WESTERN CAPE

R562 MILLION LATER – STILL NO PERMANENT WCED HEAD OFFICE, NO INNER-CITY HOUSING, AND NO ACCOUNTABILITY

GOOD Statement / By

The Western Cape Government has spent over half a billion rand on office space for the Western Cape Education Department (WCED),yet it still has no permanent headquarters. This alarming misuse of public funds was revealed in written responses to GOOD by current Infrastructure MEC Tertuis Simmers and former MEC Bonginkosi Madikizela, following parliamentary questions submitted in November 2020, and again in April and June 2025.

R562 MILLION LATER – STILL NO PERMANENT WCED HEAD OFFICE, NO INNER-CITY HOUSING, AND NO ACCOUNTABILITY Read More »

MITCHELLS PLAIN MASSACRE: ANOTHER TRAGIC SYMPTOM OF A VIOLENT, UNJUST CITY

GOOD Statement / By

The GOOD Party is devastated by the spate of gang-related shootings in Mitchell’s Plain, which left five people dead and seven more injured across multiple locations. Our hearts go out to the families mourning loved ones, and to the communities once again living in fear. This is not the first tragedy of its kind, and heartbreakingly, it will not be the last, unless our government at all levels finds the courage to face the truth that this is not just a policing crisis, this is a planning, poverty, and inequality crisis.

MITCHELLS PLAIN MASSACRE: ANOTHER TRAGIC SYMPTOM OF A VIOLENT, UNJUST CITY Read More »

GUN VIOLENCE AND SPATIAL INJUSTICE: CAPE TOWN’S DEEPENING CRISIS

GOOD Statement / By

Gun violence continues to plague the Western Cape, and the City of Cape Town remains disturbingly unprepared, and seemingly unwilling, to confront the root causes of the crisis. In June, seven people were gunned down in a mass shooting at a home in the Kanana Informal Settlement, Gugulethu. In a separate incident in White City, Nyanga, two men were murdered in cold blood. Just days earlier, the bodies of three men were discovered in Samora Machel. These are not isolated incidents, they are symptoms of a deepening urban crisis rooted in inequality, spatial injustice, and the persistent failure of leadership.

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SWELLENDAM MUNICIPALITY: GOOD WELCOMES NEWS OF HAWKS INVESTIGATION INTO TENDER FRAUD ALLEGATIONS

GOOD Statement / By

The GOOD Party welcomes reports that the Directorate for Priority Crime Investigation (the Hawks) are now probing the serious allegations contained in the preliminary Vermaak Report into procurement irregularities in the Swellendam Municipality. This development is a significant moment for accountability and justice in a municipality that has long been mired in allegations of fraud, misconduct, and political interference.

SWELLENDAM MUNICIPALITY: GOOD WELCOMES NEWS OF HAWKS INVESTIGATION INTO TENDER FRAUD ALLEGATIONS Read More »

WESTERN CAPE HOUSING QUEUE: WAITING FOR A GRAVE, NOT A HOME

GOOD Statement / By

The Western Cape’s housing backlog now sits at a staggering 688,824 households and is growing. Yet, the answers received from Infrastructure MEC Tertuis Simmers expose a system so dysfunctional that it might as well not exist. When asked how long the top ten applicants in each municipality have been waiting, the answers are devastating; many have waited more than 30 years. One individual has been on the list for over 62 years.

WESTERN CAPE HOUSING QUEUE: WAITING FOR A GRAVE, NOT A HOME Read More »

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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CHANELLE PLAATJIES IS MORE THAN A NAME: THE WESTERN CAPE’S FAILURE TO PROTECT ITS GIRLS

GOOD Statement / By

Today, a female body was discovered during a community search for missing teenager, Chanelle Plaatjies. Chanelle was reported missing by her mother on May 28. We do not yet have confirmation that the body is hers nor whether there is evidence of any rape, but we do know this – Chanelle is more than a name, more than a photo on a missing poster. She is the face of a growing crisis, one that is swallowing our children, especially our girls, in silence and shadow. Gender-based violence and femicide are a national crisis, and the Western Cape is not immune. The statistics show that girls and women are no safer today, despite the province’s multi-billion-rand safety plan.

As we start Youth Month, running concurrently with Child Protection Week. We need to reflect on the environment our children are growing up in. When rape and murder become a normalised part of childhood in working-class communities, when children go missing and no emergency is declared, that is policy failure.

CHANELLE PLAATJIES IS MORE THAN A NAME: THE WESTERN CAPE’S FAILURE TO PROTECT ITS GIRLS Read More »

GEORGE BUILDING COLLAPSE: GOOD EXITS COUNCIL COALITION AFTER PLANNING MMC BANNED FROM SPEAKING

GOOD Statement / By

George Councillor Chantelle Kyd was the MMC for Planning in a coalition municipal government led by the DA, and the leading advocate in council for transparency around investigations into the collapsed George building, which claimed 34 lives last year.

But when the Council meets to table the first of two (technical and legal) investigations into the disaster tomorrow – confidentially, without media present – the DA caucus in the coalition has decided that it is too risky to allow Kyd to speak. The only members of the coalition allowed to speak are the mayor and deputy mayor, both representing the DA.

GEORGE BUILDING COLLAPSE: GOOD EXITS COUNCIL COALITION AFTER PLANNING MMC BANNED FROM SPEAKING Read More »

DEVOLUTION ISN’T A CURE, IT’S A DISTRACTION

GOOD Statement / By

The Western Cape Government has once again turned to its favourite scapegoat, National Government, calling for the devolution of policing powers as if that alone will put an end to the bloodshed on our streets. This latest call comes in the wake of another tragic quarter of crime data that paints a clear picture that the gangsters remain in charge, and the Western Cape Government is still out of ideas. From January to March 2025, 1,068 people were murdered in the Western Cape. While the province recorded a 4% decline from the same quarter last year, it shows that 81% of all murders in the province occur within the City of Cape Town alone.

DEVOLUTION ISN’T A CURE, IT’S A DISTRACTION Read More »

DA RESPONSE TO RUPERT ABROGATES RESPONSIBILITY FOR WESTERN CAPE GANGSTERISM

GOOD Statement / By

The DA has outrageously washed its hands of responsibility for transforming the culture of gangsterism in the Western Cape until it is given control of the police. The party has been running the governments of Cape Town and the Western Cape for nearly two decades, more than long enough to implement its policies and programmes, but it takes no responsibility for gangsterism, which it blames solely on incompetent national policing.

DA RESPONSE TO RUPERT ABROGATES RESPONSIBILITY FOR WESTERN CAPE GANGSTERISM Read More »

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