CITY OF CAPE TOWN
8 OCTOBER 2014
STATEMENT BY THE CITY’S EXECUTIVE MAYOR, PATRICIA DE LILLE
City signs historic cooperation agreement with City of
Bujumbura, Burundi
This morning, 8 October 2014, I hosted the Executive Mayor of the Bujumbura
Municipality, Mr Saidi Juma and a delegation including the Burundian
Ambassador to South Africa, His Excellency Isaie Ntirizoshira; Burundi’s Deputy
Minister for Home Affairs, Mr Thérance Ntahiraja; and Chief of Protocol
Services of the Bujumbura Municipality, Mr Jean Bosco Nzisabira.
It was my great pleasure to welcome the delegation and I was honoured to
sign a historic cooperation agreement between the City of Cape Town and
an African city today.
This agreement represents what we as the City of Cape Town are trying to
achieve with our external relations policy: that is, to share best practice
approaches with other African cities, and also 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.
The signing of today’s agreement will strengthen ties between the two cities
in the following areas:
 Human Settlements
 Information Technology Management
 Social Development
 The Integrated Development Plan
 Solid Waste Management
As the City of Cape Town, we recognise that the world is increasingly looking
to Africa for investment, opportunity and growth – with some of the world’s
fastest growing economies in Africa.
In light of the above, it gives me great pleasure to have signed a
cooperation agreement with Bujumbura.
Apart from functioning as Burundi’s administrative and communications
centre, Bujumbura also serves as the economic centre as the city is the main
shipping point for most of Burundi’s chief exports, namely coffee, cotton, skins
and tin ore.
Since 2006, the Burundian government, with the support of mainly the United
Nations (UN), focused its efforts on rebuilding the country and its economy as
well as infrastructure – specifically that of Bujumbura.
These efforts include an extensive Infrastructure Action Plan by the African
Development Bank focusing on the upgrade of the Port of Bujumbura,
extension of the railway network, and a fibre-optic communications network.
This demonstrates many similarities with Cape Town in terms of our
infrastructure-led growth strategy, with a key project being the extensive
Integrated Rapid Transit (IRT) MyCiTi service and our broadband roll-out, all
aimed at linking residents to economic and social opportunity.
This agreement enables us to build an integrated and sustainable
partnership, sharing expertise, research and best practice in the fields
covered in this agreement.
In conclusion, I hope that this is the start of a fruitful relationship that will
enhance progress and benefit both cities.
End
Issued by: Integrated Strategic Communication and Branding Department,
City of Cape Town
Media enquiries: Zara Nicholson, Spokesperson for the Executive Mayor –
Patricia de Lille, City of Cape Town, Tel: 021 400 4998 or Cell: 079 416 5996, Email: zara.nicholson@capetown.gov.za