December 5th, 2016  Every day, the famous Camps Bay region in Cape Town, South Africa, is discharging million of litres of untreated waste-water into our marine reserve. This is creating some serious and growing problems, for the vulnerable sea-life, for us water-users and soon for beach-goers too.
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November 23rd, 2016  Never before has the need for civil society vigilance been greater than in this interesting times we live in. We have a constitutional democracy. But what does it mean when the democratic space in local government is fast shrinking and it appears that there has been “state capture” at our local government level.
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November 21st, 2016  Destroying our natural environment and replacing it with concrete jungles, in my estimation at least, can in no way be called progressive development. The cosy relationship between our local government structures and the Western Cape Developers Forum, where red carpet treatment ensures the big developers easy passage to encroach on the urban edge, where zoning rules are amended to allow more units for profit and where the seemingly insatiable mammonic greed is fed.
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November 14th, 2016  I am concerned that the City wants to cover up its wastage, and protect themselves from the blame of misspending. It’s going to be difficult to make the stadium commercially viable, and at the end of the day, the ratepayers will still foot the bill no matter how you look at it.
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September 2nd, 2016  Bam said civic organisations were fair in their criticism of the city’s public participation process. “There’s nothing in the participation process that the voice of the community is determinative. Until such time, the city and the government will continue to walk over people.”
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August 31st, 2016  There have been numerous complaints in the media concerning the illegal building of cell masts in Cape Town. In some instances it has been reported that masts were built without required plans and instances of masts having been built before the plans had been submitted for approval were also reported.
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August 26th, 2016  Homeowners have inundated the Greater Cape Town Civic Alliance (GCTCA), an umbrella body which oversees residents’ associations in Cape Town, with complaints about the value of their properties increasing, according to GCTCA chairperson Philip Bam.
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August 16th, 2016  Municipal councillors’ mandates are naturally directed by their political party philosophy and specific policies. But there is an overarching mandate for all local authorities, namely the constitutional mandate. Local government is the only sphere of South African government for which the country’s constitution stipulates a specific mandate.
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August 11th, 2016 Allow me to congratulate all those political parties who participated in the local government elections. Some put their hands up for the first time, others tried again to ensure that the marginalized people have a voice. To those who did not succeed,try again.
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August 2nd, 2016  Ndifuna Ukwazi welcomes the Western Cape Provincial Cabinet’s decision to consider affordable housing on the Tafelberg site. A Provincial Cabinet resolution today calls for a “financial model” to be secured for the development of social housing on the site.
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June 21st, 2016 It has been over a year since the City of Cape Town asked for comments from the public as part of the public participation process during its permit application to be allowed to continue discharging untreated effluent into our coastal waters and MPA’s. We have had no feedback or answers to our queries and objections, nor have we been advised as to whether or not the permit was granted and if so under what conditions.
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June 7th, 2016  Civic associations accuse the City of using bullying tactics and deciding the end result before the public participation process has started, but the City says the the proposal was an ‘appropriate development mix’…
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May 31st, 2016 Civic organisations from across the city are becoming increasingly concerned at the cosy relationship between the City of Cape Town and private developers, saying inappropriate developments were being bulldozed through with objections routinely ignored.
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May 2nd, 2016  The GCTCA sincerely hopes that sanity will prevail and that political and housing development greed will not be the victor at the extreme loss of food security and very scarce water supplies, as well as jobs.
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April 17th, 2016  The Philippi farming community gives the Cape 200 000 tonnes of vegetables and flowers every year. Only 20 kilometres from the centre of town, Philippi has been Cape Town’s bread basket for nearly 2000 years. Carte Blanche asks: why are the city’s own town planners threatening its survival during one of the most devastating droughts this country has ever seen?
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April 7th, 2016  They called for an “urgent investigation” into the “irrational and unconstitutional” actions of Environmental, Planning and Development MEC Anton Bredell and mayor Patricia de Lille threatening the PHA, which is a critical food security resource.
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