• 3 months ago
30 years ago, Nelson Mandela proclaimed his dream of a Rainbow Nation. Today, South Africa is one of the most unequal countries worldwide. Our Street Debate explores how student protests over fees, lack of affordable housing and inequality in cities like Cape Town, paint a different picture.
Transcript
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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