We Are Drowning, Not Just in Water – But in Inequality

Cape Town is drowning. Not just from winter’s rains, but in the floodwaters of institutional neglect, infrastructural racism, and political indifference. As storm clouds settle over our city, they expose not only our weather vulnerabilities, but our moral ones too.

Once again, it is the Cape Flats, the backyards, and the informal settlements that bear the brunt. While the Atlantic Seaboard lights flicker over cozy homes warmed by underfloor heating, families in Crossroads, Manneberg, Phillipi, Delft, and Khayelitsha huddle in wet blankets, their homes invaded by water, their dignity washed away by a cruel DA city council that has long stopped caring.

And the City’s response? A mop. A photo-op. A press statement. No structural plan. No investment surge. There is no emergency deployment of resources that matches the scale of crisis. It's just another rainy season for the poor. And another PR exercise for the DA.

Winter Was Not a Surprise But the City Was Still Unprepared

Let’s be honest: winter in Cape Town is not a surprise. It comes every year. The rains, the flooding, the icy winds. The real shock is that the City of Cape Town, with all its power and budget, continues to be caught off guard. Every. Single. Time.

Blocked stormwater drains.Uncleared gullies.Unrepaired manhole covers.Overflowing canals and retention ponds.And tragically, the death of a child little Imthandé Swartbooi who fell into an uncovered manhole in Khayelitsha. The City was warned. The cover was reported missing. It was ignored. And a life was lost.

This is not just a maintenance issue it is a governance failure. It is a failure rooted in racialised geography, historic exclusion, and present-day budgetary neglect.

If It Were Camps Bay, Not Khayelitsha…

Let us ask a simple question:If this flooding had affected Sea Point, Claremont, or Camps Bay would the City’s response have been the same?

Would Mayor Hill-Lewis have shown up with a mop and a shrug?Or would we have seen a multi-million rand emergency intervention plan? Remember when mountain burns...Drone footage. Helicopters. Fire engines. Private sector coordination. Corporate donations. Blankets in abundance.

The truth is that the DA governs for the few and lets the rest fend for themselves.Their Cape Town is built for tourists, wine estates, tech startups, and gentrified warehouses. Our Cape Town the other Cape Town gets flooded homes, broken promises, and budget underspending.

Budgets Hoarded, Not Spent

Here’s what makes this all worse:The City of Cape Town had the money to prevent this.

According to the Auditor-General’s 2023/24 municipal report, the City failed to spend over R1.3 billion of its capital budget, much of which was earmarked for housing, basic services, and infrastructure maintenance.

Backyard dwellers 250,000 strong and growing continue to be ignored in formal planning. No or limited upgrades. No or limited in-situ support. Just rising service charges and no relief.

The Catchment, Stormwater and River Management unit reportedly exhausted its maintenance budget before winter even began. This is not an accounting oversight. It is a damning indictment of poor planning, weak foresight, and misplaced priorities.

What do you call a government that lets predictable disaster unfold, year after year, without intervention?

I call it negligent. I call it elite-serving.I call it the DA-led City of Cape Town.

The Human Toll: Our Pain is Normalised

In Langa, we met a family who hadn’t slept in days. Their mattress was soaked. Their walls leaking. Their children coughing. They had logged a call with the City three weeks ago. No or limited response.

In Mitchell’s Plain, we spoke to backyarders who had used old tyres and buckets to build makeshift trenches.

In most areas, community activists are doing what the City should be doing clearing drains, documenting hotspots, coordinating relief and food. They don’t have a budget. They just have heart. Baie Trammaksi to all the relief agencies. People are suffering and exhausted.

We Need Structural Change, Not Sandbags

Enough with the sandbags.Enough with the deflection and spin.Cape Town doesn’t need another DA press release.We need structural transformation in how our city is governed:

1. Immediate Emergency Flood Plan for the Cape Flats

Declare township flooding a local disaster.

Allocate more emergency funds for water extraction, temporary housing, and food relief.

Deploy more infrastructure repair teams to Khayelitsha, Gugulethu, Nyanga, Phillipi, and similar hotspots.

2. Drainage and Stormwater Masterplan Review

Conduct an urgent and full audit of all stormwater infrastructure in the City’s poorest wards.

Prioritise cleaning, upgrading, and repairing of the most vulnerable systems.

Invest in retention ponds, wetland buffers, and nature-based solutions.

3. Rethink Urban Spatial Injustice

Accelerate housing delivery, especially for backyarders and informal settlements.

Enforce transparency and accountability on unspent housing budgets.

Ensure that basic services drainage, sanitation, electricity reach all communities, not just affluent ones.

4. People First Budgeting

End the annual underspending on infrastructure.

Involve community forums and ward committees in participatory budgeting processes.

Tie City budgets to social impact, not technocratic outputs.

A Call to Capetonians: It’s Time to Wake Up

To my fellow Capetonians, I ask you to look beyond the headlines beyond the aerial flood images.

This is not a weather issue.This is a political issue.It is about who the City chooses to protect and who it chooses to abandon.

If the mountain burns, the whole of Cape Town responds.But when the Cape Flats floods, we are told to “be patient” and “wait for Phase 3.”

We deserve a city that works for all — not just for the privileged.We deserve a government that doesn’t wait for a child to die before it covers a manhole.We deserve dignity in the sun and in the storm.

We Cannot Mop Our Way Out of This Crisis

Cape Town needs bold, progressive, people-centred leadership.Not just crisis management but justice.Not just spin but service.Not just planning but performance.

Let the rains wash away the lies.Let the floods reveal the fault lines.Let our collective suffering become a rallying cry for transformation.

The people of Cape Town are not asking for miracles.We are asking for maintenance.For safety.For accountability.And most of all, for a city that sees all of us.

** Faiez Jacobs is a Capetonian, the former Member of Parliament, founder of The Transcendence Group, and lifelong advocate for social justice in Cape Town. He writes in his personal capacity.

** The views expressed herein are not necessarily those of IOL or Independent Media. 

Has your area been affected by flooding? Share your photos, stories, and testimonies with us. Let’s build the people’s archive of inequality and demand a city that works for the many, not the few.