23rd September 2026

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It is possible to dispense with US Big Tech. If any of this intrigues you, most of these projects are easy to try, and they'd love your support.

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an interview with Kaden Arguile

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Kaden Arguile, the GOOD candidate for Ward 77 in Cape Town, turns 28 on the day of the municipal elections. The “GOOD party” sounds like the name of a 90s rave but it's really not.

With the party challenging Helen Zille's legal right to run for mayor of Johannesburg, and Arguile running as a candidate in the city bowl, on an anti predatory property development ticket, in municipal elections that have the highest youth voter registration rate in recent history, along with a sharp increase in the number of candidates under 30, some under 20, it seemed like a good (sorry) idea to unpack exactly how one of the older young candidates sees the political landscape.

This interview conducted on 17th September 2026

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bios: Did you, this time last year, expect you would ever say the sentence, “I'm tired from campaigning”?

Kaden: I think any politician who looks you dead in the eyes and says they're never, ever tired at any point during a campaign season is just putting on a fake smile to try and give a, I don't know, persona of someone who...

bios: Or competence.

Kaden: Yeah. But for me, I think it's human to be tired sometimes. You've been working since seven o'clock in the morning, you hit lunchtime, you sit down, you take a breath — woof, it hits you. But that doesn't mean just because you're tired, you can't get back up, you know?

bios: And have you got a countdown clock going?

Kaden: Yeah. So it's 48 days now, I'm pretty sure, to the 4th. I've got this whole wall of sticky notes with all of the different activities that I've still got to do.

bios: So what are your chances?

Kaden: Well, I mean, if you look at the 2021 elections, right? GOOD actually came second in the ward with a thousand votes.

There's definitely communities which come on and vote stronger, like, for example, Vredehoek in comparison to Bo-Kaap within our community. And I think that's obvious — when people are stressed from financial factors, social factors and factors of life in a lower income community than another, you have less time to worry about things like voting.

Whether that be a thousand votes, five thousand votes, winning votes, it gives me a chance to stand up for the non-Airbnb people, against the property people that are sitting in our city.

bios: A lot of people don't really understand politics at the moment — you don't need to win the ward to be in council, right? A lot of the conversations I have are like, well, we must vote for the DA because they're the only ones who are likely to win against the ANC. And I'm like, well, that's not how politics works.

Kaden: The ANC and the DA have had over 30 years in various different circumstances — the DA specifically in Cape Town is at 20. They've had every single opportunity to show you how much they care, what their ideas are, what their positions are. And so many of these communities still haven't seen change.

And factually speaking, all of these parties fluctuate. No one predicted that the MK party would be as big as it is. And look at that.

bios: Well, it comes down to civic responsibility. We ushered in the system of representational democracy, and then we sat back and expected everyone at the ANC or whoever else to just do the work. After all that time of fighting for, like, getting rid of apartheid, we just thought, well, it is achieved. But in politics, nothing's really achieved. You know what I mean?

Kaden: No, it's a good point. You've made me think of the analogy where a lot of people thought that 1994 was the finish line. But in fact, it was the starting line.

bios: How do you see structural inequality? How do you see all of the shit in the past that has to be redressed at some point?

Kaden: I'm not just some pure-bred Capetonian that has lived here for 60 generations or anything like that. I'm someone who has actually had a very different story.

At 27 — I'll be 28 on the election day — I've already lived in four provinces, right? I come from a middle-class family. My mom is a teacher. My dad has been on and off with his own businesses. And they've sacrificed a ton for me.

Some white people, they have the holiday homes and they have the farms and all that. We didn't have that, but we lived right next to the Kruger National Park. So growing up, part of this culture in our family was to hop in the back of an old Land Rover Discovery and drive, you know?

Last year, after the gender-based violence protests outside of the Union Buildings in Pretoria, which I attended, I spent four days driving through Vhembe in Limpopo. The worst conditions I've seen South Africans in my entire life was in Limpopo.

I literally had someone in my comment section saying, OK, what next? And one person was like, is he expected to fix everything? And I have to say: it's not some justice point system where only the most disadvantaged people get to speak about disadvantaged communities.

When I go and start recording in Khayelitsha, I have people coming up to me saying, Mlungu, Mlungu, what are you doing here? Or if I'm in Gatesville speaking about toilets, they're like, what? Welcome here, as if I've never been there. There's not enough people that are actually going and spending the time there.

bios: And that's an indictment on white people...

Kaden: I'm not saying spending the time there for, like, a 10-minute photo opportunity, or walking into Bo-Kaap and walking just in the tourist section up to the heritage centre. I'm saying go up to Schotschekloof, go all the way up to the top, go see there by Barracks Road, where I met someone who has no job but is maintaining all of the grass, all of the weeds, helping pick up trash. And the community is feeding him. The community is giving him little things to keep him there — when that is a government's job.

There's a certain level of apathy from the older generation — I've mostly experienced it from older white South Africans. Even when I said I was going into politics, they were like, you'll never get the job because you're a young white guy.

bios: So up by Schotschekloof, there used to be a football field there, right? And there were a lot of homeless people there. Are they still there?

Kaden: Yeah, still completely. And it's honestly depressing to me, because that's, like, an absolutely gorgeous location for a third space for young people. And then I have to see Geordin Hill-Lewis talking about these things, and it just makes my blood boil, when I see how proud he is.

bios: I refuse to pronounce his name right.

Kaden: I love that.

bios: What do you do with these people in Schotschekloof? What do you do with the people with substance abuse problems living on the edges of De Waal Park? The people who own these fancy houses, who are bothered every day by these people needing money — how do you negotiate that?

Kaden: I don't truly believe, as GOOD, that the DA has been treating the people within the City of Cape Town who are experiencing homelessness with dignity. This used to be a section of the city that wasn't for the 0.1%, you know? And this wasn't a thousand years ago or 500 years ago. This is when this country first started. And I see Bo-Kaap as the last bastion. And it's already, you know, suffering.

bios: They're eating at the edges of the Bo-Kaap horribly.

Kaden: Yeah. I was at that protest on Saturday for the latest hotel expansion there, speaking to residents. And those people are absolutely gatvol. And Geordin Hill-Lewis puts the people on the streets in this little, like, neat bow, where it's, like, it's all of this integration from the Eastern Cape and all of this. It couldn't possibly be any of the factors within the city — like the rampant violence, the rampant drug abuse problems, the rampant amount of inequality.

bios: The private CCID army that shuffles people off to Blikkiesdorp.

Kaden: Yeah, exactly. Into temporary housing, which is never temporary, which they are still living in to this day.

bios: If we let capital gentrify everything, but we need the Bo-Kaap to be the place where the tourists go to look at the pretty colour houses — what do we do? Do we gut the houses and leave the front walls?

Kaden: Does every hotel have to follow the same building plan, you know? Even though none of the people in those hotels are actually residents, and the culture dies from the inside like a rot.

bios: And then when the culture dies — when the students have to leave the area around Michaelis, and they can no longer make art school parties at dive bars down on Lower Long — how does culture expand?

Kaden: Exactly. When it comes to actual solutions, right? I think a lot of people also have to realise — and I say this understanding it doesn't sound perfect — but ward councillors, what they actually have is very minimal. It's not like I can immediately go into Geordin Hill-Lewis's office and say, the people of Ward 77 will not be doing any tax collections. Some people think the moment that you're in government, you have these kind of special powers.

If I'm winning wards like this, it's very likely that the Democratic Alliance is under 50%. It means that when it comes to the actual homeless shelters and things like that, I can push, as a Ward 77 councillor, and say: hey, we all know that the actual allocation of land within the city is something that has been a big issue, and has been proven by the Tafelberg case.

You look at it — and I'm not sure if you know this guy, he's getting more and more famous on social media now — J.P. Smith has accused him of being a psyop, which I find quite crazy.

bios: J.P. Smith is a psyop.

Kaden: Yeah, exactly. But he runs a page called Cape Town Audits, and he went into one of those centres last weekend, and it's been going incredibly viral. In my mind, people who are homeless, people who are disadvantaged, have less quality facilities than people in prison. The fact that there's 50 people packed into bunk beds, all on top of each other, no personal space, running water that doesn't work, inhumane closing and entry times.

bios: There's pathways to recovery, pathways to getting off the street. And what's been happening since the CCID was invented by business is that it's never really been about that. It's been about just getting rid of them so that the city looks pretty.

Kaden: We had a big homeless activist — Carlos Mesquita. I wrote environmental policy for GOOD, and he wrote the homeless policy. And I think I had a big revelation as well, and I started speaking to more of these people on the street.

The actual picture that's being painted of these people is very diminutive and discriminative — and labelling people as bergies and words like that as well. Which, you know — that's a person, that's a human, that's someone who's gone through something. And you might think it's a drug addiction, you might think it's a criminal thing — and that's your own preconceptions. That person could have just made a bad financial investment, and then, one month later, he's on the street.

bios: But even if it's someone who lives on the street and is a drug addict and they want to live on the street, that's their personal choice, right?

Kaden: Yeah, it is. I spoke to this one guy that I was helping, who moved all the way from Mbombela, where I grew up. And he said: I moved here, I got promised a job from an online thing, I'm on the streets now — all I want is a bus ticket. Literally, that's it. And that kind of work, we helped him with. But I hear your points, Roger.

bios: People should be free to fuck up their own lives. They're just not free to impose that fuck-up on other people. That's where government needs to step in, to provide pathways for people not to infringe on other people's rights.

Kaden: Agreed. And it's only going to become more and more prevalent as housing inequality rises in Cape Town.

bios: Fuck, this is the age-old South African question: who does the land belong to? Do you think that road names should be changed in Ward 77 to reflect the actual heritage of the land?

Kaden: Yeah. I mean, listen — there's Van Riebeeck Park right there.

I walked around at that park for the first time. The park actually supposed to have been name-changed. I saw all the signs, and it said: this has been renamed to — the... over the river... I can't remember this... Platteklip Stream, Platteklip Park. All of the signage has come up, when it comes to saying we will be changing this — but it's still Van Riebeeck Park. And none of those other old signs have even been replaced.

bios: So I think they've spent money on signs saying they're going to replace it, but they haven't spent money on new signs.

Kaden: I do think it's important. History is definitely something that I care about. But I also will be honest to you and say that, out of all of the priorities and things that I'm known for as an activist, I would probably prioritise other things first.

bios: I don't think it needs to be a priority. I just think you need to give people permission within their living spaces to name those living spaces, to reflect the heritage.

Kaden: Oh, that, I completely agree with that. I don't think anything in Bo-Kaap has to be named Einschweiger or something like that, because of the tourists that are now staying in the hotel.

bios: I think we should change Heerengracht to Hoerikwaggo.

Kaden: You know, that's very fascinating. It's the exact same reason why — the university I go to, I call it UCKAR. I don't call it Cecil's University. Because there's been this myth that's been perceived of these white saviours that have come in and created something — when in reality they tore things down to create something.

bios: So practically, tell me your campaign promises.

Kaden: The first one is affordable housing. When it comes to massive sales of, like, communal property — for example, the city is trying to sell Camps Bay library right now — they're selling all the family jewels right now, you know. I can say, we as Ward 77 would rather turn this into student digs accommodation or things like that, to keep young creatives in the city. I can push for that specifically.

When I was in Khayelitsha, I posted this video talking about how there's no bins in BM Section, where the Public Protector's report found that the DA is failing the City of Cape Town's BM Section residents with water and sewage removal. I was talking about the bins, and all these people were like: yeah, well, you know, in the white areas in Cape Town, they would never experience that.

bios: Well, obviously. That's the problem.

Kaden: And I'm like, that's very true. So let me go and start inspecting all the public facilities and things that I have in the area.

Actual specific things, like dumping in zones of Bo-Kaap — I wouldn't accept the red-zone excuse from the city. If we can get six officers up to Lavender Hill to remove a Palestine mural, we can get six officers to escort people doing refuse collection. So the red-zone policy within Bo-Kaap — I would make a promise to Bo-Kaap residents to fight against that policy, that is dehumanising to them.

Some of my comments under my advertisement: what beautiful parks and stuff in your area. Unbeknownst to them that I've, for just two weeks, been fighting with the City of Cape Town to get public toilets open, despite the city saying that they are open, and going back then and showing that it's still locked. Deer Park, which is up there at the top — those bathrooms also locked in the daytime.

I would push with Bo-Kaap residents for a proper refurbishment and repavement of those roads, because Bo-Kaap residents are complaining about those absolutely awful cobbled roads. And I think if that's a cultural thing that I don't know about — fair play, let me engage with the people and they can teach me.

The second thing is having a councillor that is listening to you and working with you when it comes to rent. The City of Cape Town has this policy now, that we've been fighting in court, that if your landlord doesn't pay their municipal rates, the city can collect it from your prepaid metres. And a lot of people are just so scared, because of the absolute shrinkflation of the available property within the community, that they don't want to piss off their landlord. So let me be the person who pisses off your landlord.

bios: But also the Rental Housing Tribunal, right?

Kaden: Yes, yes. Municipal Planning Tribunal, there's so many bloody tribunals.

bios: No, but the Rental Housing Tribunal is there to help renters when they had a problem with their landlords. It's a mediation council for disputes. I don't think people know enough about the fact that they have these rights.

Kaden: That's a great point. I must do some more research into it myself.

bios: People are like: oh my God, we don't want to fight against our landlord because they can just rent it to someone else for higher money. I think that's a big problem in Ward 77.

Kaden: This ward councillor has been here for a long time, you know. She's had every single opportunity to properly engage, to create a different culture within this ward to others. And she's chosen intentionally not to. That's through not wanting to rock the boat. And I'm someone who will disrupt.

It is very clear, and anyone can look, that the areas which the DA controls have better service delivery than other areas that they do not. And I feel like there are constituents within this community that serve the DA's interests more, when it comes to their private funders, their public-private partnerships, strategic voting. So why would they invest so much time to helping a place like Bo-Kaap becoming this actual standard that it could be?

I've spoken to people there — one, a prominent public figure, who made multiple complaints about one of the hotels in the community being a brothel at night. And another one saying how, you know, despite there being a mosque on this side of the street, they've now allowed a wine bar, which has First Thursdays and stuff, at the same time — mosque is opposite side of the road.

bios: That's fucking disgusting.

Kaden: That's what I'm talking about, is that mentality shift, where it's: we're going to allow for things that benefit us. And then if there's a scandal, or if there's something really wrong — oh, are we going to protest? Rather, we will come and listen to you.

That's the kind of culture I want to have. I want to be the person that's serving you. As a white man, I want to be serving white men, white women, black women, coloured women. I do not want to be only catering to the people that either look like me, or care like me, or are funding people like me.

bios: The thing about Airbnb for me, right, is that somebody who converts their garage into an Airbnb because they need extra income — those people aren't the problem. But anybody who speaks against Airbnb is going to intimidate that kind of voter, surely.

Kaden: No. Well, I think it's about how you phrase it, you know? And I didn't say it in my ad either, for an intentional reason — I didn't say I'm going to stop every single Airbnb. What I want to do is work with groups like the rent control group that I'm working with right now.

The policy of the City of Cape Town makes it financially beneficial for you to have these short-term leases. For you to be able to say: hey, I'm someone with a huge amount of capital from overseas — let me find a proxy in South Africa, in Cape Town, give him all this money, and he buys properties. Because, as you say, the person who's trying to get some extra income from making an Airbnb — that's what the essence, the true nature of that is. And at its essence, Airbnb is not an evil thing.

bios: Yeah, likewise Uber.

Kaden: Exactly. But it does become an evil thing. It's the same in Barcelona, it's Lisbon, New York.

We have individuals who are owning up to 100 Airbnbs. And that is only possible because of regulation, and because of the financial benefits they get. It's an empty property sitting there, just like what was happening in New York. It's holiday homes, it's property that is purely being bought for the sake of stock, for the sake of a portfolio. And not what the City of Cape Town should be.

Every single rent increase, every single tariff increase impacts my pocket. I'm someone who's here, who loves this community, who always wanted to live here, who worked up and saved up to get here. And now I feel like: wow, do I actually belong here, even though I'm paying an exorbitant amount of rent, despite not getting the world-class, first-class services that others are getting?

bios: Yeah, but Cape Town's a very cliquey society. You know, will you ever really belong?

Kaden: There's memes about it, you know. There's a reason why it's called the LA, and that's not just because of the beaches — it's because of the pretentiousness as well.

bios: So do you feel like you've been accepted yet? Or do you think they're just pretending to accept you?

Kaden: The lovely thing is that this community hasn't yet been completely overrun with Airbnb hosts or property owners or 65-year-old retirees from other countries, you know? There still is a life beat and a pulse here, whether it be through Bo-Kaap, whether it be through, you know, Gardens and the student centres where I live, in Oranjezicht. There's a lot of younger people who like to stay in the Gardens Centre hotel as well and live there full-time. For lack of better words — I just love it, as a non-Capetonian, so I always call them this — the tampon towers as well.

bios: Yeah, I love the tampon towers.

Kaden: So I'm going to be honest: I understand there's going to be lots of 1%-ers and people who've lived here who see me as a threat to their cosy little bubble of life — and that's fair. I'm not going to be someone who sits by idly anymore as gentrification creeps more and more into the city. And not only are places like Bo-Kaap affected, but it's hilarious to me how even people in Sea Point now are getting kicked out in one-month notices, or have unobtainable rents.

If the reason you believe that this community cannot change, is because of money — I ask you to take a step back for a second and remember that in the '60s and, you know, in the '40s, we had all of these forced removals that happened within the city. The only reason that the space looks the way it does, that the culture feels so exclusionary in the first place, was that a couple of generations ago, all of the people that were different were removed. And from that, poverty was created.

We are democratic socialists. We are the closest thing in the entire country to what the Democratic Socialists of America are. So, I feel like there needs to be a couple more people sticking up for the little guy. And I want to be that person.

I won't appeal to the richest people, probably, in this ward, and I understand that, and I take that ramification. This is my shot, and this is the only shot I want. Because if it's not here, I'm going and working and helping the people directly on the ground, politics or not. That's just my life's calling, and that's who I've always been.

bios: So if it all goes to shit, you could always make a horror movie about it.

Kaden: You don't know how hard you just clocked me right there with the Gen Z term. Because I promise you — I actually performed at the National Arts Festival, and my dream has always been to direct a horror movie. So if everything goes wrong, you'll be seeing me directing horror that is...

bios: About the rent crisis.

Kaden: Yeah — socialist horror, basically.