CITY OF CAPE TOWN
31 MARCH 2016
SPEECH BY THE CITY’S EXECUTIVE MAYOR, PATRICIA DE LILLE, AT THE
FULL COUNCIL MEETING ON 31 MARCH 2016
I would like to ask for a moment’s silence for the people who lost their lives on
the roads over the Easter weekend.
Thank you.
Good morning, goeie môre, molweni, as-salaam alaikum, shalom.
Mr Speaker, just over a week ago we celebrated Human Rights Day on 21
March 2016.
On this day, we remember those who laid down their lives during the tragic
Sharpeville Massacre.
We must also endeavour to take the time to reflect on the ways in which we
can, and must, pick up the baton which has been passed onto us by the
generations before us.
There is work for all of this in undoing the legacy of our unjust past.
Mr Speaker, last year, on Human Rights Day I launched the City of Cape
Town’s Inclusive City Campaign under the banner of: ‘Don’t let racists speak
for you’.
The Inclusive City Campaign is one of the ways in which the City of Cape
Town is working towards a society built on reconciliation and empowered by
knowledge of constitutional rights.
On 29 February 2016 we launched the second phase of the Inclusive City
Campaign.
This year we are taking the campaign to the communities across Cape Town.
I look forward to hearing feedback about the dialogues happening across
the rest of our city.
Mr Speaker, undoing the legacy of apartheid also means addressing the
spatial planning we have inherited.
It entails looking at ways in which we can use our mandate and
competencies to bring life to the freedom enshrined in the Bill of Rights.
Before Council today is the Transit-Orientated Development Strategic
Framework, which was adopted by the Mayoral Committee on 15 March
2016.
This developmental tool will enable residents to have easier access to work
opportunities, will lower travel costs, and will decrease congestion on our
roads.
Through this kind of redress, we will be able to build a more inclusive city,
ensuring that all new developments are strategically located near public
transport and/or near economic hubs.
We would like to build more integrated developments such as Delft, Pelican
Park and Muizenberg.
Because of increased investment into the city, and more people moving here
to access opportunities, we have become the most congested city in the
country.
This warranted the announcement of our R750 million Congestion Relief
Programme which we unveiled in November 2015.
We have already started actualising this plan, with the R60 million upgrade of
the R300/Bottelary interchange in Kuils River.
Construction commenced three weeks ago.
Mr Speaker, the lack of jobs across the country is another barrier which still
keeps some in, and others locked out, of the economy and away from
opportunities.
This has been especially demoralising for the youth, who are eager to start
contributing to the growth of our country and industries.
Our Social Development and Early Childhood Development Directorate has
launched the #YouthStartCT Entrepreneural Challenge.
Through a partnership with the Seed Academy, 100 start-ups will get the
opportunity to receive training and development and mentoring.
We encourage young people who have innovative ideas for creating
employment in their communities to visit the City’s website or social media
channels for more information before the competition deadline on 15 April
2016.
Applicants must be between the ages of 18 and 35, and they are
encouraged to access the internet at our SmartCape Facilities at their local
library.
We have over 100 SmartCape facilities, the newest of which can be found at
the world-class R78 million library in Kuyasa.
We partnered with the Carnegie Corporation to make this investment into the
lives of the Khayelitsha community.
We are incredibly pleased that this partnership has enabled us to bring
residents that much closer to their ambitions and dreams.
Mr Speaker, as we build, there are unfortunately those with political agendas
who wish to destroy.
It has been disappointing to watch as protestors linked to an illegal land grab
in Dunoon vandalised a MyCiTi station on Potsdam Road, and another MyCiTi
station in Phoenix station in Joe Slovo, both in five days.
We have repeatedly stated that we respect and encourage people to use
their democratic right to protest, but this kind of behaviour is unacceptable.
We need people to understand that you hurt your neighbour the most when
you damage facilities intended for the use of the broader community.
Indeed, such actions usually disproportionately affect the poor.
In many cases, disrupting public transport results in taking food out of the
mouths of entire families because residents are prevented from getting to
work.
Similarly, the Sir Lowry’s Pass Village Incremental Development Area also
incurred R1,65 million worth of damage when it was petrol bombed a few
weeks earlier.
Those beneficiaries must now also wait even longer, when so many of them
have waited decades for their opportunity.
Today we send an uncompromising message to those who have been
involved in the spate of vandalism which has taken place across Dunoon:
you will not stop us from delivering services.
We will not let you take us backwards when so many of us are working
together for a better future.
We remain relentlessly committed to delivering on the mandate which has
been given to us to serve the people of Cape Town.
An example of this commitment is in Valhalla Park, where we recently
celebrated the start of a R43 million housing development with a sod-turning.
Despite constant attempts to invade the land, and even threats from
gangsters, we were able to protect this land earmarked for 777 vulnerable
families.
We will not go back into the ways of the past where some go out of their way
to deprive others of their rights.
We lose hundreds of millions of rands on repairing vandalism every year.
Communities are urged to report vandals to their nearest police station so
that they can be held accountable.
Mr Speaker, this morning, we will put forward the draft budget.
We remain confident in all that we have achieved in the last five years in
government, and we look forward to completing the work that we still have
left to do.
I would like to end my address this morning by acknowledging the brave
efforts of Law Enforcement officers who foiled an armed robbery in
Bonteheuwel on Tuesday morning.
They will now be receiving commendation certificates and pins, whilst Acting
Executive Director for Safety and Security, Chief Wayne Le Roux, gives us
more details on the incident.
Let us continue to make progress possible, together. Laat ons vooruitgang
moointlik maak, tesame. Senza inkqubela yenzeke, Sisonke.
I thank you.
God bless.
End
Issued by: Media Office, City of Cape Town
Media enquiries: Pierrinne Leukes, Spokesperson for the Executive Mayor –
Patricia de Lille, City of Cape Town, Tel: 021 400 1382 or Cell: 084 272 7614, Email: Pierrinne.leukes@capetown.gov.za