CAPE TOWN BUDGET: Cape Town’s ‘pro-poor’ budget is pro-rich, say opposition parties By Tessa Knight
Allegations of racism and the neglect of Cape Town’s poor were thrown across the room during the City of Cape Town’s Special Council Meeting on 29 May 2019. After nearly three hours, the new budget was passed with 139 voting in favour, 50 voting against and four abstentions.
The ANC’s Fiona Abrahams spoke about “an equal budget for unequal communities”. She was commenting on the new budget’s allocation of R1-million to every ward, up from last year’s R850,000. Along with funding for the wards, opposition parties argued for an increase in security. Plato said the City had budgeted for the deployment of one dedicated law enforcement officer for every ward.
Providing residents with inner-city land and affordable housing has been a thorn in the side of the DA-led City, with activist groups such as Reclaim the City campaigning against the sale of state-owned land to private developers. The group has repeatedly claimed that the City of Cape Town perpetuatesby not providing low-cost inner-city housing to people who were forced to the outskirts of town during apartheid.
During the budget meeting, the ANC’s Banele Majingo said the DA was continuing to perpetuate a system of spatial planning that put the poor at a disadvantage. He challenged JP Smith, mayoral committee member for safety and security, to walk around poor communities and check if the CCTV cameras worked. Smith responded that “they all work, stop peddling the same lame lies”.
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