PRESS RELEASE: Devolution and Federalism are now DA and not ANC decisions as FF Plus table 'WC Peoples Bill' in Provincial Parliament. CIAG delighted.
Granting devolution or federalism to the Western Cape is no longer a decision for the ANC to make. The decision is now entirely within the control of the DA and they have their alliance partner, the Freedom Front Plus, to thank.
Since 2019, the ANC national government have been purposefully denying the Western Cape people their clearly expressed democratic will. Premier Alan Winde campaigned on the promise of fighting for the devolution of policing and rail and was elected with an outright majority. Polling confirmed that 76% of Western Cape voters supported increased autonomy for the Western Cape.
Once elected, Winde and Cape Town Mayor Geordin Hill-Lewis have repeatedly requested the devolution of policing and rail, but the ANC national government has flatly refused to respect the democratic wishes of the Western Cape people. As Winde approaches the end of his term, neither policing nor rail have been devolved and both are in utter disarray.
The Western Cape High Court has found that SAPS in the province has been corrupted at the highest level, the province has the highest murder rate in the world, and rail passenger numbers have fallen by 95% over the last decade.
In tabling the Western Cape Peoples Bill yesterday, the Freedom Front Plus have turned the current South African Constitutional order on its head and ended the ANC’s ability to steamroll its agenda onto a province which perpetually rejects it.
The Bill affirms the existing constitutional reality that the people of the Western Cape are distinct from the ‘South African people as a whole’ even though they may elect to form a part of the South African people.
As a distinct people, they are entitled to exercise self-determination, a right which the Bill formally claims and which the South African Government has repeatedly sworn to uphold.
Cape Independence Advocacy Group (CIAG) spokesperson Phil Craig says,
“This is a historic day for democracy in the Western Cape. Democracy cannot exist in name only. The Western Cape must be governed in accordance with the will of the people who actually live there. This bill opens the door to a brighter future for the Western Cape people who can now finally escape from under the yoke of a national government which the majority of them have never once voted for”.
International law makes clear that self-determination is a right which states are obliged to honour, and the UN have said that self-determination can be exercised in the form of devolution, federal autonomy, or independence.
All eyes are now on the DA to see how they will respond.
DATE: 23 June 2023
