GOOD Statement by Brett Herron,
GOOD Secretary-General & City of Cape Town Mayoral Candidate
07 July 2026
The Public Protector’s Report, released today, confirms in binding, constitutional terms what residents of Langa Flats and Khayelitsha have said for years: that the DA-run City of Cape Town has failed to deliver the basic municipal services it is constitutionally obliged to provide.
This is not a party-political claim. It is the finding of an independent Chapter 9 institution, following a four-year investigation, based on inspections in loco, resident testimony, and the DA-run City’s own submissions. The Public Protector found substantiated maladministration under section 182(1)(a) of the Constitution: unsigned lease agreements at Langa Flats in breach of residents’ security of tenure; unrepaired sewer infrastructure and non-functional fire safety equipment; no access to adequate water for residents of SST-Marikana, Khayelitsha, in violation of section 27(1)(b); non-functional high-mast lighting exposing residents to violence; and safety gaps at Mathew Goniwe and Town Two clinics.
The DA formally objected to these findings before publication. The Public Protector rejected the substance of that objection. Cooperation with an investigation, the Public Protector held, “does not in itself negate a finding of maladministration where the evidence establishes that constitutional and statutory obligations have not been fully discharged.”
Two narrow factual corrections were accepted- the classification of the N2 Gateway development under the Community Residential Units Programme, and confirmation that smoke detectors are not mandatory for the clinics’ fire-safety classification, with remedial action adjusted accordingly to require early-warning fire mechanisms generally. Neither correction changes the finding of maladministration or the remedial action that follows from it.
A disparity the DA’s own budget cannot explain
What makes this report harder for the DA to dismiss is that it lands directly on top of its own 2026/27 Final Adopted Budget. That budget claims that 75% of the City’s infrastructure spend is “pro-poor.” It offers no ward-level breakdown and no published methodology to support that figure. The Public Protector’s findings show precisely the kind of documented, constitutionally binding service failure that a genuine pro-poor infrastructure programme would have prevented. A council cannot simultaneously claim three-quarters of its infrastructure budget serves poorer communities and have an independent constitutional body find, in the same year, that residents of Langa Flats and Khayelitsha lack functioning sewage systems, water access and street lighting. One of those claims does not survive contact with the other.
This is the disparity at the heart of Cape Town’s governance under the DA: a budget document that asserts equity without evidence, and a constitutional finding that documents its absence.
Remedial action now runs on the clock
The Public Protector has imposed binding deadlines on the City Manager: 30 days to restore water access at SST-Marikana, 60 days for a long-term cleaning strategy at Langa Flats and for high-mast lighting engagement with Eskom, 120 days for long-term sewer rehabilitation, and six months for a lease-regularisation plan and for clinic fire-safety upgrades. The MEC for Local Government must monitor compliance quarterly, with section 139 intervention available should the DA-run City fail to meet them.
GOOD will be watching every one of these deadlines. Residents of Langa Flats and Khayelitsha have waited years for what the Constitution already guarantees them. They should not have to wait for another election to see it delivered.
Media Enquiries: media@forgood.org.za