Mayor delivers adjustment budget speech aimed at restoring hope, giving dignity, and promoting economic growth
27 January 2022
The following is a summarised version of the adjustment budget speech delivered by Mayor Geordin Hill-Lewis to the City of Cape Town council this morning. The full text of the speech can be found here: https://www.capetown.gov.za/Media-and-news/Council%20Speech%20delivered%20by%20Cape%20Town%20Mayor,%20Geordin%20Hill-Lewis
In our first meeting of the year, let us reaffirm our sense of higher purpose. So many South Africans feel like the society described in our Constitution is something we will never see in our lifetimes. In Cape Town, we plant a flag for a different future. Our city can restore hope in South Africa by standing as a shining example of what it really means to give people dignity, to unpick the legacy of apartheid, and to “free the potential of each person” by rolling back poverty.
In Parliament, I often said that if you want to know what a government cares about, don’t listen to their words — look at their budget.
This is a budget that demonstrates care and gives people dignity.
We do this by allocating:
R600 million to free basic services
R100 million to cleansing in informal areas
R24 million for new vehicles for a sewer spill intervention plan
R10 million for new Safe Spaces for the homeless
R2 million for title deeds
We confirm the announcement I made in the inaugural address of a R600 million increase in allocation to free basic services to our poorest residents. On my very first day in office, I went to Khayelitsha to do a service delivery inspection of sewer spills and blockages. This is a problem in many parts of the city, with around 300 spills a day being reported.
If we are serious about dignity, this cannot happen.
The only real solution lies in major infrastructure investments, which must be done, but that takes time and we need to see an improvement now, which is why I asked for a short-term sewer spill intervention plan in November. Today I can confirm that this plan is now in place, with a R24m allocation for new jet-vac trucks to speed up response times.
Importantly, today we are also directing R10 million for new and expanded Safe Spaces for the homeless in our city.
The Safe Space facilities in the CBD and Bellville currently have a total capacity for 700 persons under normal conditions, offering 3 meals per day, blankets, mattresses and cleaning packs on entry, substance abuse interventions, skills training, ID book assistance, and access to EPWP work placement. This capacity will be substantially expanded.
This is also a budget that shows our commitment to growth and jobs.
I want to pause to applaud our tourism and hospitality sectors, and every city official and stakeholder partner involved for what we achieved in December. While the rest of the world was unjustly placing travel bans on South Africa, Cape Town didn’t waste any time to pivot quickly to a domestic tourism campaign. The result is that R800 million flowed into this sector in December, with more than 20 000 passengers a day passing through the gates of Cape Town International Airport. That is something we can all be proud of!
In line with this commitment is an allocation of R13m towards the Cape Skills and Employment Accelerator project, and R6 million to our investment attraction agency, Wesgro.
To date the Cape Skills initiative has trained just short of 1400 previously unemployed youth with all 1400 beneficiaries being offered permanent jobs upon completing their training.
In keeping with our focus on job creation, I am pleased to announce that we are able to increase our allocation to EPWP work thanks to a grant from the President’s Employment Programme of R161 million.
In line with our commitment to building a city in which we can all take pride, we have allocated R3m for the repair and refurbishment of the Muizenberg beach huts. These huts have long been an iconic image in Cape Town’s colourful landscape, and they are literally a postcard for Cape Town tourism. But they have fallen into terrible disrepair, and do not demonstrate the pride we are trying to build.
Their refurbishment has thus far been led by a group of residents who have run a fundraising campaign to save the huts and preserve this iconic Cape Town image. We are grateful for this kind of citizen-led pride in Cape Town and we are happy to be able to contribute to their refurbishment now.
Speaking of iconic Cape Town spots – during the campaign I visited the Strandfontein Pavilion. I was shocked by its condition. It is now officially a condemned building.
We should not allow our public facilities to ever deteriorate to this point. Every resident deserves to be able to visit quality, beautiful public facilities that show Cape Town’s commitment to excellence and inclusivity.
So a relatively modest allocation in this budget is also one I am most excited about. We are going to rebuild the Pavilion. When it is done, every Plainsman and Plainswoman will be able to enjoy a Pavilion that they can feel proud of. We’re starting off 2022 with a major city-wide Clean-Up Campaign, and I invite every Capetonian to join me on this campaign and do their part to Keep Cape Town Clean Together.
The budget I have discussed here today shows what we care about and what we are working towards in Cape Town – a city that is more caring, that gives more dignity, a city committed to growing the economy and getting more people into work. And a city that builds pride in our city and our country. This is the higher purpose I asked us all to commit ourselves to.
If we are truly committed, we will shake off the feeling that South Africa can know only decline and failure ¬— examples of which we see everywhere in South Africa. We will do this by showing that the future can be different. And we will know the future will be different because we will have proven it here, in Cape Town.
End
Published by:
City of Cape Town, Media Office
