The following is in response to “The DA’s call for policing powers is due to pressure for ‘Cape independence’” (Cape Argus, August 26, 2022).
by Mayor Geordin Hill-Lewis
Phil Craig of the Cape Independent Advocacy Group’s view that my call for devolved policing powers is somehow due to pressure from his recently-established organisation is an exercise in self-flattery. It is also factually wrong.
The DA has always believed in a federal system in which powers are devolved, as far as possible, to regional and local governments.
This position stretches all the way back to our predecessor – the Progressive Federal Party (the clue is in the name) – established in the 1970s.
At the constitutional negotiations in the 1990s we argued strongly for a federal system and, while we did not achieve a fully federal state, many of our proposals for devolved powers did appear in the final Constitution.
Mr Craig really should know all this. And he should also know better than to try and link our support for devolution with his organisation’s call for secession.
We are not, and never have been, interested in seceding from South Africa. We are proudly South African. We support the Springboks, the Proteas and Bafana Bafana. We want to travel freely to friends and family in Johannesburg and Durban. And we feel kinship with all the diverse people of this beautiful land.
I am pleased that far more people in the Western Cape support our call for devolution than support CIAG’s call for Cape independence. In a recent poll commissioned by CIAG, it was found that the number of Western Cape residents who supported devolution was double the number of those who supported the province becoming an independent state.
The great thing about devolution is that it doesn’t require giving up our national identity. We can remain proudly South African and have a greater say in the running of the police, the railways, the harbours and how our energy is generated and supplied.
And devolution is not a pipe dream. We are already working closely with the national government on how best to devolve passenger rail to the City of Cape Town, for example.
What is a pipe dream is Mr Craig’s yearning to establish “Africa’s newest country” here in the Western Cape. Because, whereas the Constitution provides for devolution in sections 156 and 99, it does not provide any mechanism for secession.
We have a very realistic chance of devolving much more power to the City of Cape Town and, yes, we will fight tooth and nail to achieve this. But this is not the same, or even linked to, calls for secession. Taking control of our destiny does not need to mean giving up our identity.
* Geordin Hill-Lewis, Executive Mayor of Cape Town.
** The views expressed here are not necessarily those of Independent Media.
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