Mid-term reviews shows that City delivers for all

It has been two and a half years since the people of Cape Town gave this government a historic mandate of a near two-thirds majority. When we assumed office, I said that we were compelled, more than ever, to live up to the great trust placed in us. The day of the election a contract was formed: a contract between the people of Cape Town and its chosen leadership.

The terms for that contract had already been laid out in our 2011 manifesto for Cape Town: ‘The next five years'. We had clearly set out what we hoped to achieve in our term of office and aimed to build a government on five pillars: the opportunity city, the safe city, the caring city, the inclusive city, and the well-run city.

We set out to start building the Cape Town of tomorrow today. A Cape Town where an economic enabling environment attracted investment and created jobs. A Cape Town where a compassionate government helped our residents, especially those who needed help the most.

After two and half years, we have reached the middle of our term. Like any major project, it is necessary to review our progress at key milestones and map the work needed to achieve our desired goals. I am pleased to say that we have lived up to our end of the bargain so far, the full details of which are available in our mid-term report. However, I would like to draw on a few examples that were explicit commitments made during my Mayoral campaign and which were pledged in the manifesto.

At the level of direct job creation, we have helped those most in need to find work opportunities through the Expanded Public Works Programme (EPWP). To date the EPWP has provided over 37 000 work opportunities created from 228 projects, and has been recognised as the best run EPWP programme in the country, winning two out of three national Kamoso awards.

And we have worked to provide the infrastructure that supports economic growth in the private sector by spending R10,8 billion on our capital budget over the past two and a half years. The last financial year alone saw a capital spend of 92,4% - the largest spend recorded by any metro in the country.

Indeed, in terms of our Information and Communications Technology Infrastructure, we have completed Phase 1 of the project to expand the fibre-optic network throughout the city, with a total of 350 km of fibre-optic cable having been installed in the City's own network. Phase 2 of the project will see spare data capacity leased out to private sector clients, which will partly fund further expansion of the network. 

This is in addition to a Proof of Concept (POC) phase, set to begin in December 2013 and run for six months, during which the City will experiment with different technologies in providing Wi-Fi to underserviced areas in Khayelitsha and Mitchells Plain.

We have established a single transport authority, Transport for Cape Town, which has been formed to govern all public transport modes in the metro. It is guided by a ‘Vision of Ones': one plan, one network, one management system, one contracting authority, one ticket and timetable, one unified enforcement system, one fare and one brand. This is a first for South Africa and its establishment has been matched by the most nationally successful roll-out of the bus rapid transport system.

The Council has adopted the Cape Town Spatial Development Framework, which provides a more effective set of guidelines for development. This is in addition to improved regulation as well as policy rationalisation and alignment. Towards the end of last year, 27 separate outdated legacy zoning schemes were integrated into a single Cape Town Zoning Scheme, reducing 1 507 pages of regulation to 185. This new single zoning scheme has significantly simplified development rules and introduced much more flexible regulations, which in many instances has obviated the need for time-consuming departure applications and enabled building plan applications to be finalised more quickly. 

An Investment Incentives Policy was adopted by Council earlier this year and a streamlined administration process to support this policy has already been implemented. The City recently launched a pilot project in Atlantis which provides investment incentives to assist entrepreneurs and existing businesses in the area, thus stimulating job creation. To support Cape Town's informal economy, the City runs programmes to create safe and open trading spaces for the benefit of emerging entrepreneurs, maximising the use of public infrastructure for the purpose of sustainable economic production.

At the level of area-based responses to generate economic and social development, we have introduced a programme focusing on the regeneration of areas that were in decline. The areas selected for inclusion in this project were informed by the City's commitment to redress and to overcome many generations of spatial and economic exclusion. This is in addition to the

R10 million that we have given to the city's poorest wards over and above their ordinary ward allocations.

Based on the urban regeneration criteria, the following areas have been incorporated:

• Manenberg, Hanover Park, Lotus Park
• Nyanga/Gugulethu
• Bishop Lavis, Valhalla Park, Bonteheuwel
• Harare and Kuyasa Interchange Precinct
• Bellville Transport Interchange precinct and Voortrekker Road corridor (this is in addition to funding the Greater Tygerberg Partnership which is focused on economic revival in the greater Tygerberg area)
• Wesfleur Business node (Atlantis)
• Athlone CBD and Gatesville
• Ocean View
• Mitchells Plain Town Centre
• Macassar

In fact, the City's record of urban regeneration is the same model of excellence that the national government has now adopted to promote in other metros. This is the reason why the National Treasury has given us a R10 million pilot grant to assist us in implementing our urban development strategies.

The City of Cape Town has the best record of any metro in the country for providing basic services, and providing financial relief to the poor. Over the past two years the City has increased the rates rebates offered to its most vulnerable citizens, in particular the poor, the elderly and the disabled, which has raised the number of people benefitting from our indigent programmes. In addition, the City provides 10 500 litres of water and 60 kilowatts free to indigent households per month.

We spend 64% of our service delivery budget on the provision of services to the poor - the most extensive cross-subsidisation of the poor in the country. As part of our commitment to redress, the City of Cape Town has prioritised a massive allocation of resources to improve living conditions in informal settlements, specifically in the provision of electricity, water and sanitation, refuse removal, area cleaning and rodent control.

In this financial year the Water and Sanitation Department has a budget of approximately R520 million, Electricity Services R292 million and Solid Waste R141 million for direct provision to informal settlements. Currently the City is funding Eskom to the amount of R190 million to connect over 20 000 households in informal settlements and temporary relocation areas with electricity. A number of these connections were completed in the last financial year, with an estimated 8 000 planned for this financial year and the remaining to be rolled out in the next year. We have also established a janitorial service for informal settlements, a first in the country, which sees approximately 800 cleaners providing a cleansing service to these communities.

In addition to this, the Utilities Service Directorate, along with Human Settlements, has embarked on a backyarder programme to provide basic services to backyard dwellings on Council rental stock property. This programme, which commenced in 2011, is the first in the country and was piloted in Factreton and Hanover Park. Since the start of the programme Water and Sanitation has installed 313 service points, which include a full flush toilet and large water basin. In 2012/13 the Solid Waste Management Department issued 135 wheelie bins to backyard residents in Factreton and 1 096 to backyarders in Hanover Park.

And at the level of directly helping our communities and their social development, a new Early Childhood Development (ECD) centre has been constructed in Leonsdale, Elsiesriver; 300 ECD practitioners have been trained in the National Norms and Standards required to manage ECD Centres and facilities; 103 ECD centres have been assisted to become compliant and register; and 10 ECD forums have been supported to capacitate communities to participate in the early childhood development of their children.

To bring the whole city together, we initiated a street renaming process as part of our broader commitment to redress and reconciliation. Thus far, Nelson Mandela, Helen Suzman and Christiaan Barnard, among others, have been honoured by having roads named after them. The public space at the Civic Centre has been renamed after Chief Albert Luthuli, and the process of renaming streets with the ‘NY' designation in Gugulethu is almost complete.

All of these initiatives and many more, have been undertaken with the highest standards of governance and financial management. In fact, Moody's International's latest Credit Rating report, released in April 2013, has reaffirmed the City's strong credit rating of Aa3. This rating is the highest that a South African municipality can obtain from Moody's.

Because of an established track record at the mid-term, we anticipate that even more people will come to Cape Town in search of a better life. This will add to the urbanisation pressures we have experienced over the past ten years. Indeed, as the 2011 census figures show, Cape Town has grown by nearly 30% in the past decade, creating service delivery challenges.

Governing is not easy. But when done right, it can help create reconciliation through a commitment to consistent service delivery excellence and redress. I believe that at this point we have demonstrated that we are living up to our side of the bargain with the people of this city.

It is our duty to address our challenges head-on to redress the imbalances of our history. For a better future, we will keep our heads down and continue working.

For all of these achievements, I would like to thank all City staff but especially the City Manager, the members of the Executive Management Team, the members of the Mayoral Committee and the team in my office.

Issued by the City of Cape Town, November 20 2013

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