00:00Hello and welcome back to the 77% Street Debate. My name is Edith Kimani and this week we are
00:11back in Cape Town, South Africa. Now this is a city that's used to being the best at
00:15many categories, but it's also a city grappling with the legacy of apartheid. Economic disparities
00:21still continue to rule the day here. And so today we're trying to find out best yes, but
00:26best for who?
00:27It would be better to answer this question for me than some lovely South Africans. And
00:30I want to start with Nomandla because we were speaking yesterday on the phone and you're
00:34born free, right? And yet you were telling me that you're already disillusioned. Why?
00:39My disillusionment absolutely comes from the idea that after 30 years we're meant to be
00:46and meant to seem like a society, a democracy that has everything together. But in fact,
00:53we are regressing.
00:54In what ways do you think you're regressing?
00:58Particularly me, I come from a student background. So I particularly see that when we discuss
01:04finance in the student sector, of course, education is the backbone of any society.
01:10But access to education is something in South Africa that has been reserved for those who
01:16can afford it.
01:17Okay, so we'll come back to that in just a short while. But Shevano, you live here, right?
01:21You were born and raised in Cape Town. Can you tell me what the situation is like for
01:25the average person living in the city?
01:28I think as Nomandla said, if you don't have the access to resources, you don't have the
01:34luxury to have access to it, you're on the backbone. So yes, we now in a beautiful part
01:38of Cape Town, we're on the waterfront, but there is so many different spaces to this.
01:43When people think Cape Town, they think money, luxury. But we also have the Cape Flats. What's
01:48life like there?
01:50A death every day, a death of a young person every day, to be more specific. Hopelessness,
01:57feeling of total poverty, people living in shacks, they depend on government grants,
02:03they depend on soup kitchens for food. So it's quite a different and a dark place from
02:11what we're seeing right now.
02:13Okay, let me bring in Tammy, who's representing the DA, which is a very popular party here
02:17in Cape Town. I mean, it must not be nice to hear that young people feel disillusioned
02:22and they haven't even been alive 30 years. What's not working?
02:26As a young person myself, I can relate to some of the sentiments that are being shared
02:30here today. But as someone who also works for the municipality as one of the youngest
02:35councillors in the country, I can say that Cape Town is in a far better position compared
02:41to other municipalities around the country. And I'm speaking about the reports from the
02:45Auditor General, numerous research reports, stats, essay, telling us that more jobs are
02:51created here every year than any other city.
02:54Let me ask Kosekona here, because you're not afraid of speaking the truth. In fact, you've
02:59confronted some of the leadership in this city. In your opinion, where's the disconnect?
03:05Cape Town has been declared as the most unequal society in the world, under the leadership
03:11of both the ANC, which is the governing party, a liberation movement, as well as under the
03:16Democratic Alliance. Special inequality is one of the biggest issues. Since the dawn
03:22of freedom in South Africa, we've not seen any single affordable unit being built in
03:28the inner city to undo the legacy of apartheid. Black and brown people are subjected to having
03:34to live in communities where basic services are not provided. And this is not divorced
03:40from the historical and deep violent history that we have in South Africa, that non-white
03:46people were subjected to such conditions.
03:48Yeah, okay. Let me hear from the gentleman here.
03:50I think I want to touch about the access to education. Only those who can afford are the
03:55one who can access the education. But the question is, who are those who can afford?
03:59There are those who are minority in this count, because those majority of people who live
04:04in this count, they can't afford. Fees are too high. Even the government, they increase
04:09fees each and every year. It's a matter of time to see those who can't afford don't deserve
04:14access to education.
04:15Kosi, tell me.
04:16So the biggest issue we have in South Africa in relation to education is that a lot of
04:20legislations do exist, a lot of policies, beautiful constitution praised worldwide.
04:25The biggest issue we have is a lack of political will to actually implement all of these promises
04:31that we see in our constitution, from the very basic things of like getting water into
04:36your home, getting a toilet.
04:37All right. But are the statistics wrong? Because when I read the data specifically
04:42about Cape Town, the numbers are well in their 90s when it comes to access to water, electricity,
04:48data.
04:49So it surprises me that you're telling me people don't have running water in their homes.
04:53You go and ask the mayor today, how many toilets will you be bringing to informal settlements?
04:57There's no plan.
04:58How is it that a well run municipality doesn't have a plan for up to 60% of its population
05:04which doesn't have access to basic services?
05:07Good question. Let's ask the DA representative here.
05:09The focus on Cape Town is insane, but that's the price you pay for being the best run municipality
05:15in South Africa.
05:16And if you look at the statistics released by the quarterly labor force survey of StatsSA,
05:21you will see that the city of Cape Town has created over 80% of all net jobs in South
05:26Africa.
05:27That is more than Gauteng and Etikwini combined together.
05:31So even though the city of Cape Town may have a myriad of challenges, both socially and
05:36economically, I cannot allow emotional arguments to take over without looking at the facts.
05:42So Klamulo, let me hear from you, because you're part of the student leadership.
05:47Tell me how housing affects education access in general, because the two seem to go hand
05:52in hand, right?
05:53Yeah, I think you're right, because the fact of a student coming from even another province
05:58to come to study, for sure they can't sleep on the street, they need housing.
06:01But Cape Town as a whole, as Western Cape, makes it very difficult for someone who comes
06:05from a middle class family or a lower class family, it's difficult to afford housing.
06:11If you go...
06:12Can you give me an idea of how much it would cost to rent a house as a student, for example,
06:16for a month?
06:17Per annum, you must be talking about 80,000 to 100,000, which you have to pay for only
06:2110 months.
06:22It means it's close to 10,000, 9,000 per month.
06:25Talk about a student who don't have that money, a student who just moved from home because
06:29they were able to pass their grade 12 and they meet the minimum requirements to enter
06:33the institution.
06:34How are they going to survive?
06:35So now we've addressed some of the problems.
06:37So what needs to happen?
06:38These are the solutions now.
06:40I come from Ekailecha, which is the largest township here in Cape Town.
06:44And that's where I spent all my life.
06:46I've worked in that community for the past 15 years, particularly working with people
06:50who are living in informal settlements to try and find their solutions.
06:54Where people live matters.
06:56When we are saying the first solution that could be put in place, it's one that doesn't
07:00need record science.
07:02Release public land.
07:03We're not saying private land.
07:05There's public land here in the inner city, which must be released for affordable housing
07:09to accommodate the workers of this city, as well as the students of this city.
07:15And finally, the first thing that the national government can start doing when it comes to
07:18housing is to stop cutting the budgets to municipalities every single year.
07:23Not only do they cut the budgets for housing, they cut the budgets for education, provincial
07:27education, provincial hospitals.
07:30When are they going to fix the trains in Cape Town?
07:33Trains, public transportation, whether we're talking about passenger rail, whether we're
07:37talking about freight, all of those have an impact when it comes to connecting people
07:43from different parts of the city into work opportunities.
07:46That is one solution, an immediate solution that can be solved if you really want to bridge
07:51the gap between the rich and the poor in Cape Town.
07:52All right.
07:53I asked a very simple question at the beginning.
07:55Cape Town is undoubtedly the best at many things, but best for who?
07:59Let's be honest and say we are not the best.
08:01Although we are trying to be the best, the government needs to get a real needs analysis
08:06of the community.
08:07Allow the community's voices to be heard, but not just be heard.
08:11Let's try and involve communities like ourselves, like many other people, be part of the decision
08:16making process.
08:17I think once we start doing that, we can make some movement.
08:21I love that.
08:22That's a fantastic place to wrap this debate.
08:24We did ask best for who, apparently not for everyone.
08:2730 years after apartheid, the color of your skin, who you are and where you were born
08:32still seem to matter.
08:34But hopefully based on these solutions, not for much longer.
08:37Thank you all for watching.
08:38Bye bye.
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