WATCH | Cape Town’s ‘well-run’ image challenged over inequality
Zandile.Khumalo Sun, 10/04/2026 - 19:57 CAPE TOWN - Civil society group Budget Justice Coalition has laid bare the reality of inequality in the City of Cape Town. According to Sibabalwa Nobandla, while political parties continue to boast about Cape Town being “well-run”, the city remains a “tale of two cities”, with inequality still largely unaddressed. This as he pointed to the housing backlog as one example. Nobandla was speaking at this week's #WeTheNation election edition, held at the University of the Western Cape on Sunday. “It's quite disappointing that I don't think most of the political parties have addressed how they would tackle the growing inequality in Cape Town,” he said. Taking on the question, National Coloured Congress's Larry Varrie argued that those in power continue to benefit from while ordinary people. He shifted the focus to Cape Town’s coloured community, arguing that it remains marginalised despite making up a significant proportion of the city’s population. “The point is that housing is being built. All these promises that people are making are promises that our people have been hearing for many years. But is there political will for those who are in power to achieve those things? There is no political will,” he said. Democratic Alliance's Carl Pophaim, however had a different view. He questioned how inequality could be addressed if a political party focused primarily on one racial group. “We should not be entertaining the pure racist hogwash he spews everywhere he goes...There's a reason why the NCC only represents 2.8% of the Cape Town electorate, because it's been rejected. That nationalism has been rejected." he said.
