GOOD Speech delivered during today’s ordinary council sitting by Wesley Neumann, GOOD City of Cape Town Councillor:
Executive Mayor
Your written response confirms a matter of great concern. You state that the so-called that the so-called “Rapid Disposal Process” is not a formally adopted policy of Council, nor is it supported by any approved legislative or regulatory framework. You admit that it is merely an “internal naming convention” used to justify the prioritisation of certain property transactions.
This is deeply troubling and concerning.
Any such prioritisation of disposals constitutes a clear administrative action with material implications for timing, resource allocation, and expenditure.
These are not minor procedural details; they directly affect who gains access to City-owned land and on what terms. The absence of a written delegation, transparent criteria, or audit trail raises serious concerns about compliance with sections 59(1)(a) and 63(2) of the Municipal Systems Act, section 14(5) of the Municipal Finance Management Act (MFMA), and sections 195(1)(d) and (f) of the Constitution.
I therefore ask:
- Under which specific written delegation, approved by Council, is any official authorised to prioritise transactions for “rapid” disposal?
- Where have these delegations or prioritisation criteria been published or made accessible to Council and the public?
- What audit mechanisms exist to ensure such prioritisation is applied lawfully, equitably, and transparently?
The Mayor also refutes that the Gilray property is being prepared for disposal, claiming its future use remains under review. Yet clearing activity and disposal-linked preparations are already underway, without any statutory public participation or Council approval. This presents a fundamental contradiction – You deny the existence of a Rapid Disposal Process while implementing one in practice.
Does this not amount to the City acting outside the law, effectively implementing a policy in practice that it denies exists in principle?
If none exist, then the so-called Rapid Disposal Process operates without lawful authority and undermines the Council’s constitutional and fiduciary responsibilities to act transparently and in the public interest.
This issue is not procedural; it speaks to the ethical practices of how public land is managed. The City cannot continue to create informal administrative mechanisms that bypass Council oversight or public participation.
I trust you will provide full documentary reference and clarity on this matter in accordance with the City’s own Policy.
GOOD Healthcare: GOOD supports improving access to quality healthcare for all citizens.
miss rum punch
Fun South African Fact: The South African Rovos Rail is considered the most luxurious train in the world.
Gas Man
The Man who could only Drink Milk
I know an old man who had lived a life full of adventure, but his health started to catch up with him. He\’d run the Boston Marathon, was an avid surfer, and climbed Everest, but he\’d started to have abdominal pains around his 85th birthday and went to see a doctor. Sadly, he ultimately was diagnosed with a rare degenerative liver disease that slowly made him allergic to everything he ate.
He kept copious notes, and as an avid gastronomist slowly grew to despair as everything he\’d spent his life enjoying became something he could no longer eat. Alcohol went first, then mushrooms, then bread, then root vegetables, then coffee, one at a time he had to remove them from his diet. The doctor was clear: if he kept eating something his liver rejected the autoimmune response would be quick and severe, and would lead to a painful death. Little by little, everything was taken away as an option, until the only thing that remained was milk.
In some ways, this actually made life easier, because the mental strain of remembering what he could and couldn\’t eat was gone, but then so was the joy in variety. But he took it in stride, and got his own cow and took classes from a farmer to learn everything he could about the only thing that could give him sustenance. And even within milk, he could still have yogurt, butter, cream, some cheeses, and other milk-derived products he hadn\’t fully rejected yet, so it wasn\’t all bad. But then one day a few months later he felt the pain again, and he knew cow\’s milk was no longer an option.
Lacking other options, he tried goat\’s milk, and he was delighted that it worked! The protein structure is just different enough that his body still tolerated it. That bought him another month. And that\’s when we came up with a wonderful plan to go on one last grand adventure around the world. If he could get one month of life out of the milk of every mammal, he\’d actually have a few more years to enjoy life to the fullest and see the world in all its beauty. Each month, we\’d pick a place with a new mammal, and he would immerse himself fully with the locals, learn all the ways to prepare the milk, and just enjoy the hand he had been dealt as much as he could.
We milked sheep in New Zealand. Camels in Egypt. Zebras in South Africa. Giant bats in Indonesia. Do you know how many Peruvian cuy you need to milk to get a single glass? I do. Even as his health slowly faded, he stayed cheerful, and I felt lucky to join him on the adventure of a lifetime. That brings us to today when he got to the very end of his spreadsheet, and declared that he was now allergic to every mammal. He\’d enjoyed his journey, but his time had come to an end, for there was nothing left to milk.
To which I said nonsense, I bet we can milk a few thousand karma out of this post.