City invests R6.5bn a year in digital infrastructure
800km of fibre-optic cabling installed
THE CITY of Cape Town spends R6.5 billion a year on infrastructure and has installed more than 800km of fibre-optic cabling to generate investment opportunities and create jobs. Mayor Patricia de Lille said this at the Amazon Web Services Summit yesterday, where she was a guest speaker. The conference, held in Century City, attracted over 1 200 delegates, more than double the number of delegates last year.
The City’s priorities included leveraging technology and positioning Cape Town as an innovative and globally competitive business city, she said.
“Embracing the disruptive forces of technology and hosting leading companies and innovative minds ... is vital to making those priorities a reality. While Cape Town is already the digital capital of Africa, we are always pushing the boundaries to move with an ever-changing world, and we have set our sights on being among the very best digital cities in the world.”
De Lille said two issues were determining the city’s future: urbanisation and digital innovation.
She said Cape Town was one of the fastest-growing cities in the country, with population growth of more than 30%, and the City had to provide more infrastructure and basic services.
“Our contribution as the City is to invest in infrastructure, where we spend R6.5bn a year, and we split this 40%/60% on maintaining and repairing old infrastructure and investing in new infrastructure. That is why today you see a city where we have basic services, a fibre-optic cable network and roads that are in good working order. All the factors needed for a city to grow.”
De Lille said the City recently went to market with its inaugural green bond of R1bn. “Our bond has been certified by the Climate Bond Initiative, which makes it a true green bond, and Moody’s has also awarded it a GB1 (excellent) rating. With the green bond, we will get more investment to grow our infrastructure spend.”
She said the City had installed more than 800km of fibre-optic cabling and was providing free wi-fi on its MyCiTi buses.
Its broadband network has a speed of one gigabyte a second. “This project has not only improved efficiently in our operations, but it has also reduced costs for the City, while we are able to rent out extra capacity to independent service providers.
“We are building a connected city, and by the time our broadband roll-out is complete in 2021, the network will have 26 more nodes connected by 1 300km of fibre-optic cables.”
De Lille said a key aspect of the Western Cape government’s digital strategy was the development of tech start-ups and the transfer of digital skills.
The City provided funding to special-purpose vehicles that facilitated domestic and foreign investment and job creation, and helped to develop skills.
“One such vehicle we support is the Cape Innovation and Technology Initiative, based at the Bandwidth Barn. The facility is home to innovation clusters and hubs such as Barclays Rise, an acceleration centre for tech entrepreneurs working in financial technology. We have also invested in the CapCiti job-readiness programme, which creates work and training opportunities for unemployed graduates and unemployed youth, in particular.”
She said the initiative had provided skills to more than 900 youth from low-income areas across Cape Town.
“To encourage growth and investment, I have a one-stop shop in my office to assist investors with all the help they need to set up a business in Cape Town,” De Lille said.