DA must stop all vanity projects now

25 July 2016

The ANC views with serious concern actions by the DA-run Western Cape government (WCG) to continue the legacy of apartheid through its spatial planning. Of more alarming concern is that this is done under cover through lies, corruption and mostly ignoring conflicts of interest thereby compromising good governance principles.

Recent revelations exposed suspicious relationships within the WCG that are nothing short of corrupt. They have exposed the WCG using one Gary Fisher variously as an senior employee, advisor and consultant whilst he is part of Capitalgro, a private property company that operates in the areas in which he is advising the WCG. This conflict of interest not only creates a corrupt relationship but impacts on the poor citizens of this province. It does this in the following ways:

- Fisher advised the WCG to sell off public land which was earmarked for affordable housing to private developers. This will have the effected to reinforcing the apartheid geography in Cape Town.

- Fisher developed the Expression of Interest (EOI) documents to prepare this public land for private sale while at the same time using this confidential information to buy two properties through Capitalgro across the road from Tafelberg. He did this knowing that should Tafelberg be sold to private developers the property valuation in that area is likely to rise. This is tantamount to insider trading.

- Fisher continues to be employed by the Province to develop the old Conradie Hospital site far from the City centre and continues to promote apartheid spatial planning.

To date both DA premier Helen Zille and Fisher have refused to publicly divulge his conflict of interest declaration although Fisher has publicly stated that it is Zille’s prerogative to do so. Zille subsequently alluded to a possible conflict, but did not give the detail. The public is entitled to such information in the interest of transparent and clean governance.

Zille has also refused to release information on how the WCG arrived at a decision that the Tafelberg site and others earmarked for sale were ‘surplus to requirements’.

Also of concern is that by taking advice from a private white consultant with serious conflicts of interest, Zille ignores the advice of her own senior black civil servants who made a strong case for affordable housing. In a March 2013 letter human settlements head Mbulelo Tshangana wrote:

“Very limited opportunities exist for persons in the income bracket R1 500 to R7 500 to own property anywhere close to the city centre, where they may work or go to school. If ownership is a distant possibility for many Capetonians, it critically highlights the need for government to develop affordable, higher-density rental housing opportunities in this area… Cape Town is one of the most segregated cities in the world. With this in mind, land cost is so significant in the province that we could not afford to purchase market-related land that offered even slightly similar opportunities to this one. Were these portions of land to be disposed of, the opportunity cost for integration within the borders of the city could potentially be lost to us forever.”

Zille ignores not only her senior civil servants but also disregards the poor communities of the Cape. Even in the Bo-Kaap the DA run city council continues to dispose of valuable land to private developers at the expense of local communities.

This week’s revelations are even more astounding by revealing the lies that this WCG peddles. The DA, in its defence of the sale of Tafelberg School, claimed that by selling the site to the Phyllis Jowell Jewish Day School for R135 million they would use the proceeds of this sale to fund low cost housing in various areas of Cape Town. Now incontestable evidence proves that this money and monies from the sale of other public assets is to be used to fund the shortfall on a new R540 million provincial office project for the Western Cape Education Department in Dorp Street in Cape Town through a public-private partnership. Here again the DA puts private interests and vanity-projects before the interests of the people of the Western Cape.

We unequivocally condemn these racist, corrupt activities by the DA and demands:

- A moratorium on the sale of all city and WCG land so that proper public consultation ensues prior to these sites being declared surplus to requirements. Affordable housing within these sites must be given priority.

- The sale of Tafelberg School is immediately cancelled and a plan put in place for affordable housing.

-  That the DA releases Fisher’s declaration of interests and immediately suspends his involvement in any public project because of conflicts of interest.

- The Dorp Street building project be suspended and the terms of this public-private partnership made public. Other alternatives must be investigated as to this costly vanity project.

Issued by Faiez Jacobs, ANC provincial secretary, 25 July 2016