use planning.

At present local sub-councils have an important role to play in ensuring that residents are able to have input. However, the city wants to take that power away and centralise it in the hands of one official.

Surely Cape Town of all cities should be setting the example and increasing public participation and transparency, not making governance less democratic.

Councillor Gareth Bloor has tried to use the notion of maximising administrative and operational efficiency as an excuse to prevent landuse matters from being debated at subcouncil level in future.

As a defence Bloor has stated that ward councillors will be informed of developments in their wards.

I believe there is such strict discipline within the DA that councillors

Jacob Zuma revealing his wealth – are you smoking bad weed? It’s actually our hard-earned tax money he is raking in by the millions. Dr Ramphele, you stand out head and shoulders against the most weak and incompetent president we have ever had in South Africa. I admire you for exceptional intelligence and your fight to achieve democracy irrespective of race, culture, creed or gender.

Casper de Vries is entertaining. But when he starts swearing he spoils the show. I then change to another channel. Pity.

Dina Pule, you are a disgrace. Lindiwe Sisulu, I used to like you but have lost all respect for you. You want to nail civil servants for corruption yet you embrace Pule for her gross dishonesty and abuse of power. will not be able to arrange the type of healthy debate that occurs in subcouncils at present.

There are rumours of at least one councillor being muzzled by his political party.

The mayor’s good men and women appear to agree with the developers, but not with the very valid objections raised against the ruining of the Philippi Horticultural Area by the development of housing.

The situation that has reared its ugly head can be seen to be partially a result of our proportional representation system of government. Only half of the councillors are elected. The other half are appointed by their political parties on the basis of proportional representation.

De Lille herself was never elected as mayor or even elected as a councillor in the last municipal elections, but was nominated by her political party. How on earth can she be expected to be the protector of democracy in Cape Town under such a system?

A “middle income” family would have to earn R100 000 a month before tax to afford a monthly expenditure of R60 000. I bet not even 95 percent of so-called rich whites earn anything near that.

Regarding the unknown SMSer who has a problem with Kasim Hafeez’s piece that depicts life in Israel, not the horror Palestinians experience in the occupied territories: this is because it is being run by the Palestinian authorities and not Israel. – Ursula

To the person who left their dogs in the car in the sun at Pick n Pay Plattekloof: it’s a shame. Poor dogs.

Ster-Kinekor in Blue Route Mall is a disgrace. Yesterday’s movie started 15 minutes late and the first 10 minutes was out of focus.

Mr Hendry, 2 Military Hospital in Wynberg does not have guards and has not had for a long time. Anyone has free access to the unit and hospital.

Could Capetonians please, please stop talking about the weather. It rains in Cape Town, we know this, and the sun shines too, and the wind blows.