AS alarm bells go, there hasn't been such a commotion since that ding-dong at the cathedral with Quasimodo and Esmerelda. We are, of course, referring to Cape Town mayor Patricia de Lille's prima donna performance in response to criticism of the city's recent potentially disastrous and possibly criminal planning decisions.
Opposition to proposals to amend the urban edge of the Philippi Horticultural Area - the city's veggie basket - to make way for residential development is growing hand over fist. Agricultural bodies, academics and various other civic groups have all argued that prime agricultural land should not make way for housing.
The Philippi brouhaha is but one conflict in a much broader battle the city will face as it gears up to roll out its Spacial Development Framework, the blueprint that will see the Peninsula buried under a three-storey carpet of concrete. Concerns that neighbourhoods will be irreparably damaged are not without foundation, yet little is done to allay such fears.
When the draft proposals to "streamline the system of delegations that relate to planning of the city" were unveiled, ratepayers' organisations pointed out that the envisaged changes all but stripped them of their rights to object to projects that didn't comply with zoning laws. They were dismissed as being stupid. As councillor Garreth Bloor, responsible for economic, environmental and spatial planning, put it, "There is a general lack of understanding of the matter."
With such an attitude, it's unsurprising that De Lille has been accused of being intolerant and dictatorial. She responded by having a cow. There was shoddy journalism afoot, she fumed in her weekly newsletter. And, given that this was conveniently around the "time of National Women's Day", a great deal of sexism, too; "nameless cowards" were reducing her to "some kind of stereotype".
Speaking of which, the cliches about protesting too much and there being no smoke without fire did come to mind. But, not to be outdone in the stereotype department, the mayor offered up a few of her own.