Cape Independence about to take a big step with imminent Bill tabled in WC Provincial Parliament
In the past three years, the Cape Independence Advocacy Group has firmly put the topic of Western Cape secession onto the agenda in the SA province that's succeeding where the rest are failing. According to the CIAG's Phil Craig, the separation process is about to be another huge step forward with the tabling of a self-determination Bill in the provincial parliament. In this fascinating interview, Craig explains why he is 100% certain this landmark Bill will be presented and passed – and how it promises to transform the South African political and geographical landscape. He spoke to Alec Hogg of BizNews.
Timestamps for the interview below:
- Phil Craig on the progress towards Cape Independence – 00:01:45
- On Gayton McKenzie and the Patriotic Alliance – 00:08:50
- On the Democratic Alliance's stance on Cape Independence – 00:10:50
- On why the DA would be scared of a 'Brexit scenario' in the Western Cape – 00:12:30
- On the two issues in South Africa that must be dealt with – 00:16:05
- On why the DA would ever vote for such a Bill – 00:19:50
- On 100% certainty that the Bill will be presented to the Western Cape Parliament – 00:21:40
Some extracts from the interview below:
Phil Craig on the progress towards Cape Independence
I'm pleased to report that we're making fantastic progress towards Cape Independence, at least in the broader sense of the word. I didn't catch your discussion with Alan and sometimes I find Alan quite frustrating when he talks on Cape Independence – he's not terribly well informed. Perhaps not a fair thing to say about the Premier, but unfortunately it's the reality. We tend to talk about Cape Independence in 1 to 1 situations. He's avoided all debates and public discussions, so he tends to say things that sometimes just aren't true. And I accept that probably from a position of ignorance. A good example would be that he addressed the provincial parliament at the end of last year. In the end, he said that if he called a referendum on Cape Independence, everybody in South Africa would have to vote. I just wanted to shout at the screen to say, Allen, please just tell us, there's been something like 55 independence referendums held around the world in the last three decades. Please show us one single example where a whole country got to vote on a region wanting independence.
I think it's interesting that you sort of pick up this thing in terms of federalism, and I think that's an argument that. I think federalism has been offered by many people as a compromise position from Cape Independence. And whilst we don't think federalism is the ultimate answer, I think we've always had the same position, which is, if the Democratic Alliance or other people think federalism is the solution, then ask for it and push it – pursue federalism. It's no good offering federalism and then not actually doing anything about getting it.
The first chapter was really about establishing Cape Independence as a political option. At the start, nobody really had heard about Cape Independence, None of the political parties really had a view on it. And for the first 18 months, our mission as an organisation was just to place Cape Independence on the agenda, to force political parties to engage with the subject, to reestablish it as a political option. Obviously we have been very successful at doing that. And how all of the political parties are consistently asked about Cape Independence, and we all understand it's an option. That led us into our second chapter. And our second chapter then is not that we're going to talk about Cape Independence. We want to get out and deliver Cape Independence. I say Cape Independence in the broader sense, we want to establish a future for ourselves and our families and our compatriots. We recognise the group of people, a sizeable group of people in South Africa, maybe 20 million strong, who kind of have this Western first-world values, they want to be governed in a particular way. They're voting for that, and they want to be able to have a future on the southern tip of Africa. And that's what we're fighting for, and because those people form an ideological majority in the Western Cape, then that's obviously a logical place to have that fight from.
On why the DA would ever vote for such a Bill
At this point in time, we've been lobbying the DA for a year on this bill and we've had endless conversations and obviously they must speak for themselves in the bill. But I don't think they're fundamentally opposed to this bill. I think what it's exposed is a whole load of language. Devolution is DA policy, federalism is DA policy. So obviously, why would they not want a bill that allows them to enact their own policy? So I think, ideologically or in principle, there's a lot of support within the DA for this bill and I still believe that we'll get this bill passed. What we find, where we are now and the reason the bill hasn't come quicker is because it throws up a whole lot of different ideological arguments about who the Western Cape people are. So the DA find it very easy to accept that the Western Cape people are ideologically distinct from the rest of South Africa, but they find it quite difficult to acknowledge the correlation between demographics because the DA is a liberal party and it doesn't really subscribe to group rights – it's very focused on individual rights. Therefore, there are a lot of very uncomfortable things it's going to have to deal with. And that's just the reality.
On 100% certainty that the Bill will be presented to the Western Cape Parliament
I'm 100% certain it's going to be presented to the Western Cape Parliament and there's a high degree of probability that the DA will support it in one form or another. I suspect they may make changes to the bill to get it into a form of language that's comfortable for them and we've encouraged them to do that. In fact, we've spent a year saying to them, look, come change this bill, get this bill in a format that you're happy with. But actually what we've seen with the DA, time and time again, is they'll just stall and stall until eventually you push the issue. So the issue now is to table this bill and then let the DA deal with this bill in parliament and then they can make their changes.