Mayor’s N2 Wall Narrative Is Built on Gaslighting

GOOD Statement by Sandra Dickson, GOOD City of Cape Town Councillor:

The Mayor’s latest public narrative on the N2 wall, housing delivery and infrastructure spending is not an honest reflection of the City’s performance. It is a deliberate attempt to reshape reality and present it in a way that hides failure while appearing responsive. The graphic now circulating suggests the City is investing meaningfully in both safety and housing. But, once the numbers and the City’s reports are questioned, it becomes clear that this is not a story of delivery; it is a story of distraction.

What is being presented to residents is a curated version of the truth. Billions are highlighted in transport and infrastructure, while the lived realities of people in informal settlements and working-class communities remain unchanged. The inclusion of the N2 wall within this broader infrastructure-narrative is particularly telling. It is being framed as a safety intervention when it is neither a crime prevention strategy nor a response to the root causes of violence in our communities. The Mayor wants residents to believe that this wall will make them safer. It will not. It will not stop organised crime. It will not prevent gang activity. It will not address hijackings, nor will it change the socio-economic conditions that drive criminal behaviour. At best, it shifts visibility. At worst, it creates a false sense of security while deeper issues remain unaddressed.

What we are witnessing is not just spin. It is gaslighting.

Residents are being told that what they are seeing and experiencing is not the full picture, that the City is doing more than it is. This is done by repeating partial truths, elevating selective figures, and avoiding the uncomfortable reality that service delivery is not keeping pace with needs. This pattern is not limited to safety. It extends directly into how housing delivery is being communicated. The City continues to claim success based on targets achieved, but fails to disclose that those targets have been significantly reduced over time. Where the City once worked within a housing delivery environment targeting approximately 6,000 units per year, current targets sit at around 1,300 units per year. That is not a minor adjustment. It is a collapse in ambition of close to 80%.

The consequence of this is simple. When the City reports that it is meeting its targets, it is not because delivery has improved: It is because the benchmark has been lowered to a point where underperformance now appears as success. This is further compounded by how the City reports its spending. There is a deliberate blurring of what is delivered and what is merely planned or committed. Under the Municipal Finance Management Act, funds can be committed to projects and then rolled over into future financial years. That means money reflected in budgets does not automatically translate into homes built or services delivered.

Residents are therefore being asked to accept figures that do not reflect reality on the ground. The City’s own Adjustments Budget confirms funding shifts and reductions, including a decrease of R30.6 million in a housing project; yet this is not reflected in the public narrative of progress .

This is not transparent governance. It is narrative management.

The most concerning part is that this is not a once-off misrepresentation. It is a pattern that continues to repeat itself. The Mayor cannot help but return to the same approach, presenting a simplified story, repeating it often enough, and hoping that residents do not interrogate the details. But residents are not confused. They are living the reality every day. They’re aware that housing opportunities are not increasing at the pace required. They know that safety has not improved in their communities. They know that walls do not solve the problems they face.

Residents are not confused; they are being misled. They live the reality every day, and no amount of repetition from the Mayor will change what they see with their own eyes. Housing is not being delivered at the scale claimed. Safety in their communities has not improved. And no wall, no matter how it is sold, will fix what this administration refuses to confront. Cape Town does not have a communication problem. It has a leadership that continues to distort the truth to protect its image.

The more the Mayor repeats this narrative, the clearer it becomes that this is not about delivery, it is about deception, and residents are expected to carry the consequences of that.

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