Dear Editor
This winter has been particularly miserable for residents of the Cape Flats who have suffered unprecedented flooding, blocked drains and sewers, potholes and infrastructure collapse.
Even usually manicured suburbs were affected by uncleared wastewater systems this rainy season.
The reason it’s been so bad is evidently that the City of Cape Town didn’t have a real annual winter readiness plan this year. It only pretended to have one.
In March, the City announced: “To help mitigate the loss of property and even lives, the City of Cape Town has released its annual winter preparedness programme for 2021. In particular, this year the programme is focusing on the maintenance of the City’s stormwater system, such as the cleaning of gullies, catchpits, pipes and ponds.”
It sounded good, but no plan was actually released because none exists. All my efforts to find it, including a PAIA application to the City, have failed. One can only conclude that the City’s “release” of the programme was pure theatre, a charade.
What we do know for a fact is that the City’s labour-intensive stormwater clearing contract lapsed last year and, according to sub-council reports we have seen, the winter readiness programme could not be implemented due to “implementation constraints”.
Gullies, catchpits, pipes, ponds and stormwater drains cleared each autumn for many, many years were not cleared this year.
The flooding communities have experienced as a consequence is not a mild inconvenience. I have visited homes flooded to their window sills and seen many residents forced to use stepping stones to get from their gates to front doors, and then through their homes. In some areas, ill-maintained sewerage infrastructure adds to the flooding crisis.
When the rains stop, the standing water poses serious health risks.
In July, my efforts to consult the City’s readiness plan online came to naught. As a former Cape Town Mayco member, it’s not like I had no idea where to look.
In the normal course of events, I’d ask the City for the document through a question submitted to the provincial legislature, but because the City has taken to declining to respond to any GOOD questions I launched a PAIA application for the readiness document.
Two months later, this week, a deputy information officer at the City, a Mr or Ms A Mngqinya, responded to say the application had been refused on a technicality.
The line department responsible for the document had not submitted it to him within the prescribed period, he said, so he had been unable to consider the document in the context of my application.
But I was not to worry, Mr/Ms Mngqinya reassured me: “It is my understanding that the line department is still attending to the request.”
If the City had a winter readiness plan, it makes no sense to hide it. The only plausible conclusion is that the City lied about it.
The City should account for deceiving residents and neglecting its functions.
Regards
Brett Herron
GOOD City of Cape Town Mayoral Candidate
