Such services seem to be exclusive to the extent that migration of the previously disadvantaged to this province to have access to and share these services is met with much resistance and lamentation, as if the same was not the case in Gauteng and the other provinces bordering Lesotho, Zimbabwe, Mozambique, Namibia and Botswana.
As we encourage other provinces to follow this shining example, it also becomes relevant to caution that improved services should mainly cater for those who never enjoyed such services before, that is, the disadvantaged. One cannot help but speak up against the appalling conditions that the poor in Philippi, Khayelitsha, Worcester, Oudtshoorn, Knysna and many informal settlements in and around Cape Town live in. We emphasise the fact that government resources are meant to improve the lives of the people as a whole and should not be spent in a manner and style reminiscent of the past. We should condemn the emerging tendencies displayed by parties like the DA of creating safe and developed havens benefiting minorities at the expense of the poor.
Clean governance and improved services do not mean the introduction of apartheid segregation policies through the back door. It does not mean the deepening of poverty and inequality levels, as seems to be the case here in the Mother City. It does not mean that a metropolitan centre like Cape Town is a province on its own, to the exclusion of other municipalities not controlled by the DA.