CITY OF

06 FEBRUARY 2019

WELCOME SPEECH FROM THE CITY’S EXECUTIVE DEPUTY MAYOR, ALDERMAN IAN NEILSON

Note: The following speech was delivered by the Executive Deputy Mayor of the , Alderman Ian Neilson, at the second annual SALGA Council of Mayors held in the Council Chambers of the Civic Centre in Cape Town on 06 February 2019.

SALGA and UCLG President, Parks Tau Members of the SALGA National Executive Committee Programme Director Thembisa Marele Honourable Ministers and Deputy Ministers Mayors, Aldermen and Councillors Representatives of the various spheres of government, as well as the private and civil sectors Honoured guests

Good morning.

It gives me great pleasure to welcome you here today on behalf of Executive Mayor . The City of Cape Town values the vital role that SALGA plays in capacitating and empowering local government, and we are looking forward to engaging with our fellow leaders in municipal government, as well as key stakeholders from a wide range of sectors.

The theme we will be exploring over the next few days, Enhancing the role of municipalities in promoting investment and job creation, requires urgent attention across multiples sectors and platforms.

With over 10 million South Africans in need of jobs, it is time for us to work together to ensure that more of our citizens are able to acquire the skills and resources needed to access employment.

As local government we need to activate all the levers available to us to boost our local economies, creating an enabling environment for both job seekers and job creators.

I believe we all have a basic understanding of some of the key challenges we are facing: an education system that is not optimally aligned with the requirements of the formal employment sector; more and more people abandoning the rural areas to seek work in towns and cities; regulatory constraints that hamper the growth of new businesses; an economy that is not growing as fast as it needs to in order to absorb new entrants to the job market; a lack of investor confidence; and increasing climate unpredictability, the effects of which we are just beginning to comprehend.

I could go on, but I feel that the emphasis of this forum should not be on dissecting our challenges, but rather on finding a way through or around these obstacles, and sharing some of the innovations that can revitalize our economy and create more jobs.

In the City of Cape Town our Department of Investment and Enterprise is funding a number of special purpose vehicles to facilitate investment and job creation. Between July and December 2018, three of these SPVs, namely Business Process Enabling (BPeSA) , Wesgro and GreenCape, facilitated investments to the value of R1,2 billion and in the process created 2 286 employment opportunities.

This achievement is all the more remarkable considering the many challenges we have faced in the past year, specifically with regards to the drought and the ongoing crisis with our commuter rail system.

The City funds these SPVS to deliver sector programmes and projects that are aligned with our strategic priorities. Key sectors include the call centre and business process outsourcing industry, the craft and design industry, the clothing, textile and fashion industry, and the green economy. These sectors all have the potential to grow and develop the City’s economy and contribute to job creation.

Another key sector is the Information, Communication and Technology sector, which is a major contributor to skills development in digital literacy. A total of 108 beneficiaries have been trained in ICT-related skills programmes for the period January–December 2018. An upcoming skills programme that is set to run between May and April 2019 will see a total of 154 beneficiaries participating in BPO-related skills training programmes.

We place great value on our partners and their role in helping us to create an environment that is conducive to attracting both local and foreign investment; to growing businesses and jobs, and creating a more inclusive economy.

We acknowledge that we cannot do this alone, and we have to find ways to work more closely with partners across all sectors if we are to turn this ship around.

While we do not have control over all the factors that impact on our economy, I believe that we must do as much as we can with what we do have at our disposal.

As local government we have an important role to play, not only in creating conditions conducive to economic growth, but also in identifying regulatory and legislative stumbling blocks at national level that we should collectively lobby to be addressed.

We would also be remiss to overlook the informal economy, and I hope that we will be seeing more legislative and capacitating support from all sectors of government to informal traders. In June last year, for example, the National Department of Health introduced regulations to improve the hygiene and safety practices of informal food vendors. As from the beginning of this month, the City is hosting free monthly training sessions for informal vendors to help them become compliant with these regulations

Our interventions do not always have to be large-scale and costly. Small initiatives, like providing job seekers with assistance in drawing up CVs, giving them free Internet access to online job sites, and equipping them with soft skills to help them persevere and not become discouraged, can have a significant impact.

Understanding the trajectory of young job seekers and the effectiveness of various interventions over time is critical as well – we need to know which interventions work and which do not, which sectors have the capacity to absorb more entrants, and which can be incentivized to provide more opportunities. This will enable us to calibrate our planning and resources accordingly.

By providing capacity and support to job seekers and creating an environment conducive to investment and growth, we also have a better chance of building an economy that is resilient to economic and other shocks and stresses.

Resilience is defined as the capacity of individuals, communities, institutions, businesses and systems to survive, adapt, grow and even thrive, no matter what kind of stresses or acute shocks they experience.

City governments are increasingly at the front line of dealing with such shocks and stresses, and by working with our partners we will be better prepared to withstand and recover from them.

It is my hope that over the next few days we will learn from and share with one another, and find agreement on the interventions required.

May you find the next few days fruitful, and make the most of the opportunity to connect with the impressive roster of speakers that has been assembled.

I would like to thank SALGA for organizing this event, and trust that the outcomes agreed to will have the impact we envisage.

Please also take the time to enjoy our beautiful city; your presence and your contribution to our economy over the next few days are both equally welcome.

Thank you.

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