Milnerton Lagoon suffering from unmanageable migration levels: VF+

The Vryheidsfront Plus, responding to community concerns, recently conducted an oversight visit to the Milnerton area. Findings included a polluted lagoon emitting a noxious stench, with children playing in its contaminated waters. Warning notices are scarce, leaving the public exposed to serious health risks.

This reflects a broader and chronic issue with pollution in Cape Town, where the City has refused to stop dumping raw untreated sewage into the bay since 1893. Recent cases of severe hospitalisation following infections by swimmers have made the news, but challenges have included the cancellation of the V&A Waterfront desalination plant in 2019, over high pollution levels in the water. Scientists who criticise the City’s policies have broadly been exposed to what they call bullying tactics by officials and friends of the party.

The Milnerton Lagoon, near Woodbridge Island in Cape Town, suffers from other problems encouraged by the DA government: unchecked population growth, inadequate spatial planning, and decaying infrastructure. The City government broadly celebrates mass indigent migration form the rest of the country, as well as wealthy arrivals from overseas, as this increases the price of local properties, which have begun to price South Africans out of the city, leading to rising prices in neighbouring towns, and even a recent reversal in semigration trends.

Without decisive intervention, Cape Town risks descending into the chaos that characterizes Johannesburg’s urban sprawl. The City plans to pack 50 000 indigent people into the CBD in its new town planning venture, which can broadly be compared to “doughnut effect” collapses which have struck Johannesburg and several major modern cities, even in the United States.

An unrelenting influx of people into Cape Town, largely from other provinces, has strained the city’s capacity. A 2023 municipal report warned that by 2043, informal structures would constitute 55% of all new dwellings. Between 2016 and 2020 alone, informal settlements expanded by over 60,000 structures. Observers note that the situation has only worsened since. Their decades-long inaction, and even deliberate decriminalisation (between 2014-2019) of land grabs, has severely exacerbated these issues.

The VF+ criticized the City of Cape Town’s apparent failure to manage rapid urbanization. Informal settlements are spilling over into established residential areas, compounding the pressure on services already stretched by urban expansion. The city’s spatial planning, marred by alleged political agendas, has only exacerbated the problem.

According to the party, the state of the Milnerton Lagoon exemplifies broader issues. Plans to address its pollution stretch to 2028 and beyond—timelines critics say are woefully inadequate. The city’s infrastructure, unable to cope with population growth and poor planning, is visibly deteriorating. Sewage pollution of beaches and lagoon contamination are symptoms of a system nearing collapse.

The Freedom Front Plus has called for immediate action to address these critical issues, emphasizing the need for policies that protect the environment, safeguard public health, and ensure sustainable urban development.

Cape Town’s challenges are not insurmountable, but the cost of inaction is clear. Without swift and strategic planning, the city risks forfeiting its status as a livable metropolis.

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