On Saturday I responded to a call for help from members of the community in Langa, Cape Town, who have been living with accumulating daily sewerage spills literally on their doorsteps. Residents of the Zones and Church Square in Langa have been logging complaints with the City since May 2021. According to residents, when the City sends officials out, they take photographs and never return. The same process has repeated itself over and over again for months.

We commemorate Mandela Day this year with tears in our eyes. With unprecedented levels of unemployment and poverty. With a former President in prison for defying the courts. And with the embers of a wave of violence, looting and destruction still glowing. The reason that the United Nations acknowledged former President Nelson Mandela by designating his birthday – 18 July – International Mandela Day is because he is globally revered as an icon of service, justice and human excellence. His example should lead us now.

The GOOD Party enthusiastically welcomes news that SABC’s Rocklands Villas property in Sea Point will not be auctioned off to the highest bidder but used, instead, for affordable housing. The decision by the Housing Development Agency to purchase the building for public and affordable housing, stopping its imminent auction, is a major break-through for inner-city affordable housing. It is among the founding principles of the GOOD Party that public land must be used for public good.

Statement by Brett Herron GOOD Secretary General 14 July 2021 STATE MUST USE CRIMINAL MATTERS AMENDMENT ACT AGAINST SABOTEURS OF INFRASTRUCTURE AND ECONOMY According to Minister of Police Bheki Cele,…

STATEMENT BY BRETT HERRON, GOOD SECRETARY-GENERAL 14 July 2021 CONTINUED ACTS OF VIOLENCE IS SABOTAGE OF BASIC SERVICES, ESSENTIAL INFRASTRUCTURE & OUR ECONOMY NPA MUST CONSIDER THE 2015 CRIMINAL MATTERS…

The deployment of soldiers to support police battling to quell unprecedented looting and destruction of property in KwaZulu-Natal and Gauteng can’t succeed without the active support of good people and organisations. Some may question the competency of the country’s law-enforcement officials but they are also in a very difficult position. The last thing South Africa needs right now is another massacre of civilians by law-enforcement officials, which could fuel further instability.

The scenes of violence, looting and vandalism across the country, apparently in response to the arrest of former President Jacob Zuma, needs urgent government action - but not just military and policing action. The South African tinder box of grinding poverty, indignity and desperation, ignited amid a public health pandemic in KwaZulu-Natal last week and now spreading to other provinces, poses the biggest questions asked of the State since the advent of democracy.

As another significant winter storm lashes Cape Town, residents have to navigate unprecedented water hazards due to the municipality allowing its contract for labour-intensive stormwater drain clearing to lapse. The City made its normal noises in March when it announced its Annual Winter Readiness Programme focussing on the clearing of the stormwater systems, particularly in flood prone areas. The annual programme usually includes the cleaning of gullies, catchpits, pipes and ponds, besides clearing stormwater drains.

We welcome the announcement of some relief for businesses such as restaurants and gyms. Restaurants will remain under strain, despite being permitted to serve meals again, as the curfew will severely constrain trading hours. So many people are depending on each one of us to do our bit so that they can try to salvage their businesses and their jobs. It is our duty to each other to adhere to the rules so that the transmission of the virus comes down and so those business sectors that remain shut down can reopen.

Matthew Cook - GOOD Johannesburg 9 July 2021 GOOD would like to offer its condolences to the Makhubo family following the passing of Johannesburg Executive Mayor, Geoff Makhubo, who has…