Cape Town City councillors are exploiting park upgrades for votes. That’s according to a community liaison officer (name withheld) of mayoral committee member for community services Zahid Badroodien. He also said park budgets are not spent resulting in work to complete projects being performed up to midnight on the last day of the financial year before budgets lapse. In some suburbs no one uses recreational facilities like Gugulethu that has five astro-turf courts costing R5 million each within a small radius. The official told me this on December 9 during a meeting about unneeded politically driven developments to our local park (see here ). When I heard about these “upgrades” – a pathway, and for the next financial year, exercise equipment and multi-purpose courts – in September, I raised it with Badroodien, Mayor Dan Plato and city manager Lungelo Mbandazayo. Badroodien promised to investigate according to the liaison officer but nothing came of it and the pathway was constructed. T...