Cape Town planning officials must listen to residents, drop the ‘take us to court’ attitude

The deputy mayor’s response to Daily Maverick’s Municipal Planning Tribunal exposé suggests that anyone who tries to hold the tribunal accountable for its far-reaching decisions will be denounced and discredited.

Tracey Davies and Bas Zuidberg are secretary and chair, respectively, of the Cape Town Collective Ratepayers’ Association, which has 45 member ratepayer associations and civic organisations, representing about 100,000 residential property owners, who contribute to 60% of the residential rates in the city.

A recent series of investigative articles by Daily Maverick’s Kevin Bloom examined Cape Town’s planning and development approval system. These were summarised in a Daily Maverick video released on 25 July, containing nothing the original articles didn’t already cover, but which has drawn more than 100,000 views online and provoked a furious response from senior City officials.

Since many of the residents featured in the series, and the video, represent members of the Cape Town Collective Ratepayers’ Association, a body of 45 resident and ratepayer organisations across the city, it’s important for us to set the record straight.

In a Facebook post attacking the video for presenting “false and unsubstantiated claims about Cape Town’s Municipal Planning Tribunal”, and accusing Daily Maverick of “irresponsible journalism”, the deputy mayor and mayoral committee member for spatial planning and environment, Eddie Andrews, nevertheless claimed that Cape Town’s planning system “is not beyond scrutiny”.

Unfortunately, his response to the exposé suggests exactly the opposite: that anyone who tries to hold the Municipal Planning Tribunal (MPT) – and the planning system – accountable for its far-reaching decisions will be denounced and discredited.

Rather than going on the offensive against the country’s most trusted investigative journalism outfit, the deputy mayor might do better to start by answering the legitimate questions raised by Daily Maverick, and to give some thought to why residents across Cape Town are up in arms. If Daily Maverick got it wrong, then show us the proof.

Contrary to regular insinuations by City officials, Capetonians are not Nimbys . They are also neither naïve nor foolish when it comes to understanding the need for growth and adaptation in a modern city. The real complaint that a large and growing number of residents have is that Cape Town’s planning system is structurally weighted towards approving development regardless of the merit and legal validity of objections raised by interested and affected parties.

Any resident who engages with the Cape Town planning system soon makes the same discovery: the cards are stacked against them at every level. A series of planning by-law amendments over the past decade have progressively made life easier for developers and ensured that it is almost impossible for residents to contribute to decisions affecting their own areas.

Planning by-laws regulate land use and development to ensure orderly, sustainable growth while balancing individual property rights against community interests.