Note to editors: the speech below was delivered by Mayor De Lille today at a meeting with a delegation from the municipality of Hawassa, led by the
Mayor of Hawassa, to discuss possible formal relations between the two cities.
It gives me great pleasure to welcome His Excellency Mr Yonas Yosef Sanbe, the Mayor of Hawassa, and his delegation to the City of Cape Town.
We trust that you will enjoy your experience in our diverse and dynamic city.
As a city located in a developing continent, we recognise the need to engage with other African cities, in particular those that are experiencing the same challenges we do, to learn from and share solutions and examples of best practice.
I believe that Africa has much to contribute to the global village, and that it is our time to show the international market that Africa is a place of immense possibilities.
It is not just a place of possibility for social advancement and economic growth that will benefit its people, but also a place of possibility for businesses and investors to contribute to and benefit from that growth.
Indeed, we have already made great strides in our respective cities, given that we have both recently emerged from very difficult pasts.
I believe that the successes achieved so far are but the beginning, and that there are still greater things in store for us.
And I believe that we will be in a better position to achieve these things if we share our challenges and successes, and find ways of working together.
With the African Union’s (AU) secretariat, the African Union Commission based in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, I believe exploring possible relations would strengthen cooperation and add great value to the work we are trying to achieve as fellow African cities.
In October last year, the City of Cape Town signed its first cooperative agreement with an African city, Bujumbura, Burundi.
Relations such as these represent what we are trying to achieve with our external relations policy and that is to share best practice approaches with

other African cities and to draw from the experience and solutions that work in other cities throughout the continent.
It also underlines our Enhanced African Agenda as stated in our Strategic
External Relations Policy, wherein we commit ourselves to become a meeting point for East and West and an important connector with, amongst others, new markets of Africa.
I am therefore looking forward to discussing the possibility of cooperative relations between the City of Cape Town and the Municipality of Hawassa.
In a developing world faced with numerous challenges, in particular rapid urbanisation, I hope that we can explore how best to address these challenges and how to establish ourselves as strong economic hubs and pockets of excellence.
The delegation from Hawassa will be conducting various site visits during their stay in Cape Town. This includes a tour of our MyCiTi transport network , Cape
Town Stadium, Green Point Urban Park, and the Goodwood Traffic
Management Centre. The aim of these visits will be to share knowledge and best practice with respect to transport infrastructure, hosting of big events, environmental sustainability and sound traffic management practices.
Possible cooperation between the cities of Cape Town and Hawassa could be in the areas of solid waste management, transport, infrastructure, housing and the environment.
I would like to wish the delegation well for the rest of their visit and look forward to establishing closer ties with them, and sharing knowledge and ideas that will mutually benefit our cities.