RIGHT OF REPLY | The facts do matter, especially on Cape independence

Tom Eaton’s shallow and patronising article in Sunday Times Daily on Cape Independence demands a response. Not only is the analysis offered woefully naive, but resorting to an ad hominem attack targeting a young man’s accent crosses the lines of decency and certainly should not be taking up column inches in any respectable media title.

Irony abounds as Eaton sets out to establish the Cape Independence Advocacy Group (CIAG) as an organisation of ranting fanatics, factually unaware and unable to discern context.

Let me start with the young man.

Robert King is quite an extraordinary individual. Aged 18, he is studying economics and politics at university. He is the youngest member of the executive committee of the CIAG and has earned the deep respect of his older colleagues who include academics, advocates, company directors and successful businesspeople.

It also appears that Eaton has no understanding of what the CIAG is and does. As an advocacy group its role is to assert pressure and to influence opinion.

He has a remarkable grasp of international politics, and he runs the CIAG Instagram platform. In addition to his work for the CIAG, he is an activist for the Freedom Front Plus, he established a platform called Capecord to promote independence, and he helped form the CapeXit Youth League. While visiting the UK last year he organised and hand delivered a letter on Cape Independence addressed to the British prime minister.

That he is well spoken is not a crime; it is a compliment to his parents, and SA would be a better place if there were many more young men like him. Shame on you Tom Eaton.

Facts most certainly matter

Eaton then goes on to suggest that “facts don’t matter”. It is not clear if he is referring to the CIAG or King, but in either case he is far off the mark. The CIAG is over two years old, has been widely published in the media and has made thousands of public comments. Cape Independence is an evocative topic, and any factual inaccuracies in statements made by the organisation would be pounced upon with glee.

That the organisation has never been exposed for factual inaccuracies, despite having repeatedly gone toe to toe with newspaper editors, senior political leaders, economists, jurists and academics is testament to just how rigorously the CIAG has stuck to the facts.

The source of Eaton’s accusation is the Western Cape’s nuanced election of the ANC in 1999 and 2004. In a CIAG video promoting the Free the Cape march, King stated that the Western Cape had never elected the ANC and had made it clear that it didn’t want to be governed by them. Eaton muses as to whether this is a deliberate lie or just ignorance.

The answer of course is that it is neither. At worst it is a minor scripting error which fails to give sufficient context for the claim being made. The majority of Western Cape voters have never voted ANC and the ANC has never secured a majority in the province. In 1999 and 2004, the ANC was able to form minority governments in coalition with other parties.

This certainly does not justify the claim that facts don’t matter to either the CIAG or King. If King failed to provide sufficient context in his initial claim, then Eaton duplicates the error by also failing to provide context in his rebuttal.

Hill-Lewis not elected in a political vacuum

The treatment of King and the allegations of factual inaccuracy are however sideshows to the most glaring errors in Eaton’s article. Eaton uses them to set the scene for his edification of Cape Town mayor Geordin Hill-Lewis, who, according to Eaton, and in contrast with the CIAG, is getting on with the practical business of delivering a “smaller but much more real and valuable sort of independence”.

The CIAG has no issue with the praise of Hill-Lewis; we share Eaton’s sentiments. Hill-Lewis is exactly the sort of mayor Cape Town and every other municipality needs.

The question is, does Eaton really believe that Hill-Lewis was elected into a political vacuum?

It seems not to have even crossed Eaton’s mind that neither the DA campaign, which saw Hill-Lewis elected on a ticket of radical devolution, nor the DA’s increased interest in federalism, nor the DA’s decision to address the enabling legislation necessary for it to call a provincial referendum, have been influenced by the emergence of the Cape Independence movement.

Secessionists have significantly widened the Overton window. Polling has shown that a majority of DA supporters in the Western Cape support independence and two thirds support a referendum on the matter. If Eaton is unaware of this, the DA most certainly is not. Neither is SA. Autonomy and federalism have suddenly become compromise positions, something which was unthinkable until recently.

Even the ANC has been affected. Last year, ANC Western Cape leader Cameron Dugmore engaged in a public debate with premier Alan Winde at the Cape Town Press Club on the devolution of power in the Western Cape. Dugmore was opposed. Earlier this year, when debating Cape Independence on Twitter, Dugmore ruled out secession but stated that devolution of some powers should be discussed as a compromise.

Political advocacy and a referendum

It also appears that Eaton has no understanding of what the CIAG is and does. As an advocacy group its role is to assert pressure and influence opinion. Political engagement, mostly away from public spotlight, is a major part of the CIAG’s activities. This includes regular contact with the DA and other political parties.

One such example is the formation of a Working Group on Western Cape Autonomy, which is currently being established and will include several political parties, academics, jurists, and civic organisations.

Another was the CIAG’s announcement before the local government elections that the DA had agreed to allow the Western Cape people to democratically decide for themselves on Cape Independence.

Eaton’s article was inspired by the Free the Cape march which he patronisingly described as “festive”. That it certainly was, but it was much more than just that. People of all races and political persuasions came together in substantial numbers to petition premier Alan Winde to make good on the promise of a referendum. Eaton is under no obligation to support or even respect calls for secession, but as a journalist he should be au fait with the political realities.

Self-determination for the Western Cape is now the dominant political view in the province, with autonomy, federalism and secession all fruits of the same tree. Like it or not, the Cape Independence movement is a part of that mix.

To suggest otherwise would be ignorant in the extreme.

Phil Craig is a co-founder and spokesperson for the Cape Independence Advocacy Group (CIAG).