GOOD Statement by Suzette Little,
GOOD Deputy Secretary-General & City of Cape Town Councillor
4 December 2025
Cape Town residents are quite literally paying the price for a procurement system that has staggered from crisis to collapse under the Democratic Alliance (DA) administration.
Month after month, tens, and in some cases hundreds, of millions of rands are awarded without competitive tender through so-called “emergency deviations”. The City’s own reports now admit what residents already know: planning has failed, maintenance has been neglected for years, and the supply chain management (SCM) system “cannot cope”.
The National Treasury issued Circular 127 in 2023 precisely to prevent this kind of systemic abuse. It is legally binding. Yet Cape Town is one of the few major metros that has failed to implement it fully, a deliberate political decision that has left the door wide open to uncompetitive, opaque, and legally questionable spending.
Recent examples put before the council tell the story:
• Two separate deviations totalling R3.09 million for collapsing sewer pipelines in Montague Gardens and Philippi, pipelines that have failed repeatedly due to deferred maintenance.
• R22.5 million for emergency work on Kloof Road, justified only after years of planning failures and expired environmental approvals.
• R4.6 million awarded to LinkedIn, without any attempt at competitive bidding, simply because the City failed to issue a tender on time.
These are not isolated incidents. Since 2021, the City has condoned deviations worth several billion rand. What was meant to be an exception under Regulation 36 has become the default procurement method.
The City Manager’s reports highlight the same failures year after year: outdated framework contracts, abandoned tenders, poor forecasting, and insufficient internal capacity. When “emergencies” occur weekly, they are no longer emergencies; they are the predictable result of chronic mismanagement.
The Auditor-General has consistently raised emphasis-of-matter findings relating to procurement weaknesses. By refusing to adopt Treasury’s corrective measures, the City is in breach of Section 217 of the Constitution, the Municipal Finance Management Act (MFMA), and its own legal obligations to deliver procurement that is fair, transparent, and cost-effective.
Cape Town has the budget, the staff, and the technical expertise to plan properly. Its failure to do so is not accidental; it is a political choice.
As the GOOD Party, we call on the City to:
- Immediately halt all non-genuine emergency deviations.
- Fully implement National Treasury Circular 127 before the end of this financial year.
- Rebuild a planning-driven SCM system that restores competitive bidding as the norm.
- Publicly disclose and account for every rand spent outside open tender since 2021.
- Prioritise and accelerate the replacement and repair of critical infrastructure before further collapses occur.
Residents deserve a city governed by law, planning, and foresight, not by shortcuts and last-minute panic. The DA can no longer hide behind the myth of “clean governance”. The procurement crisis, the sewage in our streets, and the collapse of basic infrastructure are the direct consequences of its failure to plan, its refusal to comply, and its determination to keep public spending opaque.
Cape Town has run out of patience. It is time for accountability.
Media Enquiries: media@forgood.org.za