GOOD Speech

WESTERN CAPE BUDGET 2.0: STILL MISSING THE MARK

GOOD Speech / By

The 2025 Western Cape Budget 2.0, which had the opportunity to shift away from its original form, and actually prioritise the long-term needs of our people, but has instead continued to favour short-term optics.

Despite allocating R101 billion to education over the Medium-Term Expenditure Framework (MTEF), our schools are struggling under the weight of increasing enrolment, overcrowded classrooms, and a shortage of teachers. The additional R549 million allocated for learner growth over the next three years is simply inadequate. True investment in the future demands proper infrastructure, well-paid teachers, and expanded educational support, all of which are insufficiently addressed in this budget.

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VACANT LAND: FROM OCCUPATION TO OWNERSHIP

GOOD Speech / By

A week ago, I stood here and welcomed the launch of 353-on-Main, the former Tafelberg site. It’s an important moment. It proves that public land can serve the public good. That affordable housing in well-located areas is not a dream, it’s entirely possible. But it also proves something else: that progress only happens when communities fight for it. Because this project wasn’t a gift. It was the result of tireless organising, legal battles, and public pressure.

That’s why I stand here again today, not just to acknowledge what was done, but to ask: why is this the exception, not the norm?

Across this province, thousands of people live on publicly owned land, in informal settlements that have existed for years. In 2023, this government managed to upgrade just one of them. One.

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WE CANNOT WASH OUR HANDS OF THE SILENT SUFFERING OF THE ELDERLY

GOOD Speech / By

Let me paint you a picture. You work, and work hard, for fifty years. You contribute to this country, raise a family, pay your taxes, and do your part. Retirement comes, and like many South Africans, life hasn’t been easy.  You can’t afford luxury, but you’re looking for peace, safety, and dignity. So, you search for affordable elderly care. Instead, you end up in a homeless shelter, one that highlights its frail care facility. This isn’t the retirement you dreamed of, but it’s all you could afford. But that doesn’t mean you signed up for a nightmare.

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BOASTING ABOUT NUMBERS WHILE CHILDREN ARE CAUGHT IN THE CROSSFIRE

GOOD Speech / By

It is shocking, deeply shocking, that a City of Cape Town official can stand up and boast about a reduction in the number of gang-related gunshots in Hanover Park. A statistic like that, stripped of context, is meaningless. A reduction in gunfire doesn’t automatically signal safety. It could just as easily mean the assailants are getting more accurate. But what makes this even more disturbing is that we are being asked to celebrate an empty number while our children are under siege.

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TAFELBERG SCHOOL SITE DESIGN CONCEPTS:  A MOMENT OF HOPE

GOOD Speech / By

Last night, consultants for the Western Cape Government presented initial design concepts for the redevelopment of a site many of us know as the Tafelberg School site in Sea Point, although it’s now been quietly renamed “353-on-Main.” The name change might suggest a wish to move past the conflict and controversy tied to this land, a public site once earmarked for sale to private developers, despite the city’s urgent inner-city affordable housing crisis.

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WORKERS’ DAY IN THE WESTERN CAPE: COMMEMORATING STRUGGLE WHILST CAMPAIGNING AGAINST PROGRESS

GOOD Speech / By

Before we begin this debate, let’s just pause to acknowledge the deep irony of having it here in the Western Cape, a province where the leadership is actively campaigning against progressive changes to employment equity laws. To honour the sacrifices of workers while simultaneously fighting to entrench historical work privilege is not just contradictory, it’s outrageous.

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BANNED FROM BEIJING: MEC MEYER MUST BE HELD ACCOUNTABLE

GOOD Speech / By

Honourable members, let us not lose sight of a fundamental principle: when you are an elected official, the lines between your personal and public life are inevitably blurred.  This is not just a matter of perception; it is a matter of responsibility. MEC Meyer, as the Western Cape Minister for Agriculture, Economic Development and Tourism, holds a position of public trust. His foremost duty is to protect and advance the economic interests of this province. So how can that duty be effectively carried out if he is personally banned from entering China, our largest trading partner in Asia?

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