Capetonians deserve the truth

IN THE last local government elections the DA resoundingly won the Cape Town metropole. Few would care to wager on the same outcome if fresh elections were to be held tomorrow. That’s because of bungling – from the Day Zero debacle to proposed exorbitant and patently illogical hikes for council rates and services, to increasingly desperate attempts to get rid of mayor (or ex-mayor?) Patricia de Lille.

Unfortunately for her enemies in the DA, the feisty De Lille is going nowhere quietly. Especially after her critics failed, when put on the spot, to provide evidence to stand up allegations of corruption and maladministration and after what was purported to be a leaked official report was revealed as a manufactured fake.

The public, particularly long-suffering ratepayers, might be forgiven for wondering just what is going on. And why it is that the DA has refused to allow public scrutiny of its case against its former provincial leader and city mayor.

As for the latest volley – supposed violation of the DA constitution – in the bigger scheme of things, we doubt if citizens care overly much.

What is of concern is that while the DA holds a Mad Hatters Tea Party at the Civic Centre, its councillors have failed to make meaningful inroads into apartheid-era spatial planning and parts of the Cape Flats seethe with tensions between long-standing residents and their neighbours living in informal settlements.

Meanwhile, householders are up in arms that the council has responded to their thriftiness in saving energy and precious water by charging, some say fleecing, them more.

And the way De Lille has been jostled out lends weight to claims that the DA uses and then, when convenient, loses credible black politicians.

It is time for the DA to remember that Cape Town was its showcase for governance and focus on running the city properly and let all the facts about its fight with De Lille come out in the open.