GOOD Speech by Roscoe Palm,
GOOD City of Cape Town Councillor
4 December 2025
Note to Editor: This speech was delivered during the Cape Town Council Meeting
Speaker, this silt storm in a colonial pond is instructive.
It shows us, once again, how the public purse is being used to underwrite white colonial private endeavour. Why is the City turning a private-sector problem into a burden for ratepayers? The services of this transversal contract are better deployed for public benefit.
the Lord Charles Hotel, part of the global Marriott Bonvoy group, should take responsibility. Signing this MOA is yet another example of the City privatising benefits for well-connected entities like the Lord Charles, while socialising the costs through exorbitant rates and tariffs. Private profit gets the white-glove treatment; the public gets the middle finger.
And then there’s the legal threat. We know the City’s usual response to legal threats: “See you in court.” It routinely takes national legislation it dislikes all the way to the Constitutional Court. It should do the same here. It should challenge the relevant clauses of the National Environmental Management Act on the simple principle that property ownership comes with responsibility. 200 rooms on 22 acres of stolen land, named after a colonial master at a minimum rate of around R3000 per room – if they don’t want to maintain it, they should return the land.
We cannot support this item.
Finally, Speaker, this item contains an implicit admission about the dire state of our Fire and Rescue Services. The fire on the canal banks that started this sorry episode was eventually attended to, but under Fire Chief Manuel, the service is in a historically poor condition. Wildland firefighters arrived well after fire season, just as they will again this year. Staffing levels, morale, and vehicles on run are at all-time lows.
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