Comment on amendments to City’s Events By-Law
31 October 2024
The City of Cape Town’s Events Permit Office is calling on residents, event organisers and any interested parties to comment on the amendments to the City’s Events By-Law, 2016.
The Draft Events Amendment By-law, 2024 is going out for public comment for a month from Friday 1 November 2024.
The draft by-law seeks to replace some conditions in the existing Events By-law of 2016.
The proposed amendments would address the regulation of events based on risk impact, relax some requirement parameters to allow Cape Town to attract more major events without compromising safety and include provisions to deal with fraudulent activities, which may impact the safe hosting of events.
The draft Events Amendment By-law, 2024 seeks to:
• Provide for the classification of types of events as City protected events;
• Provide for Council exemption from specific by-laws for City protected events;
• Empower the Event Permit Officer with the discretion to make certain decisions related to event safety requirements and deal with fraudulent and dishonest actions.
‘The events landscape has transformed drastically since 2016 and as the City, we always want our regulations to align with the industry’s evolution. The amendments to the by-law will assist us in removing any event red tape or obstacles that detract from the event experience for organisers, participants and international event audiences. We also want to ensure that event permit applications are assessed on their individual impact, risk profile and magnitude and move away from a one-size–fits-all approach that goes against our goals to create an enabling environment for events to grow across the city.
‘The intention, of course, is to do all of this while still maintaining high safety standards at all times. In this regard, the by-law will equip us with mechanisms to deal with anyone found to be engaging in fraudulent or dishonest activities that may impact on the safe, satisfactory or proper hosting of an event,’ said the Chairperson of the City’s Safety and Security Portfolio Committee, Councillor Mzwakhe Nqavashe.
The public participation process will run until 30 November 2024.
All comments or suggestions received will be considered for inclusion.
Submit comments, input and recommendations by:
Email: Events.bylaw@capetown.gov.za
Written submissions: Attention: Fadwa Arnold/Daniel Rezant, Events Department, 10th Floor, Tower Block, Cape Town Civic Centre, 12 Hertzog Boulevard, Cape Town 8000
Tel: 021 444 7691 between 08:00 and 16:30 on weekdays
Website: www.capetown.gov.za/haveyoursay
The Draft Events Amendment By-law, 2024 will be available for viewing on the City of Cape Town website www.capetown.gov.za/haveyoursay, at subcouncil offices and City libraries.
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Published by:
City of Cape Town, Media Office
