Secure energy, more policing power and devolving the passenger rail are some of the issues that the City of Cape Town is hoping to have addressed when President Cyril Ramaphosa gives his State of the Nation Address (SONA) in the City this evening.
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This is according to a letter to the president from CoCT Mayor, Geordin Hill-Lewis, who calls on the national government to take every measure possible to improve the delivery of service, decrease the prevalence of crime and keep the lights on in the year ahead.
“In Cape Town, it is our daily mission to restore hope in South Africa by turning our city into living proof that we can roll back poverty, that we can overcome the long shadows of our past, and that our country can still realise the society dreamed of in the founding document of our democracy, the Constitution,” wrote the mayor to Ramaphosa.
“You have the power to announce the changes needed to devolve more powers to well-run local authorities.”
Hill-Lewis emphasised that it was particularly urgent to incentivise energy generation by households and businesses; devolve more policing powers for municipal law enforcement to help SAPS fight crime; and get the city’s trains running again by devolving passenger rail to the City of Cape Town.
“Cape Town will now pay cash for power directly from businesses and residents,” he added. “We need the national government’s support for households and businesses to rapidly scale up solar power generation.”
In this regard, the mayor called for tax rebate incentives for the public to go solar while staying on the grid to sell power for cash and a national solar PV subsidy for local authorities to rapidly install small-scale embedded generation at public buildings and rental stock.
With the city managing to make some inroads in combating and preventing crimes in Cape Town, Hill-Lewis also called for municipal law enforcement to be given more policing powers.
“Our municipal law enforcement officers are taking guns and drugs off the streets daily, but with more policing powers we gain convictions to bring lasting change in high-crime areas.”
“We are calling on government to devolve investigative powers to municipal law enforcement so our officers can build prosecution-ready case dockets, especially for guns, drugs, and gang crime and to take urgent SAPS resourcing measures to bolster the fight against crime, especially in precincts showing the highest murder and violent crime rates.”
Regarding passenger rails, the mayor said that Cape Town’s Rail Feasibility Study was already laying the foundation to run passenger rail in the best interests of commuters, who desperately need affordable, safe and reliable public transport daily.
“Recent statements by the ANC, and the delay in national government’s Devolution Strategy with no definite deadline, are critical points of concern,” he said, calling for the announcement of the fast-tracked devolution of passenger rail to cities in order to get Cape Town’s once-strong train service running again together with the private sector.
“We believe these simple, immediate measures can make a massive, positive impact in the daily lives of citizens.”
“Making these changes is about people, not politics. Use your State of the Nation address to turn the tide on state failure and give South Africans a sense of renewed hope for the future.”
Meanwhile, civic organisations are calling on the president to deliver more concrete plans to fix the country.
Yesterday, the civil society organisation Defend Our Democracy held a rally in Cape Town ahead of Ramaphosa’s seventh SONA.
“As you address the nation at the opening of Parliament, we urge you to ensure that you honestly reflect on the severity of the problems that beset the country,” the group stated in a memorandum.
“We hope that there will be no whitewashing of the role of government – both the previous, and the current administration under your leadership – in creating these problems or simply not dealing with them,” they said.
Cosatu’s parliamentary liaison, Matthew Parks, said Ramaphosa had made strides but much more still needed to be done.
“The government cannot do everything. We need business to play its role. Expose those who rob Eskom with inflated prices and sub-standard coal.”
“End the apartheid wage gap, unless we think it’s morally acceptable to pay a CEO R300 million and seek to deny mine workers a meagre R150 increase a month,” he said.
“As we enter the 2024 elections, and the era of coalitions, it will be uncharted waters for all of us. It will require all of us to listen to, hear and find each other. Our crises are too great and can only be resolved if we all make our contributions for the progress of the nation.”
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Picture: Murray Swart
