Committed to improving lives of our vulnerable residents

IT WAS Friday at dusk in September 2014. My son and I were teetering, silently, through knee-deep grass. The toes of our shoes, and the shoes of the 10 school children around us, were fast filling with marshy water as we cautiously hunted the distinctive harp of the western leopard toad across the flats of the City of Cape Town’s Edith Stephens Nature Reserve.

But our bid to catch and relocate the endangered toad species was interrupted by a succession of gunfire and the hastened drag of a fleeing vehicle in neighbouring Bellville. Regrettably, this scene is played out across the world as cities deal with rapid urbanisation, unemployment and their effects.

The City of Cape Town, however, truly believes that if we work together we can create an enabling environment in which communities can thrive and progress.

A few years ago, mayor Patricia de Lille implemented a ground-breaking initiative, incorporating best practice from around the globe and adjusting it to fit the unique dynamics of Cape Town communities. In 2012, the Mayoral Urban Regeneration Programme (MURP) was launched, seeking to revitalise areas neglected by apartheid.

With the highest urbanisation rate in the country, the city requires a holistic and sustainable approach and wellplanned solutions. These challenges are, however, compounded by apartheid spatial planning. The objective of MURP is to uplift formerly neglected, underinvested areas. Decay does not only refer to the general grime and deterioration but to the erosion of the vitality of our economic centres. That is why it is important for us to create an enabling environment which will also breed further private sector investments.

The MURP methodology is realised by engaging the affected communities and jointly assessing the areas in need of upliftment, and then through co-ordinating improved service delivery and public investment via Area Co-ordinating Teams.

City line departments are fully represented on these teams and they are responsible for partnering with communities to outline and implement Community Action Plans.

The city’s priority areas for urban regeneration include the Khayelitsha, Hanover Park, Gatesville, Manenberg and Athlone CBDs. The project also focuses on the CBDs of Bishop Lavis, Valhalla Park and Bonteheuwel. Furthermore, great attention is being given to the Bellville, Parow and Goodwood Public Transport Interchanges (PTIs) and the Voortrekker Road Corridor as well as the PTIs in Harare and Kuyasa in Khayelitsha. Emphasis is also placed on the Mitchells Plain Town Centre, the town centres of Nyanga and Gugulethu and those of Wesfleur (Atlantis), Ocean View and Macassar.

We are seeing tangible results. For instance, in the Harare area of Khayelitsha, 17 capital projects have already been implemented to the value of approximately R100 million. Importantly, this infrastructure and facility investment, driven by the Violence Prevention Through Urban Upgrades programme and our partners and which forms part of the MURP, is based on community engagement. Investments have been focused in the area of the main pedestrian routes between the Khayelitsha Station and Monwabisi Park informal settlement. Private sector partnerships, such as Grassroots Soccer, Love Life and Mosaic, have also been unlocked in this area.

In addition, the Kuyasa Precinct in Khayelitsha is seeing the investment in community facilities and public infrastructure in excess of R80m already.

Over the coming financial year, we will be stepping up our interventions in these areas. We remain utterly committed to improving the living conditions of our more vulnerable residents and urge our communities to work with us.

Councillor Johan van der Merwe is the Mayoral Committee Member for Energy, Environmental and Spatial Planning, City of Cape Town