David Ritchie

For weeks there were threats to occupy Rondebosch Common, with pamphlets using racially emotive and divisive language , says the writer

Patricia de Lille

When inspecting a building, you can’t just look in one window and expect to get a feel for the whole place. To understand every nook and cranny, every pipe and wall, you have to walk through the entire building and then give an assessment after careful study.

The issue of Rondebosch Common has lent itself to a series of brief glimpses through the ground-floor window of a very large building. At present, there seems to be a curious exercise of retrospective condemnation of the city taking place, especially in light of this last Saturday’s events on the common.

There, the leader of the opposition in the city council, Tony Ehrenreich, in his dual role as Cosatu provincial secretary, staged an event with Mario Wanza and a range of community organisations.

Their event, though sparsely attended, was lawful.

The city accepted the memorandum drafted.

People went home.

Now, this event is being used as a surrogate of the planned occupation the week before, an after-the-fact surety that the planned occupation the preceding weekend would have been equally lawful. Coupled with this, commentators have also taken every opportunity to rail against me for authorising the use of force, for denying the right to protest and for ignoring the city’s poor.

I take exception to all of these charges.

First, we cannot compare apples with oranges.

Councillor Ehrenreich’s event was hurriedly organised after the controversy of the failed occupation. Like many of his stunts, it cynically sought to capitalise on a divisive issue in the media and claim it for his political agenda.

Like many other such attempts, it failed and largely passed by unnoticed, dismissed as unrepresentative of the people who sought to occupy Rondebosch Common by many of those same people.

The only thing this event has in common with Mr Wanza’s occupation is that both involved Rondebosch Common.

Wanza’s event had a longer gestation period. For weeks, Wanza had been threatening an occupation, an illegal act under legislation. In that time, literature was circulated by using racially emotive and divisive language.

It was no peaceful “summit” as was later claimed by a slew of people. It was a political stunt utilising the bluntest forms of the politics of race.

Not only are such occupations illegal, they directly clash with the vision of an inclusive city, a vision endorsed by the vast majority of the electorate.

Second, I did not authorise the use of force. Local government is complicated enough without people muddying the waters with a false reporting of the facts.

The protesters were monitored and regulated by the SA Police Service (SAPS). All arrests on that day were undertaken by the SAPS.

The SAPS are a national competency. They execute the national commissioner’s mandate through a provincial commissioner.

As mayor, I have no authority over the SAPS; not their tactics, not their strategy, not their authority. I have no power, direct or indirect, to influence their decisions.

Third, I have never denied anyone the right to protest. I cherish the right to protest to achieve justice. I have spent most of my life protesting on behalf of the poor.

I sacrificed much for the right to protest.

The city respects the right to protest. In 2011, the total number of applications for marches was 418. Three hundred and ninety four applications were approved. That is an approval rating of 94 percent.

Furthermore, the approval or rejection of applications is presided over by an official in a neutral and apolitical process. No political authority has a say in that process. In terms of the Gatherings Act, the presiding official determines the conditions for the meeting.

Thus, neither the mayor nor any other politician had any authority over the outcome of Wanza’s application. Nor did we have any say in the presiding official’s attempts to get Wanza to reapply once he failed to abide by the conditions set out for his original application.

I made my remarks to council about stopping divisions in the city in the context of Wanza’s previous statements and literature. They were removed from a separate process of his failing to timeously apply for permission to march.

Finally, this city does all that it can to help the poor. It is central to our philosophy of becoming more inclusive and more caring.

That is why we have engaged in a national first by implementing a policy rolling out services to backyarders. It is why we continue to try and meet urbanisation challenges by installing services in informal settlements where there were none.

It is why we offer rates rebates for those who cannot afford to pay rates.

It’s why we cross-subsidise the poor by providing free services in the most extensive cross-subsidisation of rates in the country.

And it is why we continuously engage with the poor and those who have felt left behind. I know about summits. I hosted a historic one for backyarder communities last year. I have attended summits of informal settlement communities and sanitation issues, among others. They have raised difficult and pressing matters, issues that the city still needs to address.

But they are part of our wider process of engagement and participatory democracy, a process that sees us constantly working with NGOs and consulting ordinary members of the public.

Wanza’s occupation was not a summit. It was a strategy of division using racially divisive rhetoric. Let us not pretend that we have not seen such divisive strategies from certain quarters in this city before.

I think specifically of the invasions at Kapteinsklip last year just before the local government elections.

Motivated behind the scenes, people seemed to be used in the cruellest way to advance a narrow political agenda and narrative.

So let’s not divorce ourselves from the history and politics of our city and our country.

Instead, when we consider these issues, let’s widen our perspective.

Let’s look through more than just that window and tour the whole building before we find we didn’t really inspect anything at all before casting judgement.

l Alderman De Lille is executive mayor of Cape Town