GREATER
CAPE TOWN CIVIC ALLIANCE
ANNUAL REPORT AND ADDRESS OF THE
CHAIRMAN TO THE AGM OF THE GCTCA ON 15 AUGUST 2015 AT GRASSY PARK
Ladies
and gentlemen
At
the outset I wish to pay homage to one of our Executive Committee members John
Gray, who passed away. We remember him
as a tireless fighter, grappling with disrespectful developments in the De
Waterkant and Bo Kaap. He embodied the
spirit of community activism and he will be sorely missed. I invite you all to
stand for a moment in respect of this worthy civic activist.
There
are so many issues gripping our minds right now and it is virtually impossible
to cover it all in a report of this nature.
We
live in interesting times. Unemployment
increased by 60% over the last 21 years.
Statistics show that 54% of the population live below the poverty line.
The cost of raising a wage is increasing with increases in transportation and petrol
cost. We face threats to our food security. Safety of our citizens has become
problematic and corruption is increasing in all spheres of our society, in
private as well as public institutions.
It
is in this environment that an organisation such as GCTCA operates and its work
is affected by all these factors.
The
diminishing public participation space and the whittling away of real democracy
remains a concern. We are concerned and would encourage citizens to start
looking at alternative, peaceful ways of ensuring your vote means something.
Sometimes
there is some dim light at the end of the tunnel to be observed and we wish to
congratulate the Princess Vlei Forum on its achievements in saving the Vlei but
also in engaging the City now in the appropriate development of the area. We
look forward to seeing that space turned into a happy place.
The
ominous head of the monster of inappropriate development seems to be coming out
of the ground so often that one needs to be in full time employment to engage
with unbridled and reckless development.
This report will touch on some of those issues.
Limited
time does not allow us to focus on all your issues but we wish to encourage you
to continue and wherever the GCTCA collective can be of assistance, please do
call on us.
RATES AND MUNICPAL CHARGES
Municipal
rates remains a continuing concern, especially when it appears that it is now
regarded as a means of ripping the poor ratepayer to cover the spiralling cost
of a bloated bureaucracy.
The
current increases are way above the inflation rate and obviously has the effect
of making the citizen poorer. It is very rare for salaries to increase by 10%
or more, yet the citizen workers of Cape Town have to face a municipal increase
in rates, water and sanitation of over 11%.
The CPI at March 2015 was estimated at 4% and the increases in all
categories of municipal charges are well over double the reflected inflation
rate. We believe this shows scant regard for the affordability of
ratepayers. The GCTCA believes that the
increase in municipal costs to the ratepayer should be pegged at no more than
the inflation rate, which is now below 6%.
We recommend that the City seriously consider how it allocates its
funds. The use of consultants at exhorbitant
fees should be curtailed; the so-called specialised staff in the office of the
Mayor could be limited to only functions that are vital for the administration
of the City and not for political power control. Perhaps the City of Cape Town should consider
if it really needs over 200 councillors at huge costs to the ratepayers.
THE BY-LAW ON MUNICPAL PLANNING
The
Spatial Planning and Land Use Management Act, 2013 (Act16 of 2013) (SPLUMA)
came into effect on 1 July 2015.
LUPO
(Ordinance 15 of 1985), which gave communities the right to object to
developments if it was felt not to be desirable or in the best interest of a
particular community, will be repealed.
It
would appear that the voice of the ratepayer is being silenced by the new
municipal bylaw on planning (MBL). Regulation
will allow developments to be approved without consultation with the ratepayers
and community. A closer study of the MBL reveal quite wide ranging powers given
to the City to exclude public participation, e.g the City can decide whom it
feels would be appropriate to consult. This means it could bypass the local
ratepayer and civic organisations thus denying organised community structures a
voice.
UNBRIDLED AND SOMEWHAT RECKLESS
DEVELOPMENT
Development
of infrastructure and the built environment can be a wonderfully prosperous
enterprise if undertaken in the best interest of the whole of society and not
only to enrich a few. Over the last few
years we have seen a plethora of unwise and inappropriate developments,
encroaching on nature reserves, taking away public open spaces – all in the
name of generating more rates income for the City. We question whether the money imperative
should be the only driving force for development in the City of Cape Town. The battle to save farmland and good
agricultural space in Durbanville, such as Uitkamp continues to be a stark
reminder that if we are not more vigilant, this beautiful City of ours will be
turned into a concrete jungle.
We
salute the Durbanville Community Forum and George Sieraha, our deputy Chairman
for their valiant struggle against big money power.
The
GCTCA has been at pains to explain that tourists come to Cape Town to see the
beauty of nature and if this kind of unbridled, unwise development theory
continues to be put into practice, Cape Town will lose its attraction to
tourists.
CLIFTON DEVELOPMENT
The
GCTCA is keeping a close watch on developments regarding the proposals to take
away some more public open space for a major commercial development at Camps
Bay. Concerns include the prospect of
more congestion in an already congested area, the minimising of spaces where
the community can enjoy recreation, and of course the deficient public
participation processes around this matter.
The following quote from representations
made by the Camps Bay Ratepayers Association says so much about the concerns of
the people.
“Although this is part of the Mayor’s strategic development
initiative,
it is not in the public
interest that political motivation for “better utilization”
of City-owned land, with
its narrow financial benefits for political agendas,
be placed before reasoned
town planning, environmental and public
amenity considerations”.
Information available to us indicate that
much of the area affected by the development has been a declared a heritage
site for 70 years and it appears as if this will be changed without public
participation to suit the needs of developers.
The Mail and Guardian article of 10 July 2015 is recommended reading for
more understanding of the issue.
LOAD SHEDDING
Unfortunately,
power outages have become a reality in our lives. The demand on our energy resources is rising
every day for a number of reasons, some of it being bad management and others
related to the increase in users of electricity. No doubt, this is having a negative impact on
the economy and therefore denying us all that promised better life. You would have read many of the
representations on behalf of the GCTCA in the media. More about this and other issues taken up by
the GCTCA will be found on our website www.gctca.org.za. There is a shortage of LP Gas, yet government
policy allows exports to our neighbouring countries. The GCTCA has been applying its mind to this
issue for some time and today one of our executive committee members, Mr David
Lipschitz will be presenting a talk on the energy crises. We could all be saved a lot of anxiety and
our economy could be energised if only the authorities would listen and take
heed of sound advice. But more on that
form our speaker later.
THE CAPE TOWN STADIUM
It
has always been the position of the GCTCA that the building of the Cape Town
Stadium in Green Point was a bad decision.
The local ratepayers raised concerns, which were ignored or just
explained away. Good information about experiences of other countries were
ignored and at the behest of the ultimate usurper, we bowed down at the altar
of civic management madness and political correctness.
The
latest fiasco with the Cape Town Soccer Cup 2015, proved the point that this
was an ill-advised development. Voices
have gone up for the demolition of this white elephant, which is costing the
ratepayers of Cape Town over R60m a
year to maintain. The GCTCA supports that view and we wish common sense would
prevail. The feeble efforts to turn this monstrosity into something useful has
been singularly disastrous and the time has come for the City to make take the
plunge and do what is right by the ratepayers.
TAKING THE PLUNGE – SEWERAGE IN THE
OCEAN
We
expressed concern about the negative impact of the sewerage outfall into the
ocean along our beautiful coast. Media reports have indicated, “some 786
million litres of polluted water was being discharged into the sea daily”. This is shocking and the City, now having
been shown the folly of its ways, is in the process of applying for permits to
keep on doing what environmentalists consider being an outrage. Human beings have suffered the effects of
this pollution as well as marine life.
The
GCTCA engaged the national government on this matter. We believe the City of Cape Town is taking
an arrogant stance on this matter as Len Swimmer, our first Deputy chairman
said:
“ with the Mayoral Committee Member for Utility
Services,
Cllr Ernest Sonnenberg, displaying a
self-satisfied attitude believing
that the City could not be doing anything
wrong.
On
25 June 2015 Sonnenberg said that the City intends continuing
to
use their outfalls for the next 20 years and that there is no land
available
to do anything else – there is no intention whatsoever
to
even consider proper treatment plants for sewage”.
The GCTCA again, makes a call on the
City to consider more efficient and environmentally safe ways of dealing with
sewerage. We urge the City to explore
alternative technologies.
DENSIFICATION
We
live in an inefficient and unequal city.
Poorer workers live far from their places of employment and the
distribution of income is also not equal.
The
GCTCA invested some energy in the question of densification. We seem to be at
odds with the City about its densification policies.
Urban
sprawl, and the need to encroach on sensitive land could be obviated if more
attention is given to development of higher density housing closer to transport
routes. Our position is that densification should take place next to railway
routes, taxi routes and bus transport routes and not in already overcrowded
sub-economic housing estates. The
obvious advantage in our model is the saving in travelling time and travelling
cost to get to work as well as the reduction of congestion on our roads.
LIQUOR OUTLETS AND ALCOHOL ABUSE.
The GCTCA made various representations and alerted
communities to the developments regarding liquor policy. Alcohol abuse has been a scourge in the
majority of our communities. A recent
report by government indicates that “Statistics on
the liquor industry relating to manufacturers and distributors showed that
there were 35 distributors in 2003
and currently there were over 2 000
licensees. The total recorded alcohol per capita consumption in liters of
pure alcohol for the Southern African Development Community (SADC) countries
showed South Africa had the second highest consumption at 27.1 litres alcohol
per capita. South Africa had one of the riskiest drinking patterns in the world
and ranked in the top five. South Africans drink, on average, 53% more than the
rest of Africa. Alcohol was the third
leading cause of premature death and disability in South Africa.
Tangible financial costs of harmful alcohol use alone were equivalent to 1.6%
of the Gross Domestic Product (GDP). South Africa was also a global leader in
terms of alcohol related harms, with 10 times the global average for male
homicides and twice the global average for road injury deaths.
While the national Government is adhering to the WHO
recommendations to restrict the easy access to liquor, especially in vulnerable
communities, the Western Cape Government seems hell-bent to oppose the
restriction that liquor
premises to be located at least 500 meters away from schools, places of
worship, recreation facilities, and rehabilitation centres, residential areas
and public institutions.
The
GCTCA will keep up the fight to eradictae shebeening in residentail areas.
THANKS AND APPRECIATION
I
acknowledge the support of members of the Executive Committee, who attended our
monthly meetings regularly. Thank you
for taking up issues in the interest of our communities.
We
thank LOFOB for making its facilities available for our meetings.
We
thank the media for taking on our issues and giving us voice.
It
is my wish that the new committee would continue the good work started and
especially show a brave face under the circumstances where community activism
is under attack.
SAY SOMETHING AND DO
SOMETHING!
PHILIP BAM
CHAIRMAN
15 August 2015.
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