We often joke about the Western Cape (and Cape Town in particular) being separate from the rest of the country. If you ask Gareth van Onselen, writing in the Rand Daily Mail, that is especially true when it comes to governance.

The article in question compares how Cape Town shapes up against other SA cities, with the author saying it is a clear indicator of the DA’s ability to deliver on their promises. We’ll start with a couple of examples:

[A website] had tried to obtain information about load shedding from all the major metros and only Cape Town was able to provide a detailed response; some of the other metros were unable to respond at all.

You see such snippets of information all the time — from clean audit reports to capital spend. Cape Town is, without doubt, the most efficiently run metro in the country…

Take water supply for example. Cape Town manages its bulk water supply as well as its distribution. This is different from, say, what happens in Gauteng, where the Rand Water Board is charged with distribution — a service outsourced to the various metros in the province…

In the year under review, the City successfully reduced its overall water loss to 14.5%. This is less than all other metros in the country, which maintain a combined average water loss of 29.7%…

In the inner central business district, the City has rolled out a massive IT infrastructure programme to provide free internet to key businesses and public institutions, such as hospitals. It is part of a R1.3-billion seven-year broadband network strategy.

It’s about now that the gloves come off and things start to become rather personal. Teeing off time:

The result is something of a different universe in the Western Cape. It is a world where the basics themselves can be taken for granted: a phone call will be answered, budgets will be spent, systems are outcomes orientated, deliverables are produced on time, standards are monitored and maintained, human resources are based on excellence, and there is a level of accountability not seen across the rest of the country.

And, of course, there is just as much evidence in what is not said about Cape Town: generally corruption free, no litany of massive golden handshakes to rid itself of poor or politically problematic appointments, no sustained abuse of tender procedures, no blatant refusal to account before council and no merry-go-round of executive changes…

The ANC in the Western Cape, a disorganised, divided and entirely reactionary mess, loses ground to the DA almost weekly. One of the great ironies of South African politics is how the ANC, so quick to accuse the DA of “shouting from the sidelines”, is so utterly and totally devoid of any alternative of its own when it comes to being the opposition in the City and province. At policy level it simply cannot compete with the DA administration. Not so much playing catch-up as entirely being unaware there is a race on at all.

And time for the real knockout blow to be landed:

What is the ANC’s plan for Cape Town? The answer is it has none. It has been absolutely eviscerated by sheer excellence and its own inner turmoil…

Just like bad governance, good governance is self-replicating. After five years of repair and reconstruction the City is taking off. And that pattern will gather more speed with time. As it does the ANC in the Western Cape and elsewhere is going to be left further and further in the distance, as comparisons become increasingly stark and definitive in turn.

Ouch, that’s going to leave a mark. I don’t think there’s much to be added really, Gareth has taken this bout by knockout.

[source:rdm]