Josh describing current conditions

For those back home who find it difficult to understand the conditions of current South Africa, I figured I would write this post to highlight some of the systemic issues within Cape Town.  In international news, you may hear about South African President Jacob Zuma and get a brief glimpse of the grips of corruption in a fairly newly democratized state (read more here: http://edition.cnn.com/2016/02/09/africa/south-africa-zuma-nkandla/), but that does not quite do the struggles of individuals justice.

According to 2011 City Statistics, the unemployment rate is 23.8% and the percentage of people living below the poverty line of 3500 Rand per month is 35.7% (https://www.capetown.gov.za/en/stats/Documents/City_Statistics_2012.pdf).  The city also counted 129,918 as the number of informal structures within the informal settlements.  It lists the total population as roughly 3.74 million as of 2011.  These numbers may refer to strictly the city portion of Cape Town itself, but when you begin to factor in suburbs and townships, I find it hard to believe that these numbers are accurate.  In townships such as Mitchel’s Plain, Hanover Park, Khayelitsha, etc. the story is very different.  In Khayelitsha – an informal township settlement – there is an estimated population of roughly one million with an estimated unemployment rate between 60-80%.  Now it is extremely challenging to know the exact amount of dwellers in the area and the exact unemployment rate.  Creating counts or measures is difficult to begin with, but in an informal settlement, running samples or surveys to estimate a population statistic is a daunting task.  My point though is that merely looking at the City of Cape Town’s Census Statistics may lead one to believe that the conditions are better than they actually are.

           

In terms of the current conditions, I will briefly highlight two key issues.  The first is higher education.  There have been many protests on University campuses throughout South Africa by non-white students.  At the University of Cape Town, there was a recent protest where 8 individuals were arrested and 6 students were suspended.  In a follow up article published in the Cape Argus (a local newspaper), the UCT Left Students Forum issued a statement to highlight some of the systemic issues.  In response to the UCT housing system’s inability to provide housing for all its students, “Shackville” erected.  This symbolic informal settlement, that was strategically placed on the stairs leading to Upper Campus before UCT officials removed it, served to demonstrate the elitism of UCT and failure of UCT to deliver on its promise last year not to exclude academically eligible students from the institution.  In public statements, UCT management blamed the housing issues on the students as they are offering for students who do not have housing to be placed in local residences.  The UCT Left Students Forum response is that placements are often given to students whose parents once resided in the residence, meaning it is mainly “white” students who are offered the luxuries of these residences.  The UCT Left Students Forum issued this statement to highlight the institutional racism that remains.  For an in depth look at their statement and the events leading up to the erection of “Shackville” and the protest, visit: http://www.iol.co.za/capeargus/in-solidarity-with-shackville-1988104.

           

Apart from issues with access and accommodations at tertiary educational institutions, another issue that is closely related is that of land in Cape Town.  The Western Cape, the province in which Cape Town is located, is the only province out of the nine that is not controlled by the African National Congress (the ruling party), and is instead controlled by the Democratic Alliance (DA).  A recent article titled “Western Cape under fire for land use” published on February 22^nd in Cape Argus, details that the Western Cape provincial government is being accused of apartheid-style town planning in Cape Town.  This accusation comes from the fact that the city is selling or leasing four pieces of prime city property instead of developing it for housing.  With many “black” and “colored” individuals coming into the city every day to work and leaving at night, similar to times of apartheid where those classified as “black” were required to leave the city at night, there is pressure on the municipal government to provide access to affordable housing.  But a quick glance at the City of Cape Town’s department staff cost shows that the interests of the town are focused elsewhere.  The table below shows the staff cost growth between the fiscal year of 2014-2015 to that of 2015-2016.  Safety and Security has the largest staff budget of 1.51 million rand for the year 2015-2016, when human settlements and social development and early childhood development have less than half of that respective budget.  The finance department and corporate services department also have extremely large budgets.  Now I admit that this one table does not tell the entire story, but I think it does serve to highlight that the interests of many of those protesting in terms of housing or land use and higher education are not directly addressed in the budgeting and financing of the respective departments in the municipal government of the City of Cape Town (https://www.capetown.gov.za/en/stats/Documents/City_Statistics_2012.pdf).