Victory for common sense in Cape Town

SPEAKING in Port Elizabeth last week, Cape Town Mayor Helen Zille issued a warning that if Western Cape Local Government MEC Richard Dyantyi pressed ahead with his plan to change the mayoral system in the city it would have serious implications for the country in terms of foreign investment and therefore economic growth.

She was correct, as any action that smacked of tampering with the will of the people or that reflected the unwillingness of the ANC to accept defeat at the polls would be interpreted as an indication of the true value that the ruling party nationally placed on both the Constitution and multi-party democracy.

It would have required little imagination thereafter to paint the future scenarios.

It is against that background that yesterday‘s agreement, brokered by Provincial and Local Government Minister Sydney Mufamadi, that resulted in Dyantyi shelving plans to impose a multi-party committee system on the Mother City and Zille‘s commitment to establish two more sub-councils and ward committees, must be seen.

And it is therefore irrelevant whether the agreement amounts to victory for Zille and the DA or defeat for Dyantyi and the ANC. It reflects the recognition by the ruling party that it is the interests of South Africa that must be paramount, not the retention of power at all costs.

Any assessment on the events of the past few weeks in Cape Town need to take cognisance of the fact that this country does not have a long history of democratic governance – the pre-1994 racial charade carried at best only the external trappings of democracy as a flimsy mask for the totalitarian actions of government – and that it will take time to inculcate and entrench such a system of government.

It is therefore beholden on those in power to take every precaution to protect and to nurture our new democracy and its Bill of Rights and abjure any action that might be interpreted as an attempt to win or retain power at all costs. On that score, repeal of crossing-the-floor legislation would be a giant leap in the right direction.

SAA move could trigger price war

THOSE who recall the demise of Sun Air and the murky involvement of South African Airways in its downfall will react with caution to the national carrier‘s launch of a low-cost airline to rival others that have already secured a healthy share of the domestic market.

SAA announced on Monday that it would launch South Africa‘s third low-cost airline on November 15, an action that will almost certainly trigger a price war, especially as it is already undertaking to offer fares that are “20 per cent less than anything in the market”.

There is also the question as to why, when other countries are privatising their state airlines, SAA should be launching a third carrier after SAA and SA Express with a loan of R100-million to capitalise the new airline.

While we would support any competition that benefits the consumer – and it has been noted that there is potential for growth within the domestic market – we remain deeply suspicious that the real agenda might be a price war that drives competitors out of the market and allows SAA and others in the Transnet stable to set the prices they wish.

That would be cynical in the extreme and Public Enterprises Minister Alec Erwin, under whom SAA falls, as a subsidiary of Transnet, must take all necessary steps to ensure that this does not happen.