The City shows its racist side at switching on of lights

7 December 2015

The City of Cape Town has shown its racist agenda of excluding poor black communities. The free concert was anything but free, as it is only accessible to those who have the money to get to pay for the public transport, to get to town to see the lights being switched on. The City then arranges free transport to get you home, given that they have already managed to exclude the really poor, by making the ability to buy a train ticket the criteria to get access to town to the concert.

This is the same skewed logic that is used by the other Cape institutions like the Cable Way and the Aquarium that gives discounted or free tickets at certain times of the year. These tickets are really only for those who can afford the tickets in the first place, much like the children of adults who buy tickets can get free entry. This is the logic that is applied by this City and its associated institutions that are controlled by white interest, to exclude poor citizens of the City.

The poor gets nothing free from the City that is not prescribed in some law Nationally, otherwise it is just a gimmick to deceive the really poor, who are excluded. The Mayor must answer to this discrimination that she subjects the people of the Cape Flats to, since she is the praise singer of the wealthy from Camps Bay. Cosatu will report this matter to the Public Protector to get the City to stop giving freebies in a manner that excludes the poorest with a great con trick.  

Issued by Tony Ehrenreich, COSATU Western Cape Provincial Secretary, 7 December 2015