Parties slug it out at rowdy Cape Town debate

MOIRA SCHNEIDER

At times, eNCA news editor-in-chief Jeremy Maggs had his work cut out in maintaining a semblance of order at The Great Cape Debate, hosted by the Cape South African Jewish Board of Deputies (SAJBD) at the Century City Conference Centre on Sunday night.

Participating were Ferlon Christians, the provincial leader of the African Christian Democratic Party; Ebrahim Rasool, African National Congress Western Cape head of elections and former premier of the province; Alan Winde, Democratic Alliance Western Cape premier candidate and the province’s minister of community safety; and Brett Herron, GOOD Party secretary-general.

Cape Board chairman Rael Kaimowitz set the scene, saying, “Tonight is another act of democracy and taking responsibility, allowing us to make informed decisions come election day.” Maggs kicked off the debate, saying that 55% of the country’s registered voters were female, “yet there are four men here tonight”.

“This is no reflection of what we think of females,” replied Christians (ACDP). “Our number two is a female, and we place them very high on the list.”

Rasool stated that the ANC had a sexual harassment policy in place, to which Maggs interjected, “You’ve taken your time developing the policy, haven’t you?” Undeterred, Rasool continued, “We’ve made it very clear that every second candidate will be a woman, and women will be protected against sexual harassment. We’ve got the fourth highest representation of women in parliaments anywhere in the world.”

Said the DA’s Winde, “The premier of this province at the moment and for [the past] 10 years is a woman. I have some fairly large shoes to fill should I be successful after this election.” He said that the biggest issue facing the province was crime, specifically directed against women, including a “massive” rape rate.

“We need to bring that kind of management down to a provincial and local level. But we’re pushed back every time we try and step into that space.”

Herron said the GOOD movement was led by two women. “We don’t have separate women’s leagues – they’re seated at the table. Women’s issues are right at the top of our manifesto, policies and leadership.”

Maggs then commented that a survey done a few years ago had shown that the Western Cape had the highest rate of racism and xenophobia in the country. “What are you going to do about it?” he asked the panellists.

Like all good politicians, they side-stepped the thorny issue, preferring to focus on safety matters. “Gender-based violence is an epidemic in the Western Cape,” said Rasool. “Here’s a man who draws a salary every month as the MEC for community safety,” he said referring to Winde. “If he thinks the portfolio is as useless as he says it is, he should resign.”

“Leaders in South Africa are shying away from speaking about racism, as Mr Winde did,” said Herron. “Leaders need to step forward and tackle racism head-on. Mr Winde switched the debate to policing – we must get to the root causes of crime if we’re to address it.”

“What are you going to do differently to reduce crime?” Maggs probed. “You can’t tackle it only through policing,” Herron suggested, “but by combining policing with social interventions.”

“Build a community facility, introduce social programmes. We need to deal with the history of the country, the deprivation, and the fact that people don’t have access to facilities.

Christians said the DA, the governing party in the province, was using a “small amount” of the budget for security “so the DA’s not serious about it. Neighbourhood watches are under-resourced. We need to resource our community police forums.”

Winde countered that the Western Cape was the only province with accredited neighbourhood watches.

In a further attempt to get an answer to his earlier question, Maggs asked, “How would your party create an environment that protects people from hate?”

“We need to be spending a lot more time in the civil society space when it comes to prevention, and the ‘No Place for Hate’ campaign is part of that,” Winde replied.

“We’d want to find an upgraded version of making the province a home for all,” said Rasool. He couldn’t resist a dig at Premier Helen Zille, however, adding, “Prevent a premier from glorifying colonialism and calling people who come in ‘migrants’.

“Once one demonises the other, it creates the conditions for attacks on those people. Build cohesion by eliminating racism and not justifying it. Eliminate racially unequal services,” he said.

Said Herron, “The DA and ANC have been in government for one and a half and two and a half decades respectively and they have failed to build a united, transformed, non-racial South Africa. It’s time to abandon the old parties.

Maggs turned his attention to the changed demographic in the province following steady migration from the Eastern Cape. In response to Maggs mentioning that the DA premier had once termed these migrants “economic refugees”, Rasool said, “That kind of language is inflammatory and creates hate.

“The South African Jewish Board of Deputies was part of the greatest migratory community, partly because of persecution,” he said. “You’ve got to factor new people in and give them equal services as they arrive.”