Speech by the Executive Mayor of Cape Town, Patricia de Lille, at
the Sanitation Summit hosted by the Social Justice Coalition
15 September 2011
Honoured guests,
Ladies and gentlemen,
Good morning, goeiedag, molweni.
Since 1994, I believe that we have experienced a decline in civil society
action which has only been recently arrested. As such, I welcome these
initiatives. I believe it demonstrates the activism of people who truly care
about their communities.
Often, those bodies that make up civil society have a unique perspective
of communities and specialised knowledge.
Such understanding diversifies our knowledge sources and, through
constructive engagement, allows us to act.
Often, civil society provides an enabling tool for government in
communities and can help facilitate our work.
That very action makes civil society a stakeholder. But, inasmuch as civil
society acts as an enabler in communities, it can also act as its voice.
Civil society provides a check on government power. When it works as it
is supposed to, it can be the necessary safeguard against the abuse of
authority.
Such checks are necessary. They were sorely lacking in our history when
a regime acted with impunity.
It was this very activism that we established that helped overturn that
regime and created almost by sheer force of will the space for the people
to have a voice.
Though that force lost momentum after 1994, we have since seen it
revitalised.
That is a great benefit to our society. It is a benefit because civil society is
an integral part of our democracy.
But so too are elections. So too are electoral majorities. So too are legal
mandates.
So too are properly constituted governments.
We must not confuse our roles. We must not undermine the democratic
process by replacing the will of the people with the will of people with
unelected mandates.
When one has a vision to govern and to provide services to all, one must
present a plan of that vision to the people.
If that plan is endorsed, then it is implemented.
That is what this administration did. We had a plan to deliver better
services to people and we asked to be given the chance to do so.
This administration was elected with a historic majority.
That majority gives us the confidence to execute our mandate for all the
people of this city.
And what do we find as government?
We are confronted with the challenges of our past and our present.
South Africa has a national historical legacy of inequality. The spatial and
economic divisions we have today took decades to construct.
The misery of decades past cannot be undone overnight.
The structural problems in our society still play themselves out.
All things being equal, it will take many years to properly address
inequality and injustice.
For it is only 17 years after democracy. We cannot undo decades of
oppression in that time.
Doing all we can, it will always be a moving target.
We must always be honest with ourselves about these realities. Only by
acknowledging the truth can we govern effectively.
And we must govern for all of the people of this city.
That means addressing inequalities. Some people repeatedly claim,
against evidence, that Cape Town is the most unequal city in the country,
even the world.
As we know from numerous development sources, including the United
Nations, such claims are false.
In fact, Johannesburg, East London and eThekweni are the most unequal
with Cape Town being the most equal.
But that doesn’t matter. The repeated misinformation peddled by some
who should know better but refuse to engage in debate with integrity
doesn’t matter.
What matters is the undeniable landscape of injustice and division that
marks our metro.
This administration is committed to building a more inclusive city by
increasing opportunities.
To do that, we have a holistic view of development.
As responsible leaders, we cannot afford limited perspectives.
We cannot afford to focus on only one issue in one community.
We cannot afford to pretend that one community is more important than
another.
There is often that noise of division. For the sake of this city, we have to
rise above it.
Across every community in this city, there are multiple issues. There are
issues that are community-specific.
There are issues that are city-wide.
We have to address them all.
To do that, not everyone can be satisfied. There will be disappointments.
There always are.
But we must manage resources effectively. We must divide limited funds
across this city in the best interests of all citizens. This is our mandate
and constitutional obligation.
Our view of development does not play interests off against each other.
We know that to develop economically, we must serve the poor and vice
versa.
One of the greatest challenges is to make sure that we provide to
informal settlements.
Within our power, we are doing that. In the last financial year, we spent
R1,6 billion on informal settlements.
In the next financial year, we will spend R2,14 billion on informal
settlements.
And those are direct costs. They do not take into account indirect
spending.
That spending is through programmes that affect the whole of the city,
from safety and security to health, to transport links.
It also does not take into account a modern understanding of
infrastructure. The infrastructure we build serves all the people of this city
in different nodes.
For instance, we are spending R250,4 million on a Bellville treatment
plant.
Among other areas, that will also serve the people of Belhar.
Similarly, we are spending R217 million on a treatment facility in
Zandvliet.
Among other areas, that will also serve Khayelitsha.
Sometimes people read the budget superficially without applying a
rational view on how cities undertake integrated development.
But that does not mean that we do not see room for improvement.
In certain areas, we have oversaturated available land with services.
For instance, we have provided as much infrastructure as can be
supported on unencumbered land in Khayelitsha.
We have to think of ways to service unencumbered land, legal and
logistical challenges in themselves are ones that we are willing to face
head on in Khayelitsha and other areas of the city.
Similarly, we provide maximum services in certain areas but we know
that there is room for improvement in terms of maintenance.
As I have explained in my two bilateral engagements with the SJC
leadership, we have a plan for delivery including maintenance but we
require local collaboration facilitated by the City and community
organisations to give them meaning.
We are trying to address those issues, but we need the help of
community organisations, which is where I see the value in this summit.
We need information on how we can improve our levels of service.
But we also need partners who can help us educate communities.
Government can do so much to help people but we also need people to
know how to help themselves.
Time and again in communities, we install certain services and then those
services are either destroyed or neglected.
People must learn to take advantage of opportunities provided by
government. But they must also have the space to provide opportunities
for themselves.
Some areas receive more media attention than others.
One can walk around many communities in this city and see where the
City can do more.
But we need the help of organisations in communities to allow us to do
our job.
This summit and its resolutions will act as a key part of our engagements
in soliciting this help.
There is a process for engaging with the elected mandate of this city by
applying community-specific expertise.
For instance, the resolutions of this summit will be most helpful as part of
our engagement for the Integrated Development Plan (IDP).
We have translated our electoral mandate into an organisational strategy
for delivery in this city.
We will soon be taking our plan to the public as part of a broader process
of smart engagement.
Once we have received inputs on our strategy, we will adopt our plan for
sustainable development.
I encourage you to make your voices heard in that process, to present
your resolutions in those area forums where they are most relevant.
There is an incredible opportunity for civil society to add value by
engaging with the elected leaders of this city.
By adding that value, we can improve people’s lives. We will be able to
bring together the holistic vision of this city with the specific concerns of
certain areas.
In so doing, we will be able to build a more inclusive city together.