Cape Town Mayor Geordin Hill-Lewis said that the City of Cape Town has allocated R114 million in its adjustment budget for the N2 Edge safety project to improve safety for commuters, pedestrians and communities along a 9 km stretch of the N2.
In his address to City Council, Mayor Geordin-Hill Lewis emphasised upon safety barrier repairs and reinforcements along the N2 project that will bring various safety improvements for adjacent communities, that includes:
- new pedestrian crossings,
- improved lighting and access control,
- safety barriers for recreational spaces,
- safer grazing practices,
- reduced scope for illegal dumping, and
- other opportunities arising from the coming engagements with communities along the N2
Mayor Hill-Lewis said that the adjustment budget commits R114 million to the N2 Edge project, which will make a positive difference to the safety of every motorist along that stretch, and reduce pedestrian fatalities.
This project will not only repair safety barriers but will also bring various safety improvements for communities along the N2. It is not fair that a small number of criminal elements are impacting the safety of hundreds of thousands of daily users of the N2, including the commuters from Khayelitsha, Mitchells Plain, Blue Downs, Eerste River, Mfuleni, the Helderberg and neighbouring towns.
Lewis further stated that the N2 edge project will improve safety alongside the beefed-up highway patrolling of the City of Cape Town, with over 40 new Metro cops deployed to the N2, backed by CCTV cameras, automatic number plate recognition, and digital coordination for rapid response to help motorists.
Further adjustments made in the budget include:
- R46 million more for community swimming pool upgrades
- R30 million more for upgrades to various community facilities
- R11 million brought forward for Strandfontein Pavilion due to upgrade work being ahead of schedule
- R57 million for additional stormwater projects in communities hardest hit by winter flooding
- R16 million for additional vehicles for the City’s new Neighbourhood Safety officers, part of the 800-new officer deployment last year
- R45 million towards operationalising a new Joint Policing Centre in Parow for inter-agency safety coordination between the City, SAPS and other partners
City banks invested R412 million in performance incentive grant-funding. National Treasury has awarded Cape Town with R412m in performance grant-funding as part of the newly-introduced Metro Trading Services Reform grant.
This is in recognition of good governance and sustainability reforms in Cape Town’s utility services for Water & Sanitation, Energy, and Urban Waste Management.
According to Mayor Lewis, this is a very welcome first injection of R412m from National Treasury in recognition of the progress we have made since the various budget reforms last year. This grant incentivises well-run, self-sustaining utility services for water, sanitation, energy and waste. These funds are being immediately injected into infrastructure projects to ensure even better basic services for Capetonians into the future.
The main projects benefitting from this funding include electricity grid upgrades to the tune of R74 million for system equipment replacement and R35 million for substations and medium-voltage infrastructure. A further R267 million will go towards the City’s major water and sanitation programme for Automated Metering Infrastructure (AMI) for more predictable and reliable water and sanitation billing.