Thomas Johnson - The Blog

The sky circle - elevated traffic circle - proposed for the MyCiti Hanover Park intersection is a political vanity project, like the Cape Flats phase of the MyCiti itself. No mention is made of how much it will cost, but it would be hundreds of millions, far more than the nominal cost of a conventional intersection.  Mayco for urban transport Rob Quintas (diploma in advertising) said the sky circle is necessary to ease congestion, but six-lane intersections, here dual carriage ways plus centre bus lane each way, is common including in Cape Town.  The real reason for it, though, is because the city and their road consultants have boxed themselves into a transport corner on which they're happy to waste our money. The Çape Flats MyCiti model - dedicated central bus lanes with stations - is suited to congested inner cities rather than outlying trunk routes. This model doubles the cost, uses more land and increases the concrete and heat footprint because there are more lanes. Nothi...

  Interdict granted against ‘monstrous’ River Club development. Developer cries foul   Objectors to the Liesbeek Park River Club development in Observatory, Cape Town have obtained an interdict to stop construction, granted on 19 March 2022 by Deputy Judge President Goliath of the Cape Town High Court.   This follows a public outcry over the “monstrous” development by residents and cultural groups about its impact on the environment and cultural heritage. The development is on the environmentally significant Liesbeek River green zone just north of the N2.   Applicants for the interdict were Leslie London, chairperson of the Observatory Civic Association, and Tariq Jenkins of the Goringhaicona Khoi Klan Traditional Council. It followed protracted protests and unsuccessful appeals to the City of Cape Town and Western Cape Government (WCG) to not approve the project, at least in its present form, and when that failed, for them to halt construction.   The ap...

Parliament has voted to impeach public protector Busisiwe Mkhwebane. And in a highly unusual move, President Cyril Ramaphosa has suspended her. This follows a long, determined campaign by his supporters to remove her from office. The campaign, or more correctly witch-hunt, did not start within the ANC or government as one would think, but as whisperings in the media about Mkhwebane's alleged wrongdoings. Chief among them was so-called self- and media-styled constitutional expert UCT law professor Pierre de Vos and others, mainly in left-liberal media Daily Maverick and Primedia's Cape Talk/702. It must be said that De Vos, a career academic who never practised law as an attorney or advocate, was reportedly an applicant for the public protector job Mkhwebane got. Her grevious sin was to have investigated and made findings against former finance minister Pravin Gordhan. It mattered not to the baying mob that members of the public laid the complaints. Even before he won on appeal,...

Early this year deputy minister of justice and constitutional affairs John Jeffery paid an unannounced visit to the Cape Town Master’s Office and was “disappointed” by its “inefficiency” (news reports). My late mother’s estate too has been affected by four years of unexplained delays and gross inefficiency during which documents were passed around from pillar to post and repeatedly “lost”. The executor resubmitted them numerous times.   One impact on my mother’s heirs was insurance of R6,000 a year, or R18,000 so far, a waste that will not be reimbursed.   In November 2021 the executor, whose representations were ignored, suggested we write to the Master, Zureena Agulhas, which I did complaining about the delays. Only then did she take action. They finally issued the letter of executorship so that now he may begin the process of winding up the estate.   The Administration of Estates Act states the entire process should take about six months.   A Groundup inv...

  Tony Leon leaves an intact DA   When Tony Leon, leader of DA, retired from politics after 2009’s elections, the DA was a small but effective and functioning opposition party that had modestly grown in the decade after 1994.    The DA had maintained its liberal democratic values despite the left’s criticism its “fight back” election campaign was racist and anti-black.  They conveniently overlooked the fact it was a push against the corrupt ANC and of Jacob Zuma’s and his thieving cabal’s ascendancy.    The problem was Leon and DA had not properly explained the message beforehand and had to control the fallout which the ANC initiated and used to portray the DA as racist.  It was a marketing blunder and not racism.  Reasonable people knew this, though.   Now with state capture having gutted state and society, the DA’s campaign was appropriate for the time and prophetic.  As evidence of Zuma’s et al thieving gradually became p...

 The Democratic Alliance claims they are an alternative to the ANC as a governing party.  The corrupt ANC lest we forget.   There’s no dispute the ANC is unable to govern and are corrupt. Today with corrupter-in-chief Jacob Zuma no longer in power and barely functioning, the party and country are no better off.  Corruption flourishes under alleged reformer, the weak and effectual president Cyril Ramphosa, including in his cabinet under his nose. The National Prosecutions Authority’s disappointingly wishy washy head Shamila Batohi has yet to prosecute one grand corruption case. The status quo persists.   But is the DA as good as they, their supporters and uncritical media say?    They are better managers than the ANC but that’s because the ANC set the bar very, very low.  In fact, any party can govern better as proven by coalitions where the ANC failed to get an outright majority, Cape Town, Johannesburg and Port Elizabeth being notable ex...