Council Speech: 25 July 2024
25 July 2024
Council Speech: 25 July 2024
Madam Speaker
Fellow Councillors and Team Cape Town colleagues
Members of the public
Goeiemôre, molweni, as-salamu alaykum, shalom, good morning,
It's great to see you all here this morning, and it's wonderful to have the Executive of the Cape Town Junior City Council here with us for their first full council meeting.
Junior Mayor Miguel Meyer, Junior Deputy Mayor Zephaniah Love, Junior Speaker Likhona Vika, and Junior Chief Whip Kirsten Wyld – you are most welcome here this morning.
It's particularly good to be able to officially welcome our newest colleagues to the City of Cape Town Council, who were sworn in since our last meeting.
Councillor Dedezane of the ANC, Councillors Abrahams, Loonat (who is back) and Lubbe of the CCC, Councillors Little (who is back) and Davids of Good, Councillor Dalwai of AJ, Councillor Dudley of the ACDP, Councillors Uygun and van Vuuren of the FF+, and Councillors Berry, van der Linde, le Goff and Sherry of the DA – congratulations on your election to Council. I look forward to working closely with all of you.
But as we welcome new members to this Council, we also bid farewell to others. And this morning we say goodbye to one of Cape Town's longest serving councillors, and a true servant of the residents of Cape Town, Alderman Marian Niewoudt, who will be taking a very well-earned retirement.
Raadsheer Niewoudt, dit is my groot voorreg om u vanoggend te bedank vir alles wat u hierdie afgelope amper dertig jaar vir Kaapenaars vanuit hierdie Raadsaal gedoen het.
Alderman Niewoudt is in 1996 tot hierdie Raad verkies, en vandag is haar laaste Raadsvergadering. Gedurende hierdie tydperk het sy elke moontlike taak verrig wat jy as raadslid kan doen.
Sy het haar wyk met onderskeiding gedien – vra maar vir die inwoners van Brackenfell, Brandwag, Springbokpark, Haazendal en Protea Hoogte, en hulle sal jou alles vertel van haar toewyding tot haar werk.
Sy het ook by verskeie geleenthede op die Burgemeesterskomitee gedien en sy tree af as die Voorsitter van Subraad 2.
When you've been in Council for 28 years, you've worked with a lot of Mayors across many parties. Every former Mayor of this City holds of a place of honour amongst us, and so I thought it would be nice to ask a few of those former Mayors of Cape Town to send farewell greetings.
Alderman Noma India Mfeketo writes: "This is a well-deserved retirement for Alderman Nieuwoudt. She has a deep understanding of all her portfolios. I can only say, well done, your commitment and skills did not go unnoticed. After 28 years of service you deserve a good break. Enjoy your retirement, and may the Lord be with you."
And may I add how nice it is to hear that Alderman Mfeketo is well.
Alderman Helen Zille writes: "As Marian takes a well-deserved break from politics, it is a privilege for me to thank her for her many years of dedicated service and to wish her health and happiness in this new stage of her life. Marian and I worked shoulder to shoulder to try to build the DA from very divided beginnings, to the mighty organisation it is today, being a party of government at local, provincial and national level. Cape Town was Ground Zero for the DA in 2006. It took a lot of dedicated work from a lot of people to achieve lift-off. To all of those, including Marian, who played their part: You have left a legacy. May God bless you on the road ahead."
Alderman Patricia de Lille writes: "I would like to commend Alderman Nieuwoudt for her longstanding commitment as a councillor and servant to the people of Cape Town. Her long years of service is an outstanding achievement and a testament to her exemplary contribution to Cape Town and its residents. Having worked with her for several years, I came to know her as a woman with a heart for the people of the city. She has made many valuable contributions to progress in the city and I want thank her for her service and wish her well for the future."
Raadsheer Niewoudt, namens hierdie Stadsraad, namens ons kollegas in die Stad Kaapstad en namens al ons inwoners wil ek u bedank vir al die jare van voorbeeldige diens, en wens ek vir u 'n heerlike en rustige aftrede. Baie dankie.
Colleagues,
My second farewell message this morning is one I deliver with much sadness. We recently lost a wonderful former colleague and a great friend to many here in the City, in Faried Shariff, our former Director of Strategic Assets.
Everyone who ever dealt with Faried will remember him not only for the exceptional work he did to transform our City assets into world-class facilities, but also for the warm and sincere human being he was.
His passing leaves a hole here in our City of Cape Town, as I am sure it does in his vast circle of family and friends. To all Faried's loved ones, I wish you much strength and comfort, and I thank you for sharing Faried with us for so many years.
Colleagues,
I want to briefly touch on the storms of the past couple of weeks. This unusually heavy rainfall and very strong winds caused much distress, damage and hardship for many Cape Town communities, and thousands of Capetonians are still picking up the pieces and trying to rebuild their homes and their lives.
But what these storms also did was to bring Capetonians together in service of those in need.
I have often said before that we live in the city with the biggest heart, and it is during times of hardship and suffering that this is demonstrated for the world to see.
Once again, I was extremely proud of the way Team Cape Town stepped up to the task. All the hard work and long hours put in by City staff to help alleviate flooding, clear debris, fix roads and restore power to stricken communities really showed that our City Value of "caring" is not just an empty word.
It has become an ethos by which this city performs its work, and it is humbling to be part of such a dedicated team.
I'm grateful to ward councillors who were out at all hours, and who have worked to help many, many residents in the wake of the storm – particularly those residents living in flood conditions. I have been impressed and humbled by the service and support offered by many councillors.
When extremely strong winds tore through parts of Wynberg, leaving a trail of destruction in its wake, Councillor Siebrits went out there immediately and stayed until the early hours of the morning, helping to assess the situation and to coordinate the DRM response.
She returned every day for the rest of the week, arranging for the restoration of power, the fixing of damaged roofs and helping with the feeding of affected families.
Councillor Madikane was out there helping, so was Councillor Esau, so was Councillor Gadeni in Philippi, so was Councillor Nelson in Parkwood, so was Councillor Mackenzie, and many, many others who I saw and heard helping.
I have to also mention our partners in civil society who never hesitate for a moment to roll up their sleeves and come to the aid of communities in need. Again it was demonstrated that Cape Town's NGOs are unmatched when it comes to selfless service in times of crisis.
But my biggest thank you this morning is reserved for all the private residents who came to the aid of their neighbours and community members. This army of private volunteers seldom gets the recognition they deserve for their contribution, but I assure you they were nothing short of heroic.
Here I am talking about everyone who cooked and baked and made sandwiches and knitted blankets, everyone who dropped off donations and everyone who helped distribute emergency items.
I'm told by Honourable van Minnen that for several days, at the height of the storms, it was near impossible to find soup ingredients in many grocery stores. And this was because so many people had gone out and bought those ingredients so that they could cook up big pots of hot soup for people who found themselves in a terrible situation.
If that doesn't make you proud to be a Capetonian, then nothing will.
Thank you, from the bottom of my heart, to every resident, every neighbourhood organisation and every group of local ladies who took it upon themselves to help others and lighten their suffering.
You are what makes this city of ours so great.
Madam Speaker,
I now turn to a topic that has dominated much of the discourse throughout our country this past month, and that is the big change that has taken place in our national government.
The formation of a Government of National Unity is the most significant development in our democracy since 1994.
And I am sure you have also felt, just like I have, a recent change in the mood of the nation. These two things are linked.
South Africans are reacting to what they believe is a reason for optimism for the future of our country.
The statements that have been coming out of several ministries of the Government of National Unity in recent weeks have placed a number of meaningful reforms on the agenda.
And while all this talk still needs to be backed up by action, there has been an undeniable shift in the tone of everyday conversations among South Africans, as well as in the reporting by the media.
For the first time in years the gloom is lifting.
I was also encouraged by the President's speech at the opening of Parliament last week. Some of the issues he touched on are things that we have prioritised here in the City of Cape Town in our own efforts to stimulate growth and create jobs, and it bodes well that we now appear to be aligned on a number of important issues.
One of these issues is the President's commitment to driving growth by scaling up investment in public infrastructure in metropolitan areas. This was music to my ears.
We are already doing much with our South African record R39,5bn capital budget over three years, 75% of which will directly benefit lower income households. But we'd like to do more, and we look forward to bigger infrastructure budgets for local government in the years ahead.
The President spoke of the need to simplify regulations to enable better public-private partnerships in this infrastructure investment drive, which we welcome. We are already building the first, transparent Ease of Doing Business Index for Cape Town, that we are holding ourselves publicly accountable to.
The President also spoke about deploying technology in the fight against crime.
This was also music to my ears. Again, this has been a large part of our own strategy to combat crime. We know that we can't afford the number of officers we really need. So we must use tech as a powerful partner to well-trained, well-resourced officers on the ground.
He also spoke of a renewed focus on the release of public land for social housing, under the second phase of Operation Vulindlela.
This is particularly welcome news for us here in Cape Town, because we have learnt for ourselves that one of the best ways to counter the spatial legacy of apartheid is to partner with private social housing companies in the building of affordable and well-located housing units across the metro.
The more suitable publicly-owned land we can identify and release for this purpose, the faster we can break down those old barriers and place even more Capetonians within reach of economic opportunities.
To have the president on board with this is a big step in the right direction, particularly given the vast, under-utilised mega-properties that are owned by the national government in Cape Town. I will touch on this in a bit more detail shortly.
But the big take-out from both the President's speech on Thursday and from various statements and soundbites from new Ministers these past few weeks, is that new life has been breathed into this government. And this presents an opportunity we dare not waste.
In the business of governing a country, a province or a city, momentum is everything. And right now we are experiencing momentum in the right direction, on a number of key issues, for the first time in ages.
South Africa has been handed a lifeline.
We can dare to hope that the slide towards failure has been halted, for a while at least, and we now stand before a crossroads as a nation.
If we can use this opportunity – this new chance – to make inroads in these areas of reform, we could place our country on the path towards growth, jobs, prosperity and a better life for millions of South Africans.
This new momentum is of particular interest to us here in Cape Town.
We have long petitioned the National Government for the devolution of certain powers and responsibilities to capable metro governments, so that we can better serve our residents where these national departments and state-owned entities are struggling to fulfil their mandates.
It is my hope that this new era under the Government of National Unity will allow new Ministers to break with the stubborn refusal of some of their predecessors to work with us on these issues.
It is my hope that we can all view the big picture together, understand what needs to be done to best serve our residents, and then work together on a plan to pool our resources to achieve this goal.
I have reached out to many National Ministers in recent weeks to advocate for Cape Town's priority issues to be firmly on the GNU agenda.
Among our most urgent devolution issues is more policing powers for metro officers, as many of our communities across the Cape Flats are in a daily war with violent criminals, gangsters and drug dealers.
In particular, we are calling for the devolution of criminal investigative powers so that our officers can help build prosecution-ready case dockets, and gain convictions particularly for gang, gun, drug and extortion-related crime.
Our well trained municipal police have the capacity to play a far bigger criminal investigative role, and to augment the efforts of SAPS where they are clearly unable to fulfil that role within very limited resources.
This immediate boost for the state's criminal investigation capacity can be achieved by a simple, but impactful amendment to the SAPS Act. Under section 64E(c), which specifies the powers of municipal police, the Act should simply state 'prevention and investigation of crime', instead of just 'prevention of crime'.
Two simple words that will make all the difference for Capetonians, and residents of all cities where competent municipal officers could be doing much more to help SAPS and prosecutors.
Regrettably, neither the previous Police Minister nor Justice Minister have formally responded to our correspondence calling for this amendment, amongst other reforms, all of which are absolutely in line with government's policy agenda for more integrated, localised policing.
We believe the investigative powers amendment should be front and centre of parliament's consideration of SAPS Act amendments in this new term.
We previously welcomed comments in the media supporting such an amendment for more policing powers for municipal officers made by the outgoing Chairperson of the Parliamentary Portfolio Committee on Policing, Mr Albert Seabi, in April this year.
I have now also written to the new Portfolio Chair, Mr Ian Cameron, and Police Minister Senzo Mchunu, to express my encouragement that we can pass this amendment to the SAPS Act in this new term, so that we can empower municipal police to help SAPS put many more criminals behind bars.
This is our golden chance to put people before politics, and do the right thing on behalf of residents living in daily fear of crime, especially in communities impacted by gangsterism and violent gun and drug crime.
Madam Speaker, the second devolution issue which we have repeatedly raised with national government in the past is that of the management of the passenger rail service in the metro.
Minister Creecy indicated in her Budget Speech debate that the Transport Department has completed a draft National Rail Devolution Strategy.
I have therefore written to the Minister asking for confirmation of when the City will be able to comment on this draft strategy, and for a clear deadline to finalise the strategy so we can get devolution done.
Right now, the City is very close to finalising a Service Level Agreement with PRASA, which will set the stage for future devolution discussions.
The City's own Rail Feasibility Study is also at an advanced stage, and we expect to table its findings on various rail devolution scenarios in this Council before the end of the year. These scenarios explore how best to introduce private sector involvement in passenger rail within an integrated transport planning and management system involving all three spheres of government.
This means, if we can simply establish our long-requested joint rail devolution committee with the National Minister and her department, we could fast-track devolution and be fully aligned by the end of the year.
I was greatly encouraged by the Minister's comment in the same debate that she recognises it is near impossible to run and plan a major city without managing public transport.
Colleagues, a further critical part of our GNU advocacy agenda is an issue I mentioned a little earlier in this address, and that is the release of public land for affordable housing in the metro.
I don't need to tell you that our city still bears the spatial scars of apartheid. All South African cities do. But we are working every day to dismantle that legacy, and one of the best ways to do so is to enable much more affordable social housing, developed at scale by the private sector, in well-located parts of Cape Town.
These affordable rental units close to economic opportunities and transport corridors have the potential to immediately change people's lives, which is why we are advancing a comprehensive priority programme to enable more affordable housing via accelerated land release.
And a separate programme of support for micro-developers to deliver more affordable accommodation so that people who are paying money to rent a shack can find a safe and dignified home to rent.
As we continue to drive municipal land release, immense potential lies in a handful of severely under-utilised mega-properties owned by national government, which represent some of the largest and best located land in Cape Town for affordable housing.
These properties include the expansive Wingfield, Youngsfield and Wynberg military bases, as well as the Acacia Park Parliamentary Village close to Century City, which we certainly don't think is the best use of this land, nor the best way to house Members of Parliament.
These are all massive, largely vacant properties in parts of the metro where affordable housing would be a real game changer for many thousands of Cape Town families.
We estimate that these four mega properties alone could realise as many as 100,000 affordable housing opportunities. And in a city with such a pressing need, there has to be a way to make this happen.
We've already had a very constructive engagement with the new Public Works Minister Dean Macpherson about these properties, which is a most refreshing change. The Minister is also intent on spurring action on the many problem buildings owned by national government around Cape Town.
In years gone by, we got no commitment from successive national Ministers of Public Works, but again, my hope is that we can use the positive momentum from this new government to break with the past and consider this matter afresh.
A further critical issue we face is the severe national subsidy constraints to really unleash the affordable housing sector.
This is probably the single, most important issue holding up more social housing in Cape Town. Because even if the City has gone through all the hoops to release land – including the reforms we have made to discount land and maximise social housing yield – the social housing developer still struggles with project viability due to bureaucracy and limited funding available via the Social Housing Regulatory Authority.
In fact, the SHRA has approved funding for just one social housing project in the whole of South Africa in the last year, in Somerset West.
Properly funding the SHRA, cutting red tape around subsidies, and protecting pro-poor grants from cuts are key priorities for Cape Town.
It is my hope that Treasury, under this new government, will give serious consideration to our concerns around the recent cuts these grants.
Housing grants and Informal Settlement Upgrade grants are among the most pro-poor and progressive ways you could possibly spend your budget, and in a city like Cape Town where these grants are spent well and responsibly, it is a life-changing investment.
This is the worst possible place to make budget cuts, when there are so many other avenues available to trim excess and rationalise spending.
With Cape Town growing faster than any other metro, and about to overtake Johannesburg as South Africa's most populous metro, we're asking that this census data is reflected in both our grant funding and our equitable share allocation.
There are many other areas of opportunity – and reason for optimism – in this new Government of National Unity.
I think of the positive developments on visas that have already come from the new Minister of Home Affairs.
So let us turn those waves of momentum into a tsunami of progress that will carry our country and its cities deep into the 21st century, building more prosperity and more dignified lives for our citizens along the way.
What an exciting time this is for South Africa, and I hope everyone who has been given a seat at the governing table is able to also recognise the importance of this moment.
Madam Speaker,
On that positive note, I want to close by wishing all our athletes who are in Paris for the Summer Olympics much strength and success on the eve of the opening of the Games.
We believe in you and we are immensely proud to see you carrying our beautiful flag on the world's biggest sporting stage.
Whatever your results at the Games, you have already done South Africa proud.
I thank you, colleagues.
End
Published by:
City of Cape Town, Media Office
