Make Cape Town South Africa’s only capital city: Zille
The administrative capital should move to Cape Town and Parliament should stay put, Western Cape Premier Helen Zille said on Friday.
She was responding to President Jacob Zuma’s State of the Nation Address, where he said the country could not afford to maintain two capitals.
He said the possibility of having one capital, instead of a legislative one in Cape Town and an administrative one in Pretoria, should be looked at urgently by Parliament.
Zille said if Zuma was serious about saving money, it should be the other way around.
She said she had tasked MECs to make proposals for a public private partnership to locate major government administrative buildings and high density parliamentary residential accommodation close to Parliament.
“This would combine the live and work philosophy in increased urban densities, enabling government to set the example of the new urban form we require,” she said.
It would make it possible for the government to sell the costly range of ministerial houses, she said.
They could be accommodated in apartments on the upper floors of these high rise buildings.
She said a lot of money would be saved on blue light brigades and security.
“Because parliamentarians can walk to work,” she said.
She proposed that Zuma get proposals to compare the possible moves – both ways.
“We are up to the challenge, Mr President,” she said.
According to a report by the City Press, it would cost R7 billion to make Pretoria the only capital city in South Africa – but this would save the country between R500 million and R750 million a year in the future.
The ANC first made the suggesting to move Parliament to Pretoria in the 1990s, but was met with strong opposition from the ANC in the Western Cape, who campaigned against it.
At the time, the cost to move Parliament to Pretoria would have been R237 million – while the cost to move the country’s administration to Cape Town would have cost R23.5 billion.
Making the move would mean uprooting 1,400 parliamentary staff and their families, and would have a negative impact on Cape Town’s economy, according to analysts.
News24
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