Cape Town’s salary budget covers up more than it reveals
1 June 2021
When the City of Cape Town’s mandarins produce their annual budget for public comment to draw attention to their commendable openness, transparency, and devotion to the interests of the ratepayers – the glow of self-congratulation is almost tangible.
For that reason, it is odd that so few citizens took up the offer – only two thousand of them out of a city population of four million. While some complained that the time given for public scrutiny was too short, even when extra time was given it made little difference.
Can Capetonians be so trusting of their municipal servants that they are willing to let them get on with it?
Is the principle of “If it isn’t bust, don’t fiddle with it” being applied by everyone? Are all ratepayers happy to see the cost of living in the Mother City rising every year, while potholes remain unfilled, or 100-year-old steel lampposts in heritage areas being replaced with gum poles, and these not even installed vertically?