| Mayor’s Council Speech 22 Aug 2024 | <div>Madam Speaker</div><div><br></div><div>Fellow Councillors and Team Cape Town colleagues</div><div><br></div><div>Members of the public</div><div><br></div><div>Goeiemôre, molweni, as-salamu alaykum, shalom, good morning,</div><div><br></div><div>Before we get into the serious matters before Council today, I’d like to pause for a moment on the amazing run of sporting performances we’ve just seen from some of our favourite teams and stars.</div><div><br></div><div>As if the fantastic showing of our athletes in Paris wasn’t enough, this past weekend served up a wonderful celebration of South African sports. </div><div><br></div><div>First the Springboks trounced the Wallabies in Perth, followed by a superb victory by the Proteas over the West-Indies, and then our UFC champion, Dricus du Plessis, successfully defended his middleweight belt against the highly rated Israel Adesanya.</div><div> </div><div>In a sports-crazy country like South Africa, these victories lift the mood of the entire nation, and make us all feel like champions. </div><div><br></div><div>On behalf of all Capetonians, well done to our incredible rugby, cricket and MMA ambassadors, as well as all our Olympic heroes, for flying our flag with pride and for giving us these incredible moments.</div><div><br></div><div>The UFC president promised to bring the event to South Africa should Dricus win his title bout, and we intend to hold him to that promise.</div><div><br></div><div>We will also make the case for Cape Town to be the host city for such a UFC event, and I think we have every reason to believe that this can be done. So let’s hold thumbs that the next title defence by our champ will be right here in the Mother City.</div><div><br></div><div>Madam Speaker,</div><div><br></div><div>Today in Council, we will vote to pass the City’s Adjustment Budget – another affirmation not only of our ambitious plan for Cape Town, but also of our excellent track record when it comes to delivering on that plan.</div><div><br></div><div>Last month, we reached the end of our second full financial year of this term of office and we’ve now embarked on our third.</div><div><br></div><div>That’s two full years of our own IDP and budget as set out by this government, and perhaps an opportunity for us to once again reflect on the progress we have made. Specifically the ability of our departments to turn their budgets into meaningful delivery plans, and then spend those budgets responsibly and in full.</div><div><br></div><div>I am pleased to inform you this morning that our combined capital spend performance for the 2023/24 financial year, across all directorates, was once again over 90%.</div><div><br></div><div>And remember, here we are talking about a new record capital budget of almost R10,5bn, of which our 13 City directorates successfully spent R9,42bn, or 90,4%. </div><div><br></div><div>This rises to 94% – or R9,79bn – when you include contractually committed funds.</div><div><br></div><div>This is not only a City of Cape Town record, but also a South African record, and I think that deserves a round of applause. To achieve these numbers in a responsible manner, requires an extraordinary effort right across the entire Team Cape Town.</div><div><br></div><div>But within this great performance, some directorates still stood out.</div><div><br></div><div>You may recall that last year this time we recognised the directorates in the City that had achieved the highest capital spend performance, expressed as a percentage of their budget, as well as a special recognition for the best performing directorate in what I call “The Billion Club” – those with an annual capital budget in excess of R1bn.</div><div><br></div><div>We have decided to do so again this year, and I will now award the top three performing directorates, as well as the best performing Billion Club directorate, with certificates citing their achievement, which we will hand over in person after this meeting.</div><div><br></div><div>At number three overall, with a 95,6% spend, is our Corporate Services directorate.</div><div><br></div><div>Our second-best performing directorate was Human Settlements with a very impressive 97,8% of capital budget spent.</div><div><br></div><div>And at number one – repeating their performance from last year – was Safety and Security, having spent an incredible 99,2% of their capital budget for the year.</div><div><br></div><div>That then brings us to the Billion Club – the directorates with mega budgets and mega projects. Our Billion Club contains three directorates: Water and Sanitation, Energy and Urban Mobility. Knocking on the door of this club, with a budget of around R980m, is Human Settlements.</div><div><br></div><div>By far the biggest of those three directorates is Water and Sanitation. Its R3,72bn capex budget last year accounted for well over a third of our overall capital budget, driven by the massive investments we’re making in sewer pipes, wastewater treatment plants, pump stations and new water sources, to name but a few.</div><div><br></div><div>The immense benefits in terms of dignity and quality of life that those investments will bring to our city – and particularly our lower income areas – make that R3,7bn the best money we could possibly spend.</div><div><br></div><div>However, our best performing Billion Club directorate last year, with a 94,25% budget spend, was Energy. Of their capital budget of R1,18bn, they spent an impressive R1,11bn by the close of the financial year. </div><div><br></div><div>Again, I should mention here that I have just taken into account the actual spend amounts. For each of these directorates, there is an additional amount that had already been assigned to projects within the old financial year.</div><div><br></div><div>Spending these record amounts on infrastructure is a very impressive feat, so please let us give them one more round of applause.</div><div><br></div><div>Colleagues,</div><div><br></div><div>I make such a big deal of these high budget spends because it is incredibly important. </div><div><br></div><div>We have set ourselves very ambitious goals in this term of office, and we’ve put together budgets that increase sharply year-on-year in order to meet the necessary milestones in achieving these goals.</div><div><br></div><div>Every year of this five-year term will set a new record for infrastructure expenditure. At a combined R39,5bn for this current three-year medium-term framework, our infrastructure budget is 80% bigger than the next biggest city – Johannesburg – and almost 100% bigger than the third biggest, Durban.</div><div><br></div><div>The vast bulk of this spend – a full 75% – is earmarked for projects that will directly benefit our metro’s lower income households. </div><div><br></div><div>And while the obvious benefit will be the improved sanitation, better water security, better energy security, expanded public transport, thousands more affordable housing opportunities, safer communities and cleaner public places and waterways, there is also an important jobs benefit to this investment.</div><div><br></div><div>We estimate that just the construction industry jobs alone resulting from this three-year, R39,5bn infrastructure spend will be in the region of 130,000. That’s a huge employment boost for our city.</div><div><br></div><div>But all those budget numbers will mean little if we are not able to spend that money, efficiently and responsibly, within the required timeframe. And so we have made this a top priority in all our directorates.</div><div><br></div><div>But we also strive to spend our budgets well in order to demonstrate to National Treasury that ours is a metro government whose allocations from national government should correspond with both our rapidly growing size and our exemplary track record in spending these grants and equitable share.</div><div><br></div><div>We continue to engage in correspondence with National Treasury, expressing the urgency of bringing our allocation of grants – particularly housing grants – as well as our equitable share in line with the latest census data.</div><div><br></div><div>Grants to build affordable housing, when well spent, are arguably the most pro-poor way to spend your budget, and the worst place to make cuts.</div><div><br></div><div>Cape Town is about to become South Africa’s largest city, if we have not done so already, at almost 5 million people. And we have demonstrated, again and again, that our directorates are highly capable and are able to spend their budgets efficiently, transparently and on time.</div><div><br></div><div>Our allocations from national government should be going up, not down.</div><div><br></div><div>And that, colleagues, brings me to two exciting items on today’s agenda: two big milestones in the City’s affordable housing pipeline which will provide hundreds of Cape Town families with life-changing housing opportunities in prime locations.</div><div><br></div><div>The first of these refers to seven hectares of city-owned land in Rondebosch East, on the corner of Kromboom Road and Seventh Avenue.</div><div><br></div><div>Today, in this meeting, we are seeking City Council approval to commence with the public participation process for the proposed sale of this property.</div><div><br></div><div>The land has a potential yield of 800 residential units within a mixed-use development, including affordable housing, open market housing, public open space, and retail opportunities.</div><div><br></div><div>While this well-located site has a desktop valuation of R155m, our new City guidelines on social housing development allow for a discounted land sale price to help developers viably maximise the affordable housing yield. </div><div><br></div><div>We will also include a clause in the proposed sale to protect our interest in the land being used for affordable housing. In accordance with this clause, if the affordable housing purpose is not met, the property will revert back to City ownership. </div><div><br></div><div>This Rondebosch East property is the latest to go to market in our successful Mayoral Priority land release programme.</div><div><br></div><div>To give you an idea of what we have achieved in a very short time, in the first two years of this programme, we have already released sites with a yield of over 4 200 affordable housing units, including in Cape Town’s inner city and other well-located economic nodes.</div><div><br></div><div>This number is higher than the yield for sites released over a period of ten years prior to our land release programme. That speaks to this city government’s commitment to deliver affordable housing, and underscores the huge difference being made our team’s dedicated focus.</div><div><br></div><div>The City’s affordable housing pipeline includes land parcels expected to deliver over 12 000 residential opportunities across the metro. </div><div><br></div><div>We are prioritising mixed market development for these projects so that we can create integrated communities and sustainable human settlements that offer not only housing opportunities but also commercial space and social amenities. </div><div><br></div><div>One of the biggest social housing opportunities of our land release pipeline in the inner city is the Woodstock Hospital property. </div><div><br></div><div>And the frustrating fact of this particular property is that social housing would have already been in the construction phase by now, were it not for the major obstacle of the unlawful occupation of the site.</div><div><br></div><div>I know that many of the activists who planned the initial hi-jacking of these buildings back in March of 2017 as a political statement now regret this move. </div><div><br></div><div>The occupation has grown well beyond what was foreseen by the initial decision to symbolically and temporarily occupy a building in the name of activism. </div><div><br></div><div>Rather than advancing the social housing agenda, these actions have only presented a costly and time-consuming obstacle for the state on a property that could actually be developed quite expeditiously thanks to favourable zoning, rights and infrastructure.</div><div><br></div><div>It is also important to state here that this site was not abandoned, or just lying derelict. The hi-jacking took place after the sites were announced for social housing development. </div><div><br></div><div>As a testament to the City’s determination to deliver social housing at Woodstock Hospital, we still took ownership of the property from the provincial government even after the unlawful occupation. </div><div><br></div><div>We have also been to court where we obtained an order in 2018 interdicting Reclaim the City from inciting further unlawful occupation of the property. Our legal efforts continued, also winning the right to conduct a court-ordered survey of the circumstances of the occupants. </div><div><br></div><div>While our social housing goals have been stonewalled and delayed all the way by these challenges, today we take another step forward, by asking Council to approve a public participation process on the City’s intention to release the Woodstock Hospital land for affordable housing development. </div><div><br></div><div>We estimate that 500 residential opportunities are possible on this 1,8 hectare property, including social housing and affordable market units. Again, any proposed sale of this land would include a clause that it reverts back to City ownership if the affordable housing goals are not realised for the site.</div><div><br></div><div>We are determined that Woodstock Hospital takes its place among the various inner city sites we have already released for social housing, and which are set to deliver thousands of affordable units in Cape Town’s inner city, mere minutes from the CBD.</div><div><br></div><div>It is extremely unfortunate that the actions of those who orchestrated the occupation caused such crippling delays in this vital project, but today we can give Woodstock Hospital a big momentum boost and bring those affordable housing opportunities one step closer to reality.</div><div><br></div><div>Madam Speaker,</div><div><br></div><div>After a slow start to our winter rainy season, these past six weeks have more than made up for it. July saw all previous rainfall records shattered throughout the metro, and August has also delivered a lot of rain so far.</div><div><br></div><div>I am grateful that our City’s water supply dams have been so well replenished, although I’d have preferred it to be a little less intense.</div><div><br></div><div>But now, as we slowly start heading out of winter, we turn our attention to one of the biggest annual events in the City’s calendar.</div><div><br></div><div>Across all City departments, across all our facilities and across the breadth of the Metro we are now gearing up for our big annual Spring Clean campaign.</div><div><br></div><div>This is our chance to rejuvenate our city and get her shipshape ahead of what promises to be another bumper festive season in Cape Town.</div><div><br></div><div>Spring Clean truly is a massive team effort, and I urge all Capetonians to get involved. We will be scaling up the City’s cleaning operations across the metro, and I call on businesses, schools and community groups to match the City’s efforts with their own litter-busting projects.</div><div><br></div><div>Let’s roll up our sleeves and clean up our streets, our parks, our waterways and our beaches so that we can show our beautiful city to the world with pride.</div><div><br></div><div>Thank you.<br></div><p><br></p> | 2024-08-21T22:00:00Z | GP0|#1d539e44-7c8c-4646-887d-386dc1d95d70;L0|#01d539e44-7c8c-4646-887d-386dc1d95d70|City news;GTSet|#62efe227-07aa-45e7-944c-ceebacca891d | | | | | GP0|#fecb3a24-4da2-4469-965e-8e738db5312a;L0|#0fecb3a24-4da2-4469-965e-8e738db5312a|speech;GTSet|#2e3de6c1-9951-4747-8f53-470629a399bb;GP0|#e73b8136-98e9-4bfd-9ccd-f72a83520761;L0|#0e73b8136-98e9-4bfd-9ccd-f72a83520761|council meeting | 1 | | | | | | | | | | | 0 |
