STATEMENT BY BRETT HERRON
GOOD MEMBER OF THE WESTERN CAPE PROVINCIAL PARLIAMENT & GOOD SECRETARY-GENERAL
25 October 2019
The Standing Committee on Environmental Affairs and Development Planning, Parliament of the Western Cape, considered the department’s 2018/19 annual report yesterday, 25 October 2019.
The Standing Committee on Public Accounts (SCOPA) then considered the Auditor-General’s audit outcomes and findings.
We congratulate the Department on achieving their third consecutive clean audit.
A clean audit confirms that the department conducted its operations within the letter of the law, but it does not demonstrate whether it is making a material difference in the lives of the people it serves.
Today I raised my concern about the Department’s implementation of its mandate which is to “Enable a resilient, sustainable, quality and inclusive living environment”.
This mandate has not been explicitly included within the Department’s annual plan and strategic objectives – in particular there is no reference as to how an “inclusive living environment” has been interpreted or will be implemented by the Department.
The absence of any direct strategic objective, especially within the Development Planning unit, means that there is no political will to address the apartheid spatial legacy in our province’s towns and cities.
The Provincial Department of Development Planning must undo the continued exclusionary environments of our towns and cities. Their mandate required it and their objectives need to reflect that mandate.
Our City and towns were designed to relegate people of colour to the periphery – literally and figuratively.
That urban form has not changed. Everyday those communities endure the social consequences; of long commutes, crime, gangsterism and drugs; that this planning legacy entrenches.
GOOD calls on the Department to include this mandate as an explicit strategic objective. Its absence is surprising and disappointing.
I will continue to champion a much clearer commitment to addressing the apartheid spatial legacy of our towns and city.
The clean audit is great – but it hasn’t changed the shape of our towns and city nor the lived reality of exclusion of the people we serve.
Ends…