The Western Cape people must be allowed to determine their own destiny.
Election results since 1994 have emphatically established that the Western Cape people and the South African people as a whole hold fundamentally differing political views. For as long as the Western Cape remains a province of South Africa, and South Africa is constituted as a unitary state, then the more populous rest of South Africa will make decisions on the Western Cape people’s behalf.
Cape Independence is a potential solution to this problem.
Were the Western Cape to break away from South Africa and become an independent state, then the Western Cape people would be able to make all of their own decisions including how and by whom they are governed. There is strong evidence that this would significantly improve the quality of the Western Cape people’s lives. (More information on Cape Independence can be found on the Cape Independence Advocacy Group’s website.)
The South African and Western Cape Constitutions both make provision for the Western Cape premier to call a referendum and to ask Western Cape voters whether they would like the Western Cape to become independent or not.
A referendum is a special vote on a single important question. It does not involve political parties and is used to allow a specific group of people to make major decisions democratically.
Polling suggests that a majority of the Western Cape people support a referendum on Cape Independence being held. Despite this, the current Western Cape premier is refusing to call a referendum.
As a result of the Premier’s refusal, the Cape Independence Advocacy Group is currently planning a privately organised People’s Referendum similar to one which was successfully held by the Italian Province of Veneto in 2014. We support this initiative.