Speech by the Executive Mayor, Alderman Patricia de
Lille, at the signing of a Memorandum of Understanding
between the City and the Port of Cape Town on
8 October
Note to editors: the City of Cape Town and the Port of Cape Town
signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) to create a formal space
where both parties can discuss matters of common interest, such as
planning infrastructure requirements and strategies to help position the
Port of Cape Town as a major economic gateway for the city.
Good morning, goeie môre, molweni, as-salaam alaikum,
In today’s world, cities have been recognised as the drivers of growth.
Where once we might have understood economic relationships across the
rigid boundaries between nation-states, today we see a network of
energies connecting a multitude of dynamic centres – a network of cities
and city-regions.
In Cape Town, we have taken the decision that not only will we not be left
behind but we will take the lead in ensuring that we are one of the great
emerging cities of the 21st Century.
We know that a rhetorical commitment will not translate into action on its
own.
Instead, we have undertaken a new strategic process for our city to be
the driver of economic and social development – a process that will
involve an organisational shift. Part of that organisational shift is our
approach to using all of the City’s resources to encourage economic
growth.
Our economic growth strategy has identified the access points into Cape
Town, namely the port and airport, as key levers of our growth.
But like all successful strategies, we have also taken into account what is
within our power to act upon.
And in the South African context, harbours and airports are not under the
municipality’s control.
We therefore need to do everything that we can to understand the
strategies that these entities have so that we can truly position ourselves
for growth in the real-world, South African context, working with all
partners.
That is why I have been leading a new bi-lateral relationship with
Transnet, specifically the Ports Authority of the Port of Cape Town.
This relationship is being formalised today by signing a Memorandum of
Understanding with the Port of Cape Town.
We see the port as a major economic gateway for the city.
However, given that we do not control port infrastructure, we also must
understand the port as part of national infrastructure and strategies and
Cape Town’s place within these.
Transnet has designed a national capital infrastructure programme over
the course of the medium- to long-term.
The spending regime over the multi-year period has identified certain key
assets as the transport gateways for the country and the region, as well
as the supporting networks between them via freight and rail.
For instance, the Port of Durban will receive massive investment as a
strategic container port. In comparison, the Port of Cape Town is
allocated much less spending by Transnet over the coming years.
However, if we look elsewhere in the region, Transnet will also be
allocating massive resources to the Port of Saldanha given its strategic
role in the oil and gas sector and its relational position to the West African
market.
The City of Cape Town has factored Transnet’s planning into our
strategising so that we make use of opportunities where they are
available instead of fantasising about what could have been.
As such, we understand the investment in Saldanha and its purpose,
especially in the oil and gas sector.
We need this investment for the region as Cape Town would be able to
benefit from multiple down-stream business opportunities.
We can host head-offices and provide business services and other marine
and oil and gas industry support services.
Furthermore, we would then finally develop a strategic understanding of
the Port of Cape Town as a place of down-stream servicing for excess
capacity from Saldanha and as an entry-way for additional cargo goods
and cargo servicing for the region.
This would also include increased activity in the ship-building industry
(the City of Cape Town is already preparing to train welders to support
such industries in order to address the shortage of this critical skill), not
to mention the important use of the port as a gateway for cruise-liner
tourism.
Indeed, such investment would serve our long-term goal as the centre of
a dynamic city-region of growth by furthering the west-coast corridor
integration of Cape Town with the potentially major industrial area to our
immediate north-west.
This is a multi-layered approach to understanding the purpose of two
ports in the region, especially structured around particular sectors,
namely oil and gas and containerisation.
This engagement with Transnet and the Port of Cape Town is just one of
the ways that we are strategising for the future.
Our MOU will create a formal space where we can discuss matters of
common interest, such as planning infrastructure requirements and
strategies.
This MOU will create bi-lateral mechanisms for the City and the Port to
engage directly, while also including our partners in the Western Cape
Government, and thereby creating a more efficient city-area.
In the process, we are gaining valuable experience of how to negotiate
with other State-owned entities to transform the role of cities in the local
government space in South Africa.
Thank you, baie dankie, enkosi.