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Available on the Cape Town Red City Tour and Blue Mini Peninsula Tour, The Two Oceans Aquarium and The Clock Tower on the V&A Waterfront is a definite must for every tourist. › Explore over 3000 marine creatures › Enjoy a sensory experience at the Kelp Forest and the Touch Pool › Let the kids learn while they play at the AfriSam Children’s Play Centre › Visit a symbol of Cape Town’s sea-faring history, The Clock Tower › Take a look at the view from inside the Clock Tower › Evoke your mind with images of early harbour activities For more information visit www.citysightseeing.co.za and www.citysightseeing.co.za
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Cape Town, known as South Africa’s Mother City, has been continuously inhabited for three and a half centuries. It is a relaxed city and the emphasis is very much on an outdoor lifestyle. Although an old city, Cape Town is world class and ultra modern. It is a shopper’s paradise and visitors feel completely at home in malls like Canal Walk or the stylish Cavendish Square. And a shopping and eating experience all on it’s own is Cape Town’s Victoria and Alfred Waterfront. The City is surrounded by beaches – all the way from Clifton and Camps Bay on the Atlantic side to Muizenberg, St. James and Fish Hoek along the False Bay Coast. And there is no better view of the city than from the top of Table Mountain, a quick and easy cable car ride away. Cape Town boasts a bustling nightlife – some of the popular spots are Long Street, Green Point, Sea Point and the ever-popular Waterkant Village. All offering bars, clubs, night spot and of course a wide selection of top class restaurants. Cape Town is rich in history and culture and just a short drive out of the city are the Cape Winelands – where you can visit world famous and award winning vineyards. Cape Town is the kind of City where no matter how long you plan to stay and how much you get to do, you will always have a reason to come back for more.
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The only way to explore Cape Town in one go! Forget which side of the road is the right one, dont bother with street names… just rise above it all and enjoy the best view of the City from our open top bus. For a 360 degree experience of Cape Town, this is the ONLY way to tour the Cape, as coined by one of our satisfied guests… Follow us on: www.facebook.com www.twitter.com www.flickr.com

It is essential that everyone is clear that although the poor are constantly presented as violence, especially the organised poor, it is in fact that state that is violent. It is the state that invades and destroys people’s homes and attacks anyone that resists.

Late today the City of Cape Town issued a statement condemning people who are occupying land (they call it ‘invading land). They claim that ‘land invasions impact on the City’s ability to address the housing backlog and serve the people of Cape Town’. Once again the positive actions of poor people to improve their lives and do something about their situation are presented as anti-social and criminal. We all know that the housing backlog would remain unaddressed if all land occupations stopped tomorrow.

Last week the city of Cape Town launched its IDP. At the media briefing it acknowledge that it will take the City many, many years to address shortage of housing within Cape Town. A politics of patience will cause us to die in the shacks and backyards. We know it and the City know it. And yet they are willing to send our armed men to intimidate us and beat us into accepting a system that oppresses us and which offers us no hope of decent housing in our lifetimes.

Abahlali baseMjondolo of the Western Cape condemns the City of Cape Town’s actions against land occupiers in the strongest possible terms. You cannot wage war on the poor and then say that you want to negotiate with us. If you are serious about negotiations then you must renounce violence and issue a moratorium on all evictions.

For the City of Cape Town to condemn people who occupy land is for the City of Cape Town to condemning the poor. They are criminalising poverty. It is domination and exclusion that should be called into question. The commodification of land and excessive wealth should be called into question. The struggles and survival strategies of the poor should be actively supported.

It is the responsibility of the City of Cape Town, like any other city, to provide houses to the poor. All progressive cities recognise that land occupations have an important social function. For as long as people do not have houses it is essential that the occupation of unused land must be supported by the City.

We would like to dismiss the claims by the City of Cape Town that people who occupy land they want to jump the housing waiting list. The same thing is said all over South Africa. In most places the housing list is a fiction. It does not exist and is just a lie that is told to keep the poor in order. In Cape Town the housing waiting list that they talk about is totally disfunctional. It has been used a political tool by the City of Cape Town to incite division between poor people, and amongst Africans and coloureds.

We call on the City of Cape Town to support all efforts by poor people to move this city forward by respecting and supporting people centered processes such creating communities from below. We insist that the City of Cape Town stop initiating war against the poor. There must be no more Hangbergs, no more Taflesigs and no more Symphony Ways.

We call on the City of Cape Town to provide all relevant basic services to those who build their own structures on unused land. Furthermore the city must also provide technical support to people who occupy the land by working with the communities to ensure that people do not build close too each other and that enough space is left for emergency vehicles such as fire fighters and ambulances. This will also ensures that it becomes much easier for the city to upgrade the area at a later stage.

Land occupations are not the crisis in Cape Town. The crisis is poverty, homelessness, exclusion, state violence and TRAs. Land occupations can be a small part of the solution to this crisis.

Now that the City of Cape Town has admitted that they cannot house the people of Cape Town they have no right to stop us from occupying land housing ourselves.

Our invitation to the Mayor to work with us in establishing democratic people’s forums at the community level remains open. These forums need to be neutral in terms of party politics and not dominated by any political parties as remains the case with all relevant structures set by City of Cape Town such as ward development forums. They need to be bottom up and not top down spaces.

Abahlali baseMjondolo of the Western Cape

During the course of 2009, a total of 3 780 individual informal dwelling units out of approximately 84 000 were affected by fires.

The causes of the fires vary from the illegal use of electricity to malfunctioning heating and cooking devices. Isolated cases of arson have also been recorded.

“If one takes into context the number of dwelling units affected in 2005, which was recorded at 8 864, then the City has gone a long way to reducing this by more than half over the last four years, and we will strive to reduce it even further over the years to come,” says Ian Schnetler, Chief Fire Officer for the City.

To educate people about the dangers of fires, the City’s Disaster Risk Management Department distributes awareness pamphlets to informal settlement areas prior to and during the fire season. This campaign works in tandem with an appeal to employers of people who might live in informal settlements to help spread the awareness message. “Such people can make a big difference in a small way. By taking five minutes to discuss fires and the dangers thereof with their employees, they might just save a life,” says Schnetler.

In an attempt to improve the City’s fire fighting ability in informal settlements and to alleviate the effect of densification in these areas, which make it difficult for Fire Services to access fires in the fastest possible time, seven new fire engines (with 4 x 4 capabilities) were acquired late last year. These have been specifically designed to assist fire fighters in mountainous and informal settlement areas. Disaster Risk Management staff are carrying out pro-active inspections of informal and other areas to recognise risk areas and pre-plan effectively.

The City has repeatedly appealed to members of the public to be careful of starting fires, to be vigilant and to report fires if they spot them. “Many people are reluctant to report fires because they think that someone else has done so. The faster a fire is reported, the faster the City can respond,” says Schnetler.

There are also prohibitions in place on the making of fires in the open air across the Western Cape, due to extraordinary fire hazards. This includes the burning of rubbish or any other material for purposes of disposal – this action is illegal.

Fires can occur anywhere – in informal settlements and in formal structures. To reduce the risk of fires, please note and apply the following tips:

• *Every home needs at least one exit route which will enable the occupants to escape should a fire break out
• Keep matches, lighters, paraffin and poisons in a safe place that is not accessible to children
• Keep stoves on a flat surface, away from draughts and anything that could catch fire
• Open fires and stoves should never be left unattended
• Extinguish candles and paraffin lamps before you go to sleep or leave your home
• Smoking in bed is dangerous
• Keep a bucket of water and a bucket of sand ready to extinguish any fires that break out
• If a paraffin stove catches alight, extinguish the flames with sand rather than water
• Turn off the electricity at the mains before trying to extinguish an electric fire

This year’s Suidoosterfees festival takes place at Artscape from 26-31 January.

“This is the fifth year of City involvement and sponsorship of the festival. It started off very small, but the extent of the City’s contribution has been escalating and in the last two years has become formalised, in terms of cash and services,” said Fritz Marx, Manager: Protocol & Events: Executive Mayor’s Office.

Marx said the City has made a cash contribution of R500 000 from its arts and culture grant-in-aid programme.

“The Executive Mayor’s Office has also budgeted an additional R300 000 for the printing of posters, pamphlets, the programme booklet, street flags, and services such as traffic, waste removal, and cleansing that are all linked to the festival.

“The rationale for the City’s contribution is that this is an inner city festival – there are not a lot of them around – and it has rejuvenated and created an economic incentive for this part of city. Also, it’s a very diverse festival – from performing arts to film to music to serious theatre. It promotes local talent.”

Marx said the opening ball of the festival is named the Mayor’s Ball, in recognition of the City’s role as one of the title sponsors.

Suidoosterfees marketing manager Irmgardt Bonze said the City is “very broadly involved” in not just funding, but also logistics, and helps make the festival happen.

She added that the festival planning is on track, and that they are “ready to go”.

The festival started in 2003. It is now a registered non-profit organisation, and has established itself as an annual event on the country’s arts and culture calendar.

The festival aims to celebrate and develop Western Cape Afrikaans culture and heritage, as well as encourage social diversity and national unity through Afrikaans. Its mission is to be affordable, accessible, and include all race, class, language, religious and age groups.

Ticket prices are kept below R100, but the festival still attracts artists of an international standard.

Dr Niel le Roux, CEO: Die Burger Suidoosterfees, said he is proud of this.

Part of the festival’s outreach includes bringing in farm workers and local gospel and choir groups from across the province.

It also seeks to offer opportunities to develop and nurture young and up-coming artists, and enables them to premiere new works.

The festival has grown remarkably since its inception, with attendance of nearly 20 000 people and ticket sales exceeding R500 000.

The festival features a line-up of entertainment including jazz, classical music, gospel music, theatre, comedy, films, visual arts, books and children’s entertainment.

Well-known stars such as David Kramer, Lira, Sandra Prinsloo, Amanda Strydom, Nomfusi, Alistair Izobell, Neels van Jaarsveld, Gary Naidoo and 7de laan stars, Vinette Ebrahim, Theodore Jantjies, Zane Meas, Christo Davids and Terence Bridgett, to name a few will perform.

For more information: http://www.suidoosterfees.co.za

Martin Pollack

Civic Honours, which date back 50 years, are annual awards that the City confers to acknowledge individuals, organisations and military units that have distinguished themselves through extraordinary acts of service, or outstanding contributions to their community and Cape Town.

They were discontinued in 2000, after the amalgamation of Cape Town’s seven smaller municipalities into a single ‘unicity’, and revived six years later to recognise Capetonians who excel in discharging the responsibilities inherent in being a South African citizen. Such people perform outstandingly in upholding the rights of others, serving others above themselves or contributing to nation building through outstanding service and achievements.

The awards are conferred in term of the City’s Civic Honours Policy, which was adopted by Council on 3 December 2008. The policy identifies the following main categories for awards:

Freedom of the City

This award is bestowed on individuals, military units or organisations that have distinguished themselves by their heroic service. There are three living Freemen of the City: State President and Nobel Laureate, Nelson Mandela, Nobel Laureate, Archbishop Emeritus Desmond Tutu, and former UWC Chancellor Dr Richard Van Der Ross.

Signing of the Civic Honours Book

The signing of the Civic Honours Book is an invitation to sign or inscribe one’s name against a citation of his/her achievement in the “Civic Honours Book”. This book is kept by the City for future generations to remember Cape Town’s great citizens.

Freedom of Entry into the City

The Freedom of Entry into the City is given to military units to recognise outstanding service given to their country and city. Military units that receive this honour may march through the streets of Cape Town on all ceremonial and other occasions “with swords drawn, bayonets fixed, drums beating and colours flying”.

The Mayor’s Medal

This prestigious award acknowledges outstanding contributions that are voluntarily made by individuals or associations in a number of different fields: community affairs, social affairs and services, cultural affairs, youth affairs, recreation and sport, conservation, economic affairs and extraordinary bravery.

A Civic Honour may be conferred on a living person or in memory of a deceased person. All nominations must be in writing, must indicate the honour to be bestowed and include adequate motivation.

Please submit your nomination to the Office of the Executive Mayor, Private Bag X9181, Cape Town, 8000 or e-mail Levona.Africa[at]capetown.gov.za on or before Friday 19 February 2010. A copy of the policy may be obtained by dialling 021 400 5841.

Martin Pollack

A combination of high temperatures and strong winds increases the chances of fires over this period, particularly in informal settlements, where residents often lack electricity and use primus stoves, wood fires, candles and paraffin lights.

The City’s Disaster Risk Management Centre has stepped up its annual Risk Reduction Campaign, which raises awareness of the dangers of fires and how to manage these, especially in informal settlements.

The City has trained 114 seasonal firefighters to join its 800 full-time firefighters at its 28 municipal fire stations over the summer season. They will be used to combat bush and grass fires and will be assigned to district and divisional fire stations in teams of 20.

Seven new fire engines have also been acquired over the past year.

The Fire and Rescue Service has also carried out proactive inspections on high-risk areas such as mountains and the urban fringe, to ensure that fire breaks have been made or maintained.

Chief Fire Officer Ian Schnetler points out that fires occur throughout the year, and the Fire and Rescue Service is geared to deal with fires at any time.

“What is misconstrued as the ‘fire season’ is in fact the summer season of the Western Cape, where there may be a higher risk of vegetation type fires due to climate change, higher temperatures and increased wind speeds, with the possible higher influx of people into the rural and informal areas of the city.”

Schnetler said a high number of fires occur during the latter quarter of January, and in February and March, so comparisons to the numbers of fires during the whole of the summer season can only be made in a few months time.

“The comparisons for this year and December are generally lower, except for the trauma and medical incident rates, which are steadily increasing.”

According to Schnetler, there have already been 73 deaths as a result of informal settlement and formal dwelling unit fires during this year. The majority of these have not been in major conflagrations, but in smaller single dwelling unit fires.

To date, 3 775 individual informal dwelling units have been affected by fires. These range from units in informal settlements, to informal units in the backyards of formal dwellings.

“For the December period, we had fewer vegetation fires, which can be attributed to the late rains and the weather, as well as deployments of our fire patrols and our awareness campaigns, which may be having an impact.”

Schnetler appealed to members of the public to be careful of starting fires, and be vigilant and report fires if they spot them.

“The bottom line is for people just to be sensible where they can with regards to fires, and to report them immediately if they are seen. There is a general tendency when people see fires to think that someone else has reported it, but if they report it quickly, it means we can respond quickly.”

There are also prohibitions in place on the making of fires in the open air across the Western Cape due to the area’s extraordinary fire hazards.

This includes the burning of rubbish or any other material for disposal purposes – this action is illegal

The only exceptions are for fires made within a demarcated picnic or camping area, or caravan park or holiday resort, provided these fires are properly attended to; and fires made for the purpose of preparing food or any other domestic or customary purpose in townships or residential areas. Prior approval must be obtained in writing from the relevant authorities for all other fires.

Report fires to the Emergency Call Centre: 107 from a landline and 021 480 7700 from a cellphone, and provide accurate detail of the address of the fire.

Tips on how to reduce the risk of fires:

• Every home needs at least one exit route which will enable the occupants to escape should a fire break out
• Keep matches, lighters, paraffin and poisons in a safe place that is not accessible to children.
• Keep stoves on a flat surface, away from draughts and anything that could catch fire
• Open fires and stoves should never be left unattended
• Extinguish candles and paraffin lamps before you go to sleep or leave your home
• Smoking in bed is dangerous
• Keep a bucket of water and a bucket of sand ready to extinguish any fires that break out
• If a paraffin stove catches alight, extinguish the flames with sand rather than water
• Turn off the electricity at the mains before trying to extinguish an electric fire
• Use water to extinguish wood, paper and material fires
• Warn people inside the building to escape as quickly as possible
• Help people get out – then stay out
• Keep roads clear so that fire engines can get to the fire quickly
• Keep the area around fire hydrants clear so that firefighters can access the water they need to extinguish the fire
• Call emergency services on 107 on a Telkom line and 021 480 7700 from a cellphone and get help fast! The sooner you phone, the sooner help will arrive
• When you phone, provide a full address and a landmark (shop or school) close to the fire so that fire-fighters can find the fire scene quickly
• Know and show the City’s emergency numbers and teach children how to dial them in emergencies

Martin Pollack

“The revised Integrated Metropolitan Environmental Policy (IMEP), now called the City Environmental Agenda (currently in draft format), puts resource management and sustainability at the core of all the City’s activities,” says Osman Asmal (director, ERM) in his message to enviroWORKS readers.

“The City Environmental Agenda now builds on the progress made by the first IMEP (Integrated Metropolitan Environmental Policy) by stepping up the City’s environmental commitment from mere principles to specific measurable environmental targets and goals.”

enviroWORKS is the City’s environmental newsletter, and includes news, information and stories about environmental and sustainability projects and policies throughout the metro areas – from water services, education and climate change to transport, biodiversity, nature reserves and urban planning.

The June 2009 issue looks at (among other things) a schools’ project to audit energy and water use; local companies that are working together to change the way in which they use the earth’s resources; new threats to endangered species in the Western Cape; and improved conditions for bicycle commuters.

To download a copy of EnviroWORKS, visit ‘Publications’ and ‘Brochures and Booklets’.

Martin Pollack