Overview

Its 2018 and Cape Town is wracked by its worst drought on record. The prospect of Day Zero when the taps will run dry is driving citizens into a frenzy. Then the ruling Democratic Alliance removes control of the water issue from Mayor Patricia de Lille. While politicians turn on each other, revealing deep-lying faultlines and new enmities, it raises a critical question: who will lead the Mother City through the crisis? Against this fraught backdrop, author and academic Crispian Olver resolves to explore how the city of his childhood is run, and he sets his sights in particular on the relationship between local politicians and property developers. Interviewing numerous people including many dropped from the City administration in often-questionable circumstances he uncovers a Pandoras box of backstabbing, infighting and backroom deals. Olver explores dodgy property developments in the agriculturally sensitive area of Philippi, on the scenic West Coast and along the glorious and lucrative Atlantic Seaboard, delves into attempts to hijack civic associations and exposes the close yet precarious relationship between the mayor and City Halls laptop boys. And in blistering detail he gets to grips with the political meltdown within the DA and the defection of De Lille to form her own party.

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9781868429684

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Crispian Olver qualified as a medical doctor in South Africa before joining government in 1994. He held several positions during his years in government, including, from 1999-2005, Director- General at the Department of Environmental Affairs and Tourism (DET), a role in which he helped to develop much of South Africas climate policy. In 2015 he headed up a regional task team set up by Pravin Gordhan with the aim of rooting out corruption in the Nelson Mandela Bay metro. He is the founder and CEO of an environmental consultancy company called Linkd Environmental Services.

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