Govt should take notes from Western Cape

Western Cape people can sometimes come across as smug; after all, they live in what is the most beautiful of all of our provinces. Added to that, they have the most efficient government – and saying that is not a plug for the Democratic Alliance, it is a statement of fact.

By all accounts, they have handled the Covid-19 crisis well, the large number of deaths notwithstanding. And let’s not forget, they have, by far, the highest number of municipalities which get clean audits every year.

That is enough, though, to convince some of their more vocal citizens that they can, and should, now go it alone in their own secessionist state. It’s got to the point where someone has designed a flag, which has echoes of Britain’s Union Jack … a hankering after the “good old days” perhaps?

But while we can easily dismiss the idea of a federal “homeland” in the Western Cape (maybe they should call it “Whineland”), we should rather look at the province in another light. They don’t get everything right, but they can surely serve as a template for what good governance could be.

Much as it would pain the ANC, the reality is they should be taking notes from the Western Cape.

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