Businesses, academic institutions, City of Cape Town officials, and partners in the Bellville area came together at the scenic Bloemendal wine estate in Durbanville to listen to and celebrate the work being done by the Greater Tygerberg Partnership (GTP).
GTP is a partnership between businesses and the City of Cape Town to spruce up the Bellville CBD through various programmes, thereby attracting investments to the area. Bellville, once seen as a second city, has over the years fallen into decay, with homeless people, refugees, and dirt taking over the streets, sidewalks, and vacant spaces.
Cape Town Mayor Geordin Hill-Lewis, who was present at the event, said in his foreword to the State of Bellville report that the Cape Town City Council approved the local spatial development framework for the Bellville CBD, “which was conceived to unlock development opportunities and guide the transformation of Bellville into a thriving, sustainable centre.” With money from the City and businesses, the GTP embarked on the Better Bellville Together campaign to clean up Bellville, understand the journey of waste—organic waste and landfill waste—and implement recycling initiatives to turn it into sustainable programmes.
Warren Hewitt, Chief Executive Officer of the GTP, said they implemented the broken windows theory by focusing on fixing the small things that will lead to bigger rewards. If you walk in Bellville these days, you will see the results of these efforts, with sidewalks repaired, mosaic artworks decorating the area, and plants and flower pots scattered throughout. Another project was turning public gardens and derelict open spaces into horticultural centres that attract children and serve as education centres for understanding sustainable planting and greening areas. Businesses were urged to get involved in these programmes.
One of the partnerships is the Voortrekker Road City Improvement District (VRICD), which provides top-up urban management and public safety services along the vital Voortrekker Road that connects Bellville, Parow, and other areas in the northern suburbs with Cape Town. In their overview of this partnership, the VRIC is slated as having been key in keeping areas safe, clean, and cared for, providing top-up security to patrol the streets.
Mayco member for economic development James Vos said that in the Bellville area they are implementing plans based on innovation, progress, and prosperity.
“Behind all the progress that has been made are people who have benefited from it, bringing hope and dignity.”
Speaking at the event, Geordin Hill-Lewis said the City faces many challenges, like bureaucracy that is hampering the ease of doing business and stakeholders that are not always sharing the same vision, as was seen with the taxi strike.
“But every day we try to keep focus on that mission of how do we remove all these obstacles out of the way and do the things now that will make our economy grow so that we can have a better future for all of us, particularly those that come after us. Everything that we do has to be connected to that, and we have to show discipline and focus on those things that make an impact and move the dial. It is not only the big things that we are doing. Sometimes it is also the micro-interventions that make a really big difference, that offer the biggest leverage.”
He pointed out the Better Bellville Together campaign and said it has been a wonderful success.
Regarding the big investments, Hill-Lewis said the City is outpacing all the other cities when it comes to infrastructure investment, with R40 billion over the next three years. “We are outpacing all other cities when it comes to infrastructure investment, and it is more than the two biggest cities, Johannesburg and Durban, combined, and bigger than all three metros in Gauteng—Tshwane, Ekurhuleni, and City Johannesburg together—and we are setting new records for big infrastructure investment.”
He said these big-ticket items include bulk sewerage infrastructure, investment in transport corridors, and renewable energy.