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Over a month ago, a number of residents in Sea Point started a rates boycott, withholding 50% of their property rates payments, which they vowed to continue until the City of Cape Town gave in to their demands.

The group, which has organised under the banner of the Concerned Residents of Atlantic Seaboard, coordinated by Paul Jacobson, says that the City has been neglecting the area, allowing it to become a space for violence against residents alongside other social misdemeanours.

Jacobson, you may recall, was one of the residents caught up in the Sea Point car torching incident that made huge waves back in May.

Per IOL, the rates boycott was initiated at a meeting last month. In the minutes of the meeting, the group slam what they refer to as the City’s…

…unwillingness and/or inability to stem the flow of homeless people, vagrants, aggressive begging, crime, illegal parking attendants on the Atlantic Seaboard and its failure to enforce its own by-laws in relation to public nuisance, dumping and litter.

In a recent interview with CapeTalk‘s Sarah-Jayne King, Jacobson says that more than 100 residents are taking part in the protest and are continuing to withhold 50% of their rates payments.

He’s calling the Atlantic Seaboard “a warzone, struck by crime and indecent behaviour”:

The City has not only failed to provide services, but they had the audacity to increase rates and to increase their salaries by 6%. We still have a water tariff on our rates billing, but we know the dams are overflowing.

He also elaborated on some the incidents that have allegedly taken place, sparking to the boycott.

We have regular stabbings, we had our first death a few weeks ago. We’ve got regular indecent behaviour where people are masturbating in the driveway to the McDonalds. We had a guy last week ejaculating on someone’s car window and other guys sitting on municipals bin’s with their [genitals] hanging out, defecating…

We’ve got almost 10,000 kilograms of human faeces deposited on our streets and public spaces. We’ve got streetpeople that have been urinating on children.

Atlantic Seaboard ward councillor Nicola Jowell says that 28 residents have informed the City that they are withholding rates.

She also said that crime prevention and public safety are the responsibility of the national South African Police Service (SAPS), and that Jacobson is conflating criminality and homelessness.

The assertion is that the City is failing in its legal obligation with regards to the homeless with the provision of services.

However, as we pointed out Mr. Jacobson before, it remains the responsibility of national and provincial government who jointly hold the Constitutional mandate as well as the budget for those services.

Jowell has accused Jacobson of misogyny and discrimination, claiming that he has posted inflammatory comments about homeless people on the Atlantic Seaboard Facebook page.

The City is not walking away from assisting the community and wanting to assist the homeless, we have done well above what the Constitution requires us to do.

The incorrect expectation has been created that the City can simply remove homeless people from the streets of Sea Point.

You can listen to the full discussion on Sara-Jayne King’s ‘Weekend Breakfast’ show here:

[sources:iol&capetalk)