Calling Chicken Little

The Mail & Guardian online has published a silly little piece basically arguing that Cape Town is in danger of becoming little more than a fishing village. Old Mutual financial corporation has decided to move its headquarters from Cape Town to Gauteng. This makes sense -- Gauteng, and especially Johannesburg is not only the country's economic and financial centers, it is Africa's financial center and has its eyes on being a world financial powerhouse.

But so what? Anyone who has spent time in Cape Town or Joburg knows each city's strengths and weaknesses. Cape Town is not Jo'burg, and in most cases that is all for the better. Cape Town is one of the most beautiful cities on earth. It is a tourist destination, a cultural center, and provides access to some of South Africa's most acclaimed areas -- wine country and the Garden Route, to name just two. Claiming that Cape Town is going to be little more than a fishing village, a visdorp, in a few years because Old Mutual is consolodating its headquarters (Old Mutual will still have an ample presence in the Western Cape) is like arguing that San Francisco is destined to be little more than a wharf city because when Nationsbank and Bank of America consolidated Charlotte became the company's headquarters.

Let's have, or at least work on developing, a sense of perspective.