Entilini Concession Pty Ltd is a public-private initiative that was set up by the Western Cape government to implement the tolling of visitors to Chapmans Peak and is responsible for the Drive’s maintenance. The long loved Chapmans Peak Drive with its world renowned sightseeing views in Hout Bay will, according to the approved building plans, be overshadowed by two-storey office blocks which will include, as reported by Melanie Gosling of the Cape Times: “A ground floor that contains a reception area and offices for the plaza manager, secretaries, a foreman, internal auditor and human resources manager. It has a staff room with a television and kitchen, a large “control room”, cash room, technician’s workshop, archive, two cloakrooms with lavatories and showers, and two other lavatories. There is a “cash collection garage”, a large storeroom and a workshop. The office has its own sewerage plant.

The upper storey has a lobby/display area, kitchen, two cloakrooms and a storeroom, and offices for the general manager, a personal assistant and concessions manager.

Residents say the upper storey is designed for parties and functions. The concessions manager’s office has sliding doors that open into a large meeting room. This opens on to a covered terrace with a skylight. There is a “service” area. Sliding doors open on to a second terrace, covered by a pergola, that overlooks a landscaped roof terrace. There is another terrace on the roof.”

In response to the bizarre scenario where multi-million Rand office blocks are to be built on the sanctity of a nature reserve, Len Swimmer of the Hout Bay Residents Association said “Nobody is allowed to build in a national park. What is the benefit to the public?”

How the public will benefit is questionable, however the cost of the project is set at R54 million of which tax-payers will be expected to pay R25 million of the bill. Over and above the extra tax burden to the Western Cape, the amount of toll booths currently charging visitors to drive through this iconic Capetonian landmark will double. Further to these expenses, the DA’s Robin Carlisle has said that at his decision the ‘picnic passes’, in which visitors could previously enjoy free entry into the picnic area, will be abolished and full toll-fees will apply. However, Carlisle gave reassurance that the Province would recover all present and future costs over time.

In response to the public outcry, David Mabunda, the CEO of SANParks said, “It is a considered view of the SAN­Parks board that this toll-gate development, as per the approved record of decision, does not threaten the ecological integrity of Table Moun­tain National Park,”

Mabunda denies that the ecological integrity of the reserve will be threatened by the building works, but residents are also angry over what would be the aesthetic destruction of the mountain side. If the DA-led Western Cape government, BEE company Entilini Concession and SANParks are not held to account on these developments, Hout Bay locals as well as visitors to this world famous setting will be greeted by two-storey office blocks. However the tax-payers Rands will be sure to benefit the few Entilini and Government connected who will be the only ones to have the pleasure of enjoying the Entilini terraces.

The objection presented evidence in which Cape Party votes had increased considerably where recounts had been possible. The objection has been rejected by the IEC, and barring further costly legal action (costs which the Cape Party can no longer incur), the results of the May 18 elections will be considered final.

The final valid vote count for the Cape Party in the City of Cape Town Metro is a total of: 3032 votes

Seats were allocated to 11 of the 33 parties

The Cape Party positioned 12 of the 33 parties

The Freedom Front, in position 11, received the final seat with 3985 votes

(further voting results can be found at www.elections.org.za)

Thank you to all of the candidates and Cape Party supporters who worked tirelessly in the 2011 Local Elections campaign.

Months without rest resulted in a sizeable campaign that provided the people of Cape Town with the first real opportunity to be introduced to the Cape Party and the message of Cape independence. Applaud must be given to the candidates outside of Cape Town who showed determination and took personal responsibility to spread the cause, it is actions such as these which will determine our future. The 2011 campaign projected the message of Cape independence with far greater reach than was achieved in 2009. We now implore all supporters to continue spreading the message of Cape independence in any way that you can. Speak to your friends, family and colleagues, urge them to spread the message, get involved and donate to the cause. If our vision is to be achieved we need your support now more than ever. This election revealed the increasing political detachment of the Cape from the central state as voters rejected the ANC, however it also reinforced the political status quo. If the voting public is not made aware of their power to bring about an overhaul of the political system through a Cape Party vote then the political path we are on in this country will only accelerate. The future of this country rests on your choices.

The Cape Party

- Mahatma Ghandi -

Imagine the Western Cape in 15 years time. The ANC will be in power having bussed its supporters down to prop up its hopeless situation with Western Cape voters, and all of a sudden things will begin to change. Nothing will work, there will be potholes in the roads, the streets will be lined with litter and the once glittering Western Cape will be no more, perhaps only to be spoken of using the expression “When I was growing up…”. Oh and just one other thing, you won’t be able to find a job even if you’re well qualified because the ANC is about to pass a law which guarantees that Affirmative Action quotas are to be applied according to national and not regional demographics.

What does this mean? The black national majority (79%) will fill 79% of all jobs in the Western Cape, for no other reason than the fact that they’re black. Coloureds and whites will get jobs according to their national share of the population. At present coloureds are roughly 52% of the Western Cape population and whites 18%, but under the newly proposed AA laws coloureds are only allowed to be given 8% of the jobs and whites 9% in line with their respective national share.

So we can wave our technicians and artisans goodbye, and just about everyone with the wrong skin colour. To me this sounds remarkably like apartheid, “Job Reservation” “The Colour Bar act”, all these spring to mind, but what has not yet been considered is the impact on the economy which will be disastrous as the regional majority are legislated into lives of extreme poverty and destitution all because the ANC wants to take the Western Cape and make it ANC forever.

In May 2009, after Helen Zille became Premier of the Western Cape, Julius Malema promised to bus in “500 000 blacks males” from Transkei. Let’s not forget the time when Zille was appointed as mayor of Cape Town. The ANC tried every trick in the book to unseat her, showing that they will stop at nothing to reach their ultimate goal: Total Domination.

We have a window of perhaps 15 years in which we have to pull off Cape Independence. To wait any longer is to put our cherished home, the Cape, under grave danger, danger it will eventually capitulate to. What is now a beautiful, iconic land, with extraordinary sights as far as the eye can see will be destroyed by the ANC and its culturally imperialist agenda. Businesses and skilled people will leave. Our young people will seek opportunities elsewhere and the Cape will be a shell of itself.

Its time we all did more to preserve the most beautiful place on earth

In 1953, Adolph ‘Sailor’ Malan, launched the largest protests ever waged against the Apartheid government. Over 250 000 members formed what was called the “Torch Commandos”. They marched at night, guided by the light of torch-fire to protest against the Apartheid governments discriminative and oppressive policies. The Torch Commando’s demanded an end to the NP’s race-based policies and that voting rights be returned to Cape coloureds. In Malan’s own words, the Torch Commando’s were “established to oppose the police state, abuse of state power, censorship, racism, the removal of the Coloured vote and other oppressive manifestations of the creeping fascism of the National Party regime”

‘Sailor’ Malan was born in Wellington on the 3rd of October, 1910. He died 17 September 1963.

Year after year the Western Cape outperforms South Africa in GDP growth.

In spite of the discriminative and centralised ‘Division of Revenue Act’ which extracts almost half of the Cape’s revenue out of the province, the Western Cape still manages to outperform South Africa as a whole in GDP growth.

An argument often presented in opposition to Cape independence is that the Cape is economically dependent on South Africa and specifically Gauteng. Analysis of the facts soon disperses this myth.

There are countries around the World that are a fraction the size of the Cape, with a fraction of the resources, in far less desirable geographical locations that are economic power houses (high income per capita, low unemployment): Singapore, Luxembourg, Lichtenstein, Monaco, Mauritius, South Korea, Switzerland, Hong Kong etc… What many of these countries share is good political and economic policies. There is no reason why a Cape Republic could not join some of the highest earning income per capita countries in the world, coupled with the lowest unemployment levels.

There is outrage over Shell’s proposal to use hydraulic fracturing (fracking) to extract gases below the surface in the Karoo. This method of extracting gas for energy has been well documented as destructive to the environment as well as endangering the lives of people and animals living in the area. Water sources become highly toxic and in some cases tap water has been seen to explode into flames when exposed to an open source of fire. The land in which fracking has taken place can become toxicated and cannot be used for livestock, agriculture or even human habitation due to the health risks it poses. At the conference in Cape Town to discuss the proposed fracking of the Karoo a large public attendance broke into angry opposition to the proposal.

The South African government is in the process of approving the proposal by Shell to use the Karoo area in the Cape for hydraulic fracturing. By doing so, the government would be openly consenting and supporting the environmental destruction of this beautiful area. This must be stopped.

The Cape Party is promoting mass civil action against the government to prevent them from giving rights to Shell to hydraulic fracture in the Karoo. When one considers the nature of the South African governments dealings in the past one has to question why Shell’s proposal is even being considered (the public still awaits a full expose into the beneficiaries of the R64 billion Arms Deal.)

The government’s blatant disregard for the Cape, and their circumvention of the will of the people would be impossible in a Cape Republic.

If justice would be followed as it should, then a referendum should be held by the people of the Karoo to decide if rights should be given to Shell to use hydraulic fracturing on their land. Based on the considerable evidence detailing the destructive effects of this it is within simple reason that the Karoo would vote in unanimous rejection of such a proposal. The South African government, however, seems to be completely out of touch with the people of the country they are supposed to serve.

Watch the ‘Gasland’ trailer detailing the dangers of hydraulic fracturing Watch the ‘Gasland’ trailer detailing the dangers of hydraulic fracturing

Follow the link to Greenpeace Africa below to take a stand.

Support TKAG, a Karoo based action group opposing hydraulic fracturing in the Karoo

Sign the petition

This day marked the revival of a sentiment where oppression and discrimination was cast off to make way for the intrinsic human right to freedom. The people marched to Parliament to hand over a memorandum demanding that ‘Die Tweede Nuwe Jaar’ be reinstated as a public holiday to allow for the minstrel ceremonies that have long been celebrated as a hallmark of Cape identity and a proud part of our historical culture. The memorandum further demanded that an accurate and balanced account of the Cape’s long history be reintroduced into the education system to counter-balance the current schooling curriculum that indoctrinates our children with a history that begins and ends with the ANC.

To understand our identity, our place in the present fold of time and our God-given human rights to self-determination we must know the path of history that led us to this crossroad. Our decisions, or lack thereof, will shape the future of those that follow us.