Cape Town - The Cape Town city council has been slammed by a host of irate community organisations – most recently in Manenberg – for pushing through massive, multi-million rand projects without proper consultation with the residents who will be directly affected.
Complaints about poor public participation have dominated discussions in recent months about the council’s proposed MyCiTi route through South Road in Plumstead, the construction of green cycle lanes in Woodstock and the planned lease of the Good Hope Centre to a film company.
After the Western Cape government and the city council launched a “re-imagining Manenberg” proposal last week, community groups such as the Community Policing Forum (CPF) complained that residents had not been asked about their needs.
The council said on Tuesday that it could not respond immediately to the Cape Argus’s “broad query” about the extent of its public consultation on these projects, as it would need input from several departments.
ANC opposition leader Tony Ehrenreich said on Tuesday: “The city claims (it) works better with communities, but actually ‘better together’ is just the city and the provincial government working together, while they exclude communities.”
Western Cape Premier Helen Zille hit back, saying that the Manenberg CPF was represented in the discussions that led to the recent proposal. “In fact, it is the outcome of an intensive community participation process conducted over the past 12 months,” she said.
Zille said the media announcement of the project last week was part of the provincial government’s plan to “take these ideas to the broader community, as a precursor for the next stage” which would include public meetings in every ward in Manenberg.
But for the residents of Wynberg and Plumstead affected by the MyCiTi’s Lansdowne/Wetton Road route, the council has fallen far short on public consultation.
In October last year, more than 20 families in South Road were issued with termination of lease notices and told that they had until the end of January to vacate their council-owned properties.
Meanwhile, tenders for some of the design work for the MyCiTi project were advertised.
Residents protested about their possible eviction, and the lack of consultation with the council. Frustrated by a dearth of information, and failed attempts to meet with the council about its plans, the South Road Families’ Association applied for a court interdict to stop the council from evicting families and from moving ahead with the project without proper consultation.
The association’s Clive Muller said then: “We have been frustrated in our dealings with the city... Herron has not complied with the basic principles of public participation.”
The council subsequently withdrew its termination of lease notices, and embarked on an extensive round of public meetings with affected communities.
But the South Road Families’ Association has said it will only drop its court challenge if members are satisfied that there has been meaningful engagement.
The Wynberg Residents and Ratepayers’ Association has said that while it is not against MyCiTi, it fears that the proposed Brodie Road couplet could affect businesses and residents in the area and that full consultation was needed.
The council has given residents until Thursday to comment on the proposed new route.
While the council heeded the pleas of cyclists by clamping down on motorists who illegally used new dedicated cycle lanes, businesses in Woodstock and Salt River complained about the lack of consultation before the project was implemented. The cycle lanes form part of a R300 million non-motorised transport plan. But businesses along Albert Road said they could lose money because their customers would have nowhere to park.
Brett Herron, mayoral committee member for transport, said that businesses and residents who registered as interested parties had been consulted during the design and construction of the lanes.
Elsewhere, in Table View and Khayelitsha, residents have complained about the council’s failure to consult with them properly.
Table View residents recently set up a Facebook group called Table View Frustrated Ratepayers to complain about the “flawed” public participation process for an informal trading plan for the area proposed by the council.
Civic groups the Social Justice Coalition and Ndifuna Ukhwazi recently argued that the council’s arrangements for consultation on its budget failed to cater to ordinary residents.
Cape Argus