PRESS RELEASE                                                                                             22 October 2001

CITY OF CAPE TOWN INVESTS R3 MILLION IN THE POWER OF PARTNERSHIP 

The City of Cape Town has invested a further R3 million to inject new life to its CBD and set the trend for business districts across the metropolitan area. 

And it’s proving the power of partnership. In this instance, it’s the tight knit alliance of powerful public and private sector interests that wholly enhance the normal role and function of the City of Cape Town. 

The Cape Town Partnership includes the South African Property Owners’ Association (SAPOA), the City of Cape Town, The Provincial Administration of the Western Cape, The Cape Town Central Improvement District, the Cape Chamber of Commerce and Industry, Business Against Crime, City Community Patrol Board, the South African Black Technical Allied Careers Organisation, Cape Town Tourism and the Cape Heritage Trust. 

City council has agreed to invest R1 million a year for three years and has already handed over the first R1 million in support of the Cape Town Partnership in its strategy of revitalising the central city by conserving, enhancing, managing and promoting it as a leading centre for commercial, residential, cultural, entertainment, education, tourism and leisure activities. 

The Partnership also enjoys the patronage of a number of blue chip sponsors including, among others, almost all the major local oil companies, banks, insurance and investment institutions, retail groups and property development companies with substantial property holdings or business interests in the city. 

The initial primary objective of the two year old Partnership was to secure the City of Cape Town as a clean and safe destination for locals, tourists and investors alike. 

With the success of this ideal visibly gaining momentum, a second phase of the strategy has now emerged with the development of a distinctive and aggressive brand building of the city to a national, African and international audience, under the aegis of a Joint Marketing Initiative (JMI) and in a joint venture between the City of Cape Town and the Provincial Administration of the Western Cape.

Drawing on international case studies of other successful city turn-arounds on almost all continents, the proving ground for the successful Partnership venture has been the establishment of this country’s first Central City Improvement District (CID)

Funded by a ratepayer supported 9,5% levy on rates – which raises over R14,5 million per annum, the employment of a CCTV camera network and an additional 143 security personnel and eight mounted security officers, the Partnership has reduced crime in certain core areas of the city by as much as 80% over the same period the previous year.

Another visible success story has been the support given to municipal cleansing services in the collection of over 20 000 kg of waste from the city centre each month.

Further job creation in the CBD has been enhanced by the employment and training of traffic wardens to alleviate common problems with the occurrence of informal parking attendants and to assist in achieving the objective of a better controlled, policed and effective parking management system for the central city, where parking is at a premium.

While the problems of crime, grime and parking are successfully being addressed; the Partnership is involved in a number of further ambitious projects.

These include the creation of a management plan to dramatically enhance the most valuable urban landscape in South Africa – the Company Gardens, the establishment of two funds designed to improve the image and preserve the historic core of the city as well as to encourage the establishment of new and especially SMME business, the formation of a new inner city transport traffic system to alleviate vehicle pressure, and the creation of a tax-incremental financing plan to revitalise and orchestrate urban renewal in the central city.

“The success of the City Improvement District is entirely attributable to the co-operation of local government and the willingness and enthusiasm of the private sector to make Cape Town a world class city,” said, Executive Councillor for Economic Development, Tourism and Property Management, Councillor Kent Morkel

“Public-private sector partnerships have their own dynamic. The one we have operating here has been created out of necessity and concern for the future viability of our CBD and its environs. Our R3 million is well invested.

“We now have, to a great extent been able to take our strategic thinking from a reactive one to a proactive forward planning base that is not only wholly inclusive of worldwide city management best practices, but also involves the best interests of the public and private sectors and especially the business community, our citizens and visitors and investors,” said Councillor Morkel.

The success of the Cape Town Partnership’s Central Improvement District (CID) has led to applications by adjacent suburbs of Green Point, Sea Point and Oranje-Kloof in the Upper City bowl, as well as further afield, Kenilworth, for CIDs of their own.

____________________________________________________________________________