A number of political parties and civil society groups have come together to form a Western Cape Devolution Working Group.
The initial focus of the group will be on the devolution of policing powers to the province and ‘clearing the legislative hurdles which prevent the Western Cape Premier from exercising his constitutional right to directly consult the Western Cape people on specific issues via referendums’.
It also said its aim was to protect the rights of the people of the province and improve their circumstances through the devolution of powers and functions away from the central government.
It would also look to achieve its goals through ‘formal legislation, political lobbying, legal action, public participation, and peaceful mass mobilisation’.
The members of the working group are the DA, FF+, ACDP, Cape Independence Party, Afriforum, the Cape Independence Advocacy Group, Action Society, Cape Forum, and the Southern African Agricultural Initiative.
Calls for Western Cape independence have been growing in recent years, with a 2020 poll indicating that a third of voters of voters in the province supported independence. In last year’s local government election the Cape Independence Party won two seats on the Cape Town city council, the first time it managed to secure formal political representation in a South African legislative body.