GOOD Press Statement by Jonathan Cupido
GOOD City of Cape Town Councillor
13 June 2024
GOOD calls for the complete scrapping of the sub-council system in the City of Cape Town which has no real function yet is costing residents millions of rands each year.
Yesterday the DA proposed to the City Council that the number of sub-councils operating in the metro be reduced by one – from 21 to 20.
Doing away with just one sub-council would save the residents of Cape Town R7 million a year.
This means if Council was to scrap the entire sub-council system, it would free up over R150 million a year that could be used for better services and lower rates and taxes.
The sub-council system did serve a purpose when these structures had actual delegated town planning powers and functions.
Before the adoption of the Spatial Planning and Land Use Management Act (SPLUMA) in 2015, councillors exercised planning approval powers in the sub-councils, clustered by wards in geographical areas. It therefore made sense for proposed plans to be approved at a local level in smaller councils.
However, since the introduction of SPLUMA and the Planning By-Law, councillors are prohibited from making planning decisions, meaning sub-councils now have no real delegated powers.
The delegated functions they have been left with are mostly duplications of Council and City officials’ duties, or simply unnecessary, including recommending which beaches should be identified as dog-friendly.
For this work, the 20 sub-council chairpersons each earn more than R1.1 million per year.
GOOD calls on Council to scrap the system and use the sub-council facilities as customer service centres instead, where residents can do business with the City, or for other purposes such as emergency housing or community facilities.
Yesterday’s gerrymandering with sub-council boundaries was purely to protect DA and ANC patronage.
Unsurprisingly, the 20 sub-council chairpersons are mostly filled by DA councillors, except in those areas where the ANC got more votes – then the sub-council is chaired by an ANC councillor.
Scrapping the pointless sub-council system would mean those Chairpersons would become ordinary councillors and lose their excessive salaries.
If the DA, and the ANC, were concerned about the costs of operating our Council and the impact of these costs on the residents who have to cough up their rates, water and electricity bills then they would scrap sub-councils.
GOOD will table a counter-proposal to the proposed amendment of the Sub-Council By-Law which calls on Council to do away with sub-councils and use that money to improve services and lower operating costs of Council.
Media Enquiries:
Jonathan Cupido, GOOD: City of Cape Town Councillor
Cell: 084 865 8122
Email: jonathanc@forgood.org.za
Janke Tolmay, GOOD: Media Manager
Cell: 073 367 1223
Email: janke@forgood.org.za