Thomas Johnson - The Blog

Cape Town's Parks Department performed unnecessary tree cutting at a local park during August. Two contractors performed the job, Stoddard's and Sunshine. It took a morning. I estimate work of this scope costs R100-150,000. From a horticultural aspect, the cutting was excessive and damaged the trees and their landscaping and environmental purpose. Around half were moderately cut, the remainder severely. Pruning was inconsistent - some trees were left with more growth, others inbetween and a third cut so severely that all that remains is a fringe on top.  All this is indicative of inexpert, unprofessional work and no supervision. As is typical of soft city contracts, apparently Parks did not provide a job specification. There was no supervision of the cutters and no supervision by Parks of the contractors. From the nature of the pruning and the manner Stoddard's and Sunshine performed the work, the workers' were largely unskilled.  I contacted Parks manager Jacques Cedra...

The absence of project and contract direction and supervision in the Cape Town's Parks and environmental services departments and the lack of political oversight by ward and mayoral committee councillors of these departments is creating problems for quality of service.  I will illustrate the problem - absence of contract specification and supervision - with Parks Department's tree pruning contracts but I believe it's also city-wide with contracts like invasive species control and soft - non-engineering - contracts. August is the last month to prune greenery and prepare gardens for summer. There's an old saying that when the city prunes public open space trees, it's time for homeowners to do theirs. But from what I've seen, it's best not to follow their modus operandi: over-cutting that damages trees. There's the right way and the wrong way to do it. The city and its contractors follow the principle that cutting more and more is always better even when it...

Cape Town Olympics debate already decided Sports minister Gayton McKenzie has suggested South Africa could host the F1 Motor Race. Also, others are calling for him to initiate a feasibility study into hosting the 2040 Olympics in Cape Town. Consultants Our Future Cities say it could be done "cheaply" using the Cape Town Stadium as main venue and other existing facilities. They've named the proposal Cape Town 2040 and CT2040. But can Cape Town bid for the games cheaply even if the " deserted monstrosity " CT Stadium is used as main venue? As mega-projects around the world including SA show, they're always over-budget. The World Cup 2010 was originally budgeted around R40 billion but ended at R60 billion.  Incidentally, about the CT Stadium. In 2016 I calculated, after adding costs like employee costs of R21 million and other eg municipal services and routine maintenance the city declined to disclose saying the information "simply did not exist", tha...

Cape Town's MyCiti Cape Flats phase under construction is arguably the single most significant example of wasteful expenditure in the city right now. Costing R8.5 billion, when complete, it will put Cape Town Stadium in second place.  UCT associate professor of civil engineering and transport, Romano del Mistro said at master's degree seminars I attended (2006/7) that public transport projects' costs must not exceed their benefit to citizens. He was talking about Gautrain, a very expensive political legacy project, but said the principle applied to MyCiti and other rapid bus transit systems too.  Already certain MyCiti routes in the City Bowl and Table View (the original route) have had to close because they were unviable. But the city's politicians and planners have not learned the lesson.  They're pushing ahead with another grand project - dedicated, exclusive bus lanes, sky bridges, expropriating houses to make way for the extra wide roads - rather than the simpl...