A body that decides who builds what across Cape Town — worth billions of rand a year — has quietly written itself free of term limits, withheld a legal opinion ratepayers paid for, and left a forged official document unexplained. Over three months, Daily Maverick investigated the Municipal Planning Tribunal. Here’s what Daily Maverick’s Kevin Bloom found.
Reporting by: Kevin Bloom
Filmed by: Joel Seboa
Edited by: Anda Tolibadi
Produced by: Emilie Gambade
Creative lead by: Malibongwe Tyilo
Sub-edited by: Kevin Flynn
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Read more: Members for life — The capture of Cape Town’s planning tribunal
Property information withheld — the Cape Town planning tribunal that answers to no one
Phantoms and forgeries — The cover-ups of Cape Town’s planning officers
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CHAPTERS:
0:00 Intro: what connects Amazon, a car dealership, and Constantia?
1:05 Kevin Bloom reports: the law that was meant to limit power
1:34 How Cape Town quietly rewrote the rules
2:57 Members for life: the reappointment loophole in action
3:34 The Amazon precedent: River Club and Observatory
4:39 Part two: information the city won’t hand over
5:03 The ratepayer who never won a single case
5:39 A secret legal opinion, and a conflict of interest
6:29 Part three: Blaauwberg’s forgeries and cover-ups
7:13 The forged engineering certificate
8:19 Milnerton Nissan’s R700,000 fine
9:31 A pattern of evidence the city can’t explain
10:15 A rigged system, and questions still unanswered
