Free the Cape from what?
People sometimes ask, ‘What exactly do you want to FREE the CAPE from?’ It is a fair question, so here are five of the things we would like to free the Cape from.
(1) Poverty
At last count, 37.1% of the Western Cape population were living below the ‘Upper Bound Poverty Line (UBPL)’. This means that in 2015 they lived on less than R992 per month.
We want to build a Western Cape where people are not forced to live in poverty but where every person regardless of their race, religion, or culture, has the realistic opportunity to prosper.
(2) Unemployment
Even using the narrowest definition, 26.3% of Western Cape citizens are unemployed. If the Western Cape were independent today it would rank 177 out of 184 countries for unemployment.
We want to build a Western Cape where everyone has an opportunity to find work. Until we do, we cannot meaningfully address poverty.
(3) Racialism
Racial discrimination has destroyed the very fabric of our society. It has created division, mistrust, and hate. In 1994 we rejected racialism and embraced a new constitution founded on the principle of non-racialism.
We have lost our way. Almost every aspect of our lives is governed by race-based legislation and yet we are more unequal now than we were in 1994. Economists tell us that race-based legislation is now causing unemployment and poverty.
We want to build a Western Cape where we can stop seeing each other first and foremost by race and start seeing each other as individuals, each of us with something to offer.
(4) Lawlessness
The Western Cape is fearful and frustrated. Murder, rape, theft, gang violence, land invasions, and many other crimes are out of control. The Western Cape murder rate is 73 times higher than some of our international peers. Our police force is underfunded, poorly trained, badly managed, and so dysfunctional that often we don’t even bother reporting crime.
In 2019, there were more murders in the Western Cape than in Canada, France, Germany, Italy, the UK, and Japan combined.
We want to build a Western Cape where law and order is restored. Where a professional police force will keep us safe, and where criminals rather than law abiding citizens live in fear.
(5) ANC rule
At the heart of all of these problems is a national government we don’t want, we don’t respect, and we didn’t vote for. It is incompetent, corrupt, and sometimes racist. It has run the rest of South Africa, where it governs both provincially and nationally, into the ground.
Some are tempted to think that bringing the ANC below 50% in the local government elections offers redemption. In reality it will only shepherd in an ANC/EFF coalition which will be immeasurably worse.
Outside the Western Cape 73.1% (2019) and 61.2% (2019) voted either ANC or EFF.
We want to build a Western Cape where the government WE elect get to set the policies WE want.
