Next year will see another local government election, and the silly season is already upon us. These are the politics that matter – the bread and butter issues. So don’t be swayed by charm offensives and promises and listen with your head, not your heart, writes Gasant Abarder in a new #SliceOfGasant column.
I was bemused by one of the first public addresses the newly minted and much-feted mayor of New York, Zohran Mamdani, made. He goaded US President Donald Trump in a victory address. In a media engagement, he was charming, recognising a Trump pet peeve, Sky News and even revealed being a fan of the UK network because they covered the English Premier League, and he was an Arsenal fan.
I was torn about the optics. If I were a New Yorker (the everyday type and not the Manhattan set), all I would have wanted to know was how my new mayor was going to create prosperity and a better life for me, my family and my community.
You’ve just become mayor of arguably the most powerful city in the world, and Trump is living rent-free in your head. But I get completely where Mamdani was coming from. He is an immigrant who spent some time in Cape Town as a young boy, interestingly enough, and he was giving an up yours to the guy who is making America great again by targeting the very people who helped make it great.
New York is the original city of immigrants. It’s a global mix of Irish, Jewish, Italian, Muslims, Indian, Chinese … and every other community you can imagine. All of these communities contribute in their own way to make it a great city. Trump poses a direct threat to the very fabric that makes New York great.
But talk is cheap, and Mamdani now needs to leave campaigning mode behind and deliver to New Yorkers what he was promising them.
Across the Atlantic, right here in Cape Town, it’s not so very different. Forget about benchmarking against other metros because that is lazy and a low bar. The majority of Capetonians spend up to four hours a day in traffic to get to work because they weren’t allowed to live close to work opportunities in the past. Little effort has been made to correct that apartheid-era spatial divide.
Their homes and families are under siege from gang violence. The refrain is to bring in the army. That can only be a short-term solution. We’re not building integrated communities. Cape Town still has silo communities. There are predominantly black, coloured and white communities, and the differences between them are stark.
Now, add to this the highest levels of inequality in the world. The opulence of the Atlantic Seaboard and the Suburbs against the lens of the Cape Flats and the Townships. To further the dream of exclusive living, the types of glossy magazines this city has been pushing upmarket-related rates in suburbs like Salt River and Bo-Kaap to force its legacy residents out. Sell your house for a million rand – the biggest amount you’ve had in one go in your lifetime – to buy a house exactly where?
Now, add to this volatile mix of inequality the influx of immigrants to Cape Town. I’m not talking about Joburgers, Durbanites and Eastern Capers. What a nonsense that notion of economic refugees is. I’m talking about the proliferation of arrivals from the diaspora and beyond. They have enriched our lives. The Malawian lady who comes to clean once a week, the Bangladeshi shopkeeper down the road whose wares are cheaper than the big retail chain stores, the Pakistani barber who can cut a fade second to none, the Somalis and their bustling trade in Bellville – to name just a few.
Who can deny them? Can you really read this, believing you’re an original citizen of Cape Town? The only folks who can make such a claim are the indigenous people of this city. The rest of us just arrived earlier, like the New Yorkers, shipped in either as slaves or slave masters. The recent immigrants are escaping wars or the wealthy chasing the sun.
(Funny how the scrutiny and lament are reserved for the immigrants who are the working class and are brown and black, and not the ones buying up mega properties in Somerset West. But I digress.)
You can vote for a more equitable city. The current status quo isn’t that. Don’t be fooled when the streetlights or traffic lights you’ve been begging to be fixed for months suddenly get an overhaul. Don’t fall for the rhetoric of how bad Joburg is because that doesn’t make your life better. Don’t be fooled by just focusing on your own interests because the inequality affects all of us.
It’s time to stop listening to nice speeches and examine the facts. Politics that says it’s better to be poor in Cape Town than in any other city doesn’t help you. Politics that tells you that your ward councillor is going to sort out the park that has become a playground for druggies is what you need to focus on.
It’s time our approach to politics in this city matures. Don’t let the ones who live in comfort dictate because they want things to continue as they are. The majority, who struggle to make ends meet, should be calling the shots when we vote for a new mayor and ward councillors in 2026.
Also read:
Come on Cape Town: As we crawl to the festive season – keep calm and be lekker
Picture: Element5 Digital / Pexels
