Western Cape Autonomy

A long report

Hi everyone.

Some time ago I prepared this report for the Western Cape Devolution Working Group. From my friends on the inside, I have learned that it wasn’t used at all.

Hopefully the report can be of some use here, so I have attached a permanent DOI link so that it can be accessed until bitrot takes the internet to the grave.

”Roadmap to Western Cape Autonomy”

It’s a Word document, and it’s 99 pages long, covering several areas (though I wish I had covered mining, ports and housing), but I have hyperlinked all the little sections so that it can be quickly navigated for those of you who feel like dipping in wherever (otherwise it would be an unwieldy behemoth).

The takeaway here is that there are an enormous amount of areas which the Western Cape government could take charge of. They are finnicky and limited in scope, but they are not insignificant. Creative exploitation of the loopholes available could have seen the DA grab massive control back over the past 15 years.

They have taken advantage of not a single one, despite their “federalist” manifesto.

But that said, the biggest takeaway is that it is far easier to achieve Cape independence than Cape autonomy. I had to read dozens and dozens of Acts of Parliament, departmental policies, news archives and statistical reports, only to come to the conclusion that independence is just simpler and better for all concerned.

That said, I think it’s a fairly interesting document if you’re a policy wonk, and each section has a lot of in-depth analysis of the various sectors, describing how the government works, who holds what powers, where the fuckups have been, and how people have been made to suffer under ANC rule.

There are also examinations of mineral resources related to the energy sector, some innovations in private school models, and so on.

I was very proud of this thing, but as far as I’m aware, almost nobody has read it.

Maybe someone will now.