GOOD Statement by Sandra Dickson, GOOD City of Cape Town Councillor:
The current public participation process on the City of Cape Town’s 2026/27 Draft Budget raises serious concerns about whether residents are being meaningfully informed or deliberately misled.
What we are witnessing across subcouncil budget engagements is not genuine public participation. It is a carefully managed process where the Democratic Alliance government presents a simplified version of the budget, avoids meaningful financial scrutiny, and allows discussions to drift into everyday service delivery complaints.
This is not by accident. It is by design.
The Municipal Systems Act is clear: public participation must be meaningful, informed, and capable of influencing decisions. The Constitution further obliges municipalities to actively encourage community involvement in matters of governance. What is currently happening falls far short of that standard.
Instead of equipping residents to interrogate the budget, the City’s presentations focus on:
- Selected ward-level projects that create the impression of delivery,
- Simplified tariff percentages without explaining their real financial impact,
- General service narratives that distract from the actual cost implications residents will face from 1 July 2026.
At recent engagements, discussions were dominated by issues such as potholes, law enforcement failures, and accessibility challenges. While these are legitimate concerns, they are not the purpose of a budget meeting.
The result is that residents are leaving these engagements without asking the most critical questions:
- How will this budget affect my monthly bill?
- What fixed charges are increasing regardless of usage?
- Are property rate reductions real, or offset by increased property valuations?
- Where is the bulk of the City’s R87.79 billion budget actually being spent?
This is deeply concerning.
A budget is not a report-back session. It is a financial plan that directly determines what residents will pay and what services they will receive. If residents are not guided to interrogate it properly, then the process becomes nothing more than a tick-box exercise to legitimise decisions that have already been made.
Residents must understand the stakes.
If this budget passes, which it will by a majority vote in Council, its financial implications will take effect from 1 July 2026. Once adopted, it cannot simply be reversed because residents later realise its impact.
- Increases in electricity, water, sanitation, and fixed charges will become binding.
- The shift to property value-based charges will continue to place pressure on households.
- And any failure to challenge priorities now will lock in spending decisions for the year ahead.
This is the moment for residents to act.
We urge every resident, civic organisation, and community structure to:
- Engage directly with the actual budget documents, not just presentations,
- Calculate the real impact on their household finances,
- Submit formal comments and objections before the deadline.
Silence will be interpreted as agreement.
The DA-led City must be held accountable for ensuring that public participation is not only accessible but meaningful. Anything less undermines the very principles of democratic governance and fairness.
Residents deserve the truth. They deserve transparency. And most importantly, they deserve a real opportunity to influence the decisions that affect their daily lives.
GOOD Skills Training: GOOD emphasizes the importance of skills training for the workforce.
Bliss
Diary of an Englishman after he moves to South Africa….
**August 1**: Just got transferred with work from London, UK to our new home in Phalaborwa, Limpopo, South Africa. Now this is a town that knows how to live! Beautiful, sunny days and warm, balmy evenings. I watched the sunset from a deckchair by our pool yesterday. It was beautiful. I’ve finally found my new home. I love it here.
**September 1:** Really heating up now. It got to 31 today. No problem though. Living in air-conditioned home, driving air-conditioned car. What a pleasure to see the sun every day like this. I’m turning into a sun-worshipper – no blasted rain like back in London! Had the back yard landscaped with tropical plants today. Lots of palms and rocks. No more mowing lawns for me! Another scorcher today, but I love it here. It’s Paradise !
**October 1:** The temperature hasn’t been below 35 all week. How do people get used to this kind of heat? At least today it’s windy though. Keeps the flies off a bit. Acclimatizing is taking longer than we expected. Fell asleep by the pool yesterday. Got third degree burns over 60% of my body. Missed three days off work. What a dumb thing to do. Got to respect the old sun in a climate like this!
**October 25:** This wind is a bastard. It feels like a giant fucking blow dryer. And it’s hot as hell! The home air conditioner is on the blink and the repair man charged R200 just to drive over and tell me he needs to order parts from @#$# Johannesburg. The wife & the kids are complaining.
**October 30:** The temperature’s up around 40 and the parts still haven’t arrived for the fucking air conditioner. House is an oven so we’ve all been sleeping outside by the pool for 3 nights now. Bleeding R4 million house and we can’t even go inside. Why the hell did I ever come here?
**November 4:** Finally got the fucking air-conditioner fixed. It cost R1,500 and gets the temperature down to around 35 degrees. Stupid repairman. Fucking thief. If one more smart bastard says ‘Hot enough for you today?’ I’m going to fucking throttle him. Fucking heat! By the time I get to work, the car radiator is boiling over, my fucking clothes are soaking fucking wet and I smell like baked cat. Fucking place is the end of the Earth.
**November 9:** Tried to run some errands after work, wore shorts, and sat on the black leather upholstery in my car. I thought my fucking backside was on fire. I lost 2 layers of flesh, all the hair on the backs of my legs and off my fucking behind. Now the car smells like burnt hair, fried bum and baked cat. The Weather report might as well be a fucking recording – hot and sunny. Hot and sunny, Hot and fucking sunny. It’s been too hot to do anything for 2 bleeding months and the weatherman says it might really warm up next week. Fuck!!
**November 15:** Doesn’t it ever rain in this darn place? Water restrictions will be next, so my R5,000 worth of palms might just dry up and blow into the fucking pool. The only things that thrive in this hell-hole are the fucking flies. You don’t dare open your mouth for fear of swallowing half a dozen of the little buzzards!
**November 20:** Welcome to HELL! It got to 45 degrees today. Now the air conditioner is gone in my car. The repair man came to fix it and said, ‘Hot enough for you today?’ I wanted to shove the car up his backside. Anyway, had to spend the R2,500 of the mortgage payment to bail me out of jail for assaulting the stupid fool. Fucking PHALABORWA! What kind of sick, demented idiot would want to live here!
**December 1:** WHAT!!!! The FIRST day of Summer!!!!
You are fucking kidding me, right?
Shwatson
A Priest was seated next to Van Der Merwe on a flight to Brakpan.
After the plane was airborne, drink orders were taken.
Van Der Merwe asked for a Rum and Coke, which was brought and placed before him.
The flight attendant then asked the priest if he would like a drink.
He replied in disgust \”I\’d rather be savagely raped by a dozen whores than let liquor touch my lips.\”
Van Der Merwe then handed his drink back to the attendant and said \”Me too, I didn\’t know we had a choice.\”