Well, this was a complete waste of everyone’s time.

Back in February, the City of Cape Town named Mitchell du Plessis Associates (MDA) as the qualifying bidder for the development of the multi-billion rand Foreshore Freeway Precinct.

Fast-forward five months, and guess what? The project is now being scrapped.

That’s right, the project – estimated to cost R8,3 billion – is no more.

This is what city manager Lungelo Mbandazayo had to say on Wednesday, according to Times LIVE:

Having received legal advice‚ the city concluded that a lack of sufficient clarity in the request for proposals documentation rendered the evaluation criteria vague.

Procurement processes must be compliant with the rule of law. There must be no doubt about the integrity of these processes and‚ as such‚ I have decided to cancel the request for proposals.

Furthermore‚ the economic outlook for the country has become significantly weaker since the issuing of the request for proposals two years ago. This change‚ together with the additional burdens that the city‚ its ratepayers‚ and residents are facing at the moment‚ cannot be ignored.

The city is‚ therefore‚ reconsidering the future of this project‚ and we will communicate further once a decision has been made.

All in all, that means that we’re not going to see MDA building those 11 fancy tower blocks, affordable residential units, or unfinished freeways.

Nope. Nada. Niks.

And this iconic guy is still gonna look like this for a while:

Bummer.

Critics have been pointing out flaws in MDA’s winning proposal since February already. That’s when their proposal was chosen by a second bid evaluation committee (then-city manager Achmat Ebrahim had to scrap the first committee after allegations of improprieties and political interference).

Vanessa Watson‚ professor of city planning in the School of Architecture‚ Planning and Geomatics at the University of Cape Town‚ was one of those critics. She said at the time:

There was a big emphasis [in the criteria] on affordable housing‚ on addressing the problems of the apartheid city and spatial segregation‚ acknowledging the historic and cultural nature of Cape Town. The project put forward this week did not meet one of these criteria.

It is another upmarket housing estate‚ creating a wall between Cape Town and the sea. We must be the last city in the world suggesting the completion of our elevated freeways rather than take them down to ground level. There is no recognition of history or place‚ which is what attracts tourists here after all. Architects seem to think we should be copying Singapore or Shanghai.

Heaven forbid. Next we’ll be taking Dubai’s lead and trying to build the world’s largest jigsaw puzzle.

Perhaps it’s for the best. Maybe Cape Town ought to – oh, I don’t know – use all that money to invest in more desalination plants, or actually address the affordable housing crisis head-on.

[source:timeslive]