SPEECH BY THE CITY'S EXECUTIVE MAYOR, PATRICIA DE LILLE, AT THE FULL COUNCIL MEETING ON 28 JANUARY 2015

28 JANUARY 2015

I would like to request a moment's silence for Councillor Clement Mhlanga who passed away during the festive season as well as for Sir David Graaff who passed away this past week.

Thank you.

Good morning, goeie môre, molweni, as-salaam alaikum, shalom.

Mr Speaker,

The past few weeks have been interesting ones for Cape Town.

Once again, we had a bumper tourism season with much revenue and goodwill being brought into the city.

Unfortunately, certain events at times threatened to derail the festive spirit, not least the mishandling of the Tweede Nuwe Jaar celebration by the Cape Cultural and Carnival Committee.

Chronic mismanagement, non-payment of service providers and a lack of transparency interrupted this event several times.

Recently, new information has come to light regarding the committee, including the allocation of multiple sources of funding and the records of criminal activities of its leaders, such as Mr Stemmet.

In terms of our contract with the committee, the City will be calling for the audited financial statements of the committee to determine how public funds were spent and to prevent the kind of mismanagement from the organisers experienced this year.

If these audited financial statements are not forthcoming, we will, in terms of our contract, refer the matter to the Public Protector for investigation.

The use of public funds is for the public good, not the private profits of the self-interested.

Mr Speaker,

For some time now we have spoken about optimising our capital budget so that the organisation truly excels and pushes itself to the limits.

And so we have put in place entirely new systems, light years ahead of anything else available in the South African public sector at present.

These new systems revolve around changing the methodology of planning.

I have always said that if you plan the same way, you get the same results.

If we wanted to change our outcomes, we needed to change the way we worked to achieve those outcomes.

And so we have instituted a new system of project portfolio management or PPM.

Portfolio management provides a system for managing programmes and projects to ensure maximum effectiveness.

It works at numerous levels.

At each level, a certain amount of planning is required.

Only once the planning has been completed, can a project proceed to its next phase. And between initiation and approval, a project must be checked against our strategy, including the Integrated Development Plan (IDP), the Economic Growth Strategy (EGS), and the Social Development Strategy (SDS).

This is to ensure alignment with our spatial, economic, social and environmental goals and to ensure that our capital programme is truly led by our strategy.

Within portfolio management, one is able to screen projects and monitor their progress so that you can intervene as soon as problems arise and indeed, prevent major problems from occurring by detailed planning.

This new approach is something that the whole organisation is being exposed to in a change management programme over the course of this financial year and the next, with full utilisation at all levels taking place within the medium-term.

But in the medium-term we have already started using our capabilities to screen existing capital projects to determine constraints, risks and opportunities.

I am pleased to say that the majority of the capital programme has been screened and we are now able to offer a package of capital rephasing through adjustment and addition of just over R280 million on capital budgets.

This proposal will help us maximise the effectiveness of our capital programme and ensure that funds adjusted reach the right crucial projects and programmes.

This Council will recall that funds adjusted do not fall away.

Many large projects and programmes are financed over three-year cycles and sometimes even beyond that - such as in transport, with primary year funding and two outer years of funding.

In plain terms, that means that when projects have funds adjusted that have been approved, the adjustments occur at different phases of the project to rephase it and ensure that goals, milestones and timelines for delivery are all met.

This year, I am pleased to say that proposed adjustments will benefit key strategic projects and most of our under-privileged areas in the city, with a ramp-up of spending and delivery of milestones.

In Water and Sanitation, upward capital adjustments on the following projects will positively impact on service delivery in the following areas:

1. R5,5 million increase on Bulk Sewer (Housing Projects) to cater for Valhalla Park intake

2. R1 million increase to Bishop Lavis for the removal of mid-block water network project

3. R6,5 million additional for Fisantekraal Housing's water infrastructure

4. R15,7 million additional for infrastructure replacement and/or refurbishment (Wastewater Treatment Works). The purpose of the increase is to improve the treatment capability of the following catchment areas:

a. Wesfleur Wastewater Treatment Works (Atlantis catchment area)

b. Cape Flats Wastewater Treatment Works (Manenberg, Hanover Park, Lotus Park)

c. Mitchells Plain Wastewater Treatment Works ( Mitchells Plain catchment area)

d. Borcherds Quarry Wastewater Treatment Works (Nyanga/Gugulethu, Bishop Lavis, Valhalla Park)  

In Transport for Cape Town, adjustments will allow for changes such as:

1. The Walter Sisulu Road realignment budget, which has been increased by R1,3 million as a result of project cost increases

2. The Nomzamo transport interchange budget, which has been increased by R1 million to cover project cost increases.

In Safety and Security, in terms of capital, is the installation of CCTV cameras in Gugulethu at R300 000. The installation of these cameras will ensure monitoring of any crime in the area and improved safety of the community living in this area.

And further, an additional operating provision of R4,5 million for appointment of Law Enforcement officers for the School Resource Officers project. These officers will be deployed to various schools in crime- and gang-infested communities, which include Manenberg, Bonteheuwel and Valhalla Park, to ensure visible policing for a safe environment for learners and teachers to and from schools, as well as residents in these areas. 

And most dramatically, to meet housing needs, an amount of R450 million has been proposed to allow for the acquisition of land.

Mr Speaker, these are positive developments for the communities involved and for the city as a whole.

It is our duty to think how we advance together as a city.

In contemplating these issues, we need to be mindful of the kind of future we want to build.

The City knows what principles it follows.

We want to build a City that redresses the injustices of the past by providing a high level of service to every resident and bringing them together through reconciliation.

In that regard, this Council will note that before it today is a consideration to rename Table Bay Boulevard after former president FW De Klerk.

I would like to make a point to reflect on the process of how this proposal came about.

When we started our naming and renaming programme some years ago, we did so on the basis of making it as transparent and inclusive as possible.

We opened the process of nominations to the public and assured them that supported nominations would be submitted to public participation processes.

If there was a high level of support, then the matter could be considered by the Council.

Since that time, we have named and renamed roads, parks and community facilities to reflect our country and city's history and to build a new, united future.

We have thus far honoured Tata Madiba, Jakes Gerwel, Albert Luthuli and Christiaan Barnard, among a host of others.

Last year, we received a nomination from eminent persons calling on the City to honour FW De Klerk.

As per our process, we submitted the nomination to public participation.

Around 250 people were against the proposal, while 1 700 supported it.

That is an overwhelming endorsement from the public.

According to our process, it is now incumbent upon this Council to consider the proposal and the evidence of public participation.

This is the most transparent naming and renaming process in the country.

It makes sure that all stakeholders have their say and is as broad-based as possible without imposing changes by decree.

It is the essence of an inclusive city.

But this matter goes deeper than matters of process.

It is about reconciliation and building a South Africa that belongs to everyone.

I remember what it was like on the front lines of the Struggle.

It was a state of war that seemed like it would go on for years, almost without end.

I won't forget the impact when I heard Mr De Klerk make his pronouncement on 2 February 1990.

It was from that moment that we really got the opportunity to shape a new country.

The struggle for which so many people, so many of my friends and comrades gave their lives, had an end in sight.

And it had an end in sight because both sides were ready to find compromise.

Both were ready to engage in a give-and-take for the greater good.

And what motivated them to keep that vision of the greater good together, to prevent white oppression or black oppression, was the principle of reconciliation.

It was a principle that said racial discrimination is an ideology for the dustbin of history and not the future of South Africa.

But after centuries of pain and strife, how could reconciliation be achieved?

It certainly wouldn't be easy.

It would require the conscious effort of everyone involved - a conscious effort to look past our prejudices and animosity to something new.

We would not forget the past. Indeed, we would remember it for it had shaped us all.

But we would need to remember that the spirit of compromise required sacrifice and doing things that were hard for us.

And we would do them because they were the right thing to do.

They were the kinds of measures we needed to take to realise a positive future after apartheid.

And so yes, to many, the gestures and actions of reconciliation are difficult.

The process of nation-building amidst pain is difficult.

The process of working towards the future when the biases of the past seem like such a familiar embrace is difficult.

But doing difficult things is what real leadership and real reconciliation requires.

It takes an entire country to build a new nation.

But it takes the brave actions of real leaders to set the journey in motion.

Mr De Klerk was one of those leaders.

And in the spirit of reconciliation, the reconciliation that Tata Madiba believed in, the Council should consider the proposal to rename Table Bay Boulevard after Mr De Klerk.

Mr Speaker, I know that some in the ANC are opposed to this motion.

They are opposed to progressive politics and anything that is not backward-looking and embraced by the cold hands of racialised politics.

This does not surprise me.

The ANC has no vision for Cape Town.

They have no plans for redress.

And they have no credibility except for a memory of a different, far greater, generation of ANC leaders.

I urge them to take a page from the books of those leaders and embrace the future.

Mr Speaker,

Racial issues have come to the fore in recent weeks.

The recent spate of racist attacks demonstrates that some in our society are stuck in past attitudes and prejudices, including some in the ANC, which uses insulting phrases like ‘darkies' to describe people.

Their actions must be condemned in the strongest terms.

We are building a city where there is no space for racism or bigotry of any kind - from homophobia through to sexism.

But we need to interrogate this sentiment from within those very enclaves that seek to cling to the past and to racist prejudices.

As such, I would like to announce the Mayor's Inclusive City campaign.

I want to have a dialogue about racial issues in Cape Town that will include eminent persons and extend to our communities.

Over the next two weeks, I will be putting together a framework for this dialogue and will announce the full details of the dialogue during the month of February.

I want to create a platform where we can address these difficult issues in our city and confront what makes some people feel excluded and other people feel entitled.

This campaign will be an action of reconciliation, allowing us to confront divisions to strengthen our mission to create a united future.

In conclusion, I think that the process of reconciliation is not an easy one.

It requires us to rise above our own instincts for a mission bigger than ourselves.

And it requires real leadership.

The people in this Council have an opportunity to foster this spirit in their communities.

I call on each of you to take the lead and to set a positive example.

We owe it to ourselves, to our children and to the many people who sacrificed so much to give us this chance.

Thank you, baie dankie, enkosi.

Issued by the City of Cape Town, January 28 2015

Click here to sign up to receive our free daily headline email newsletter