De Lille’s parting words to City

CAPE TOWN mayor Patricia de Lille has asked the City to decisively address apartheid spatial planning because it “keeps the majority of residents away from opportunities to jobs, good education and health care”.

De Lille said the city is being lauded as Africa’s opportunity city, but said the next step is to address apartheid spatial planning.

She said that it also needs to improve safety in these communities and support business development.

“The City must be a catalyst for better integration of communities by speeding up release of the 11 identified pieces of land in Woodstock and the city centre while developing the Foreshore Freeway project.”

She said pieces of government-owned land must also be made available for the development of affordable housing. “This will enable more Capetonians to move closer to opportunities, increasing talent offering to international companies wanting to invest here.”

Price Water house Coopers recently recognised Cape Town as the top opportunity city in Africa and placed the city 6th among middle-income country cities behind Beijing, Kuala Lumpur, Moscow, Shanghai and Mexico City.

“If Cape Town wants to remain globally competitive, we must bring residents closer to opportunities and be a catalyst for job creation and investment, as outlined by the City’s Organisational Development and Transformation Plan (ODTP).”

De Lille acknowledged many challenges facing the city, such as the poor railway system.

She announced in June that at the end of the 2017/18 financial year, the City for the first time in its 18-year history as the metro government, exceeded its housing delivery target by 62%.