Some love her. Many hate her with an
astounding passion. By her own admission she is a person not
familiar with the neutral middle-ground and is comfortable
with the strong reactions her personality provokes. .
Helen Zille is the Executive Mayor of
Cape Town and for the past two weeks she has been fighting
for her political survival. Throughout this time Special
Assignment’s cameras were there. This Tuesday we document
the inside story of the political drama that has unfolded in
Cape Town over the past few weeks.
Was the crisis robust democracy in
action, or did it in fact threaten the gains we’ve made
since 1994? What was driving the animosity that spewed forth
at times and is it likely to be a factor in our future
politics? As councillors hurl abuse at one another in the
Council Chambers, we ask: is there more to this than meets
the eye?
We
also meet up with Richard Dyanti, MEC for Local Government
and the man who proposed to amend the system under which the
Mother City is governed. His intervention is pro-democracy
he insists and has nothing to do with grabbing power as
Zille claims. He simply wanted a more “inclusive
government”.
During the local government elections 62%
of the electorate voted for one or another of the opposition
parties – and therefore against the ANC. For the past six
months the City of Cape Town has being ruled by a
broad-based alliance of opposition parties, headed by the
DA’s Helen Zille as Executive Mayor. The ANC and ID have had
to take on the role of opposition. The ruling coalition
seems to have confounded many of its initial critics by
merging into a workable and stable governing unit.
But then the Western Cape Minister of
Local Government, Richard Dyanti attempted to amend the
system of government. He wanted to replace the current
mayoral committee system headed by Zille, with an executive
committee whose members would be selected in proportion to
the number of votes each party received in the March 2006
elections. This system could hand control to the ANC and the
ID. Critics saw this attempt to change the system as a naked
grab for power and it provoked an outcry.
But then a compromise solution was
suddenly reached last Tuesday when the Minister of
Provincial and Local Government Sydney Mufamadi intervened.
True to the nature of politics both Dyanti and Zille claimed
victory. Both gave up something and gained something in
return. But Zille emerged with the mayoral chain still
firmly around her neck and that, for her, is the ultimate
victory.
The Battle for
Cape Town
is produced by
Anneliese Burgess and was filmed by Brian
Uranovsky.
