The Mother has spoken.

 

We find ourselves within an advantageous position. Cape Town at current is the most expensive city in Africa within property terms and it would be a shame to see any of it collapsing or damaged.

Based on an article by Mike Wills in the Daily Maverick and other news around the world, cities like Barcelona and other popular destinations like New York, San Francisco, Paris and Amsterdam’s residents and citizens of their countries are not happy with the massive dominance of AirBnB taking the space of citizens to provide accommodation for tourists. 

Understandably so, Cape Town is a highlight and a very popular tourist destination for world travelers, the city has a lot to offer and so the Western Cape itself included. The city boasts with its VIP guests like Jamie Oliver’s recent visit, which will entice even more tourists to enter the country. 

Now, the problem we’re facing, or would face is not the amount of tourists visiting the country, the main issue here is when the tourists start falling in love with the city or the country as a whole. They want to move in. Buy a house or rent a property and sub-let it (because Cape Town has given this permission) on AirBnB or booking.com. This is where the problems start coming in, more and more of these “tourists” come here on a vacation, rent a big house or villa, and decide to stay a bit longer, so they have to rent accommodation on longer term, now they are here for the longer term and they’re running out of money, so the first thing they do is think AirBnB, it’s the best possible way for them to quickly create a profile, take some photos and start listing it on the sight to start earning money from not just other tourists, but South African citizens all the while they avoid paying income tax. 

Now, as a South African, I don’t feel or see it fair in any way and in more ways than this topic that tourists are allowed to do whatever they want when they enter our country. South Africa as a country and Africa as a continent is the richest in the world when considering natural resources, precious gems, metals and agriculture and we just “invite” strangers to come here because tourists or foreign money is what makes us money? So evidently they have permission to take as much as they want, as if Africa is an open buffet as long as they swipe their foreign cards here and bring their friends we’ll be happy. We’re dying in the desert and they are the vultures swirling around in the sky waiting for us to weaken even more before they come and swallow us whole.

Hello? Has no one noticed this was happening? No, because everyone in Africa is so busy trying to “survive” because we’re this “third world country” and we’re “poor” and there’s no jobs, people live on the streets and all this are just the basic ingredients to South Africa becoming a circus of crime and corruption where every other ad in the country is a scam or some pyramid scheme where these criminals flee the country back to their hometown after milking everything from us and we’re too blind to do anything about it because our cyber security hasn’t been updated since the blitz and its become such a normality, no one really notices, there’s no leading example from anyone who wants to implement the actual change  we wanted since the last three elections, all the care goes to money, forget the people, “I want money”, or “its not my job”, or incompetence, that’s what we get. 

Well, I care. I care about the people, because I am the people, I live on the ground trying to get by everyday, I have the daily struggles, I know how it feels to lose everything because of a foreigner who was in my representative need, whom I offered to help, I became a victim and falsely accused for crimes I didn’t commit, my identity was stolen and used by this person who came into the country and took as much as they could until there was nothing left and left destruction in their wake, to myself and everyone else who were involved, this didn’t just hurt me or other people, it hurt my country because I am my country, I represent it just as much as any other South African. It makes me sick knowing children get born into this world knowing people like that still roam freely deciding who’s their next target. I want change. 

If you hurt my people, you hurt my country. This mundane topic of inequality of gender, race, colour, religion, whatever it is that separates us from one another is a pointless and close-minded topic and should be obliterated, hou op. Because we are people, human beings who live in the same country, this is the only thing we have in common, we are South Africans and we’re being used and abused, our land, our resources and our people and the spectators are watching and they’ll stop at nothing to come at us when they find a weak spot.

So we need to stand together, without the idea of politics, for us as people, what we need.

Heck, we just survived a global pandemic and we’ve not even had time to rebuild and get back up on our feet properly. It’s now or never, I’ve kept quiet for some time, waiting for the right time. 

Setting some healthy boundaries to benefit our country and our people.

 

As a country, I believe it would be wise to implement a special licensing for properties for sale, short & long-term and sub-let property rentals in the commercial, residential and industrial sectors for foreign nationals who own property and businesses in South Africa.

 

Meeting a specific criteria and passing the vetting procedures, criminal record checks, undergoing inspections to ensure the integrity of our country and its people to be a “good fit”. Similar to the prior inspections when adopting a child or a pet. 

The license will have limitations to property rentals should someone own more than one. Just as any other license for hunting an animal gives you a specific time period to hunt or fish and a limitation on amount or weight and in season. 

The license can only be obtained after meeting the specific requirements and passing the vetting processes and procedures and the applicant has a South African representative who is a Citizen and has a valid South African identity number and having passed and undergone the same procedures, this person must earn a percentage from any rental or sale agreement. 

The license is applicable to hotels, guest houses, motels, lodges, resorts, campsites, bed and breakfast, hostels, vacation rentals, office space, apartment buildings, vacation rentals (Airbnb or any private sub-letting platform) owned and managed by foreign nationals which also includes but is not limited to commercial and industrial property sectors. 

The revenue generated with the licensing could aid to the country’s infrastructures, nature reserves, road maintenance, development, health and safety facilities, shelters etc. 

We have to set the example so the rest can follow. This is for us, the people and our country. 

We want change. So, let’s be the change!