A City of Hope for All

Mayor Geordin Hill-Lewis on why Cape Town is South Africa’s leading city for investors, businesses and residents.

In your mind, what makes Cape Town the most attractive destination for investment and doing business in SA?

In Cape Town, we are continuously fighting against the status quo in much of South Africa. Tragically, the inaction and incompetence of municipal governments all over the country have led to crumbling infrastructure, reduced investment and growth, increased unemployment, and rapidly declining quality of life for residents.

In contrast to the disuse, disrepair and disorder in the rest of the country, Cape Town has shown the business community that we are committed to investing in – and maintaining – the infrastructure needed for commerce. We are also dedicated to making it easier to do business in our city, whether it’s through simpler licensing and permitting processes, easier and faster access to municipal services, world-class customer service, or any other of our range of interventions.

Looking at the catastrophic state of Eskom and the unprecedented load-shedding implemented during 2022, are there steps being taken to ensure that Cape Town is more energy-resilient?

Our IPP (independent power producer) procurement programme, which went to market in February this year, is the most advanced municipal energy security programme in the country. We are currently in the process of assessing dozens of technical bids in order to choose the best suppliers of renewable energy to the City. The tender will be finalised early next year, after which construction of the projects will begin.

We are also investing in our own generation projects, including a solar PV (photovoltaic) plant in Atlantis, which will begin construction next year. In addition, we have commissioned a feasibility review on utility-scale battery storage systems, which will increase the usability of renewable energy. We have a wheeling pilot project underway, and are now buying excess energy from commercial producers with small-scale generation installations, ensuring no megawatt produced in Cape Town goes to waste.

Finally, we continue to maintain the Steenbras hydroelectric plant, which allows us to mitigate up to two stages of load-shedding, to a world-class standard. Because of this, the plant is one of the few publicly owned generation facilities in the country that runs efficiently and reliably.

Just a few years ago, after prolonged drought, Cape Town narrowly avoided a Day Zero situation of its taps running dry. Is the City better prepared for the next lengthy drought period?

We are much better prepared for any future droughts. In 2019, the City adopted a new Water Strategy, which aims to ensure a resilient and sustainable water supply for Cape Town’s future. The projects planned in this strategy are well on their way to being delivered on time, and cover four future sources of water for the City: surface water (dams), groundwater (aquifers), desalination and water reuse.

We have just finished a drilling project on the Cape Flats Shallow Aquifer, and have several other aquifer projects planned for the future. We are in the process of augmenting the capacity of the Berg River Dam, which will enhance our ability to store groundwater. Water reuse (recycling) and desalination projects are coming further down the pipeline, but we are confident that demand for water will not exceed supply before these projects are finalised, even in the event of drought.

The City recently published its 2022-2027 IDP. How closely does this document reflect your administration’s vision for Cape Town? What key points in this framework are most important to you personally?

I was closely involved in the drafting of the IDP and believe it reflects my vision of Cape Town as a City of Hope for All very clearly. Most relevantly, the IDP delivers on the seven pledges my administration made as we came into office: 1 Ending load-shedding in Cape Town. 2 Making Cape Town safer. 3 Creating new jobs by making Cape

Town the easiest place to do business in Africa. 4 Making public transport work by expanding the MyCiTi bus service and fighting for control over passenger railways. 5 Doing the basics (like sewerage infrastructure) better so that every

Capetonian can live a life of dignity. 6 Releasing state-owned land so that the private sector can deliver more affordable housing. 7 Cleaning up Cape Town’s public spaces, streets and waterways.

Like all of SA’s major metros, Cape Town is highly spatially divided along socio-economic lines. How does your administration see the gap being bridged?

The first answer to this is jobs, jobs, jobs. We need to aggressively pursue a growing economy so that more people are in work and earning a decent income. When this occurs, people have far greater capacity to pursue improvements in their living circumstances and spatial integration occurs without much intervention from the state.

The second answer is that we need to pursue affordable, reliable and accessible public transport options, especially commuter rail. Most countries treat their railways as treasured public goods, understanding them as wealth creators and equality enablers. Our national government has taken a different view, willingly selling off public goods to corruption and incompetence. Cape Town’s railway system has all but collapsed.

Earlier this year, I announced that the City had begun a feasibility study on taking over the national government’s management of passenger rail in Cape Town. We aim to build a functional and integrated urban transport system that will positively impact on social inclusion, shared prosperity and poverty reduction.

How does the City balance meeting the needs of and uplifting the most vulnerable in society while also ensuring it drives growth and attracts foreign and local investment?

It is a mistake to view these two goals as being in competition with one another. The single biggest driver of inequality in South Africa is unemployment. We need to attract investment and drive growth precisely because this will ensure there are fewer vulnerable people in our city.

Of course, not everyone will be able to make the most of increased opportunities to lift themselves out of poverty. For those vulnerable people, the City of Cape Town will continue to offer the biggest and broadest offering of free basic services of any municipality in the country.

Have we put Covid-19 firmly behind us now? Are there perhaps any unexpected positives we can draw from the pandemic?

I believe Covid-19 has been firmly behind us for many months. While I can’t think of much good that came out of the pandemic, one thing has been the large number of international visitors who have come to Cape Town to work remotely while experiencing all the amazing things our beautiful city has to offer. This has been of great benefit to the local economy.

On a national level, taking into consideration all the challenges we face (Eskom, water scarcity, corruption, poverty – the usual endless list), how do we as South Africans maintain hope for a better, more equitable future?

I must be honest and say that, like many South Africans, I have also despaired about the future of our country, and often felt hopeless about the situation nationally. It is so easy to allow things to slide into tragic decline, and there are not enough people – in government or elsewhere – who are really committed to turning things around.

The good news is that I do believe that Cape Town is continually proving itself to be an example that South Africa can work, that there is hope for a better, more equitable and more prosperous future. I am incredibly grateful to lead a government whose civil servants consistently show commitment to service delivery excellence. It is because of their hard work that Cape Town is bucking the trend of decline in South African cities and is constantly becoming an even better place to live. The knowledge that this is possible should offer hope to every South African.

What is your closing message to potential investors or those considering doing business in Cape Town?

Cape Town’s is the only city government in South Africa both genuinely committed and practically able to deliver the conditions necessary for economic growth and human flourishing. Because of our investment in, and maintenance of, the Steenbras plant, we have saved residents 1 130 hours of load-shedding (out of Eskom’s 1 900 hours) this year, including 230 hours in which there was no load-shedding at all while the rest of the country had power cuts. For anyone wanting to conduct business or invest in South Africa, Cape Town is not only the safest but the most exciting choice. We hope you will join us in building a prosperous future in our city.

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