Cape Town: Mayor Geordin Hill-Lewis stated that the City of Cape Town is ready to work with President Cyril Ramaphosa to urgently improve policing, passenger rail and more following a State of the Nation Address (SONA) 2025, full of promises for major reforms.
Mayor Lewis added to his statement that they welcome the commitment of the President to crime-fighting partnerships between SAPS and Metro Police. A Memorandum of Agreement is already in place to guide policing cooperation in Cape Town and they are already sharing valuable crime-fighting data generated by the Safety Technology Investments by the City of Cape Town, over R800m.
They are especially encouraged by the President’s emphasis on taking illegal guns off the street to bring down the violent crime in the most vulnerable communities. The well-trained municipal officers already confiscate hundreds of illegal firearms annually and make thousands of drug arrests.
Lewis added that they can do far more and gain convictions, if the officers are given crime investigation powers to help SAPS and prosecutors build prosecution-ready case dockets for gang, gun, drug and extortion-related crime.
According to him, it is an immediate boost for the criminal investigative capacity of the state that can be quickly achieved by the Police Minister issuing the regulations under the SAPS Act. It is based on the SONA 2025 promise made by the President to fight gun crime, that they will soon approach the Police Minister with draft regulations for more policing powers for the well-trained municipal officers.
They will also issue the regulations that will be much quicker than amending the SAPS Act and they are already discussing the draft regs with SAPS and the Western Cape Government as part of the legal workstream of the cooperation agreement.
Considering the passenger rail, Cape Town is all set to have complete business plans in place by mid-2025 to take over the management of passenger rail services following the completion of the metro of a Rail Feasibility Study, last year.
Mayor of City of Cape Town emphasised that they are encouraged by the commitment of the President for better passenger rail infrastructure and more trains in the coming years. In Cape Town, they have a vision to massively scale up the passenger number, new train sets, new routes and to upgrade stations and surrounding areas with affordable housing over the next two decades.
Hill-Lewis also said that this year, Cape Town will be ready to take over running of passenger rail, with complete business plans in place. They are ready to work with the President and PRASA to revive the rail network of the city in a devolved system in line with the constitutional mandate of the city, providing an integrated public transport system.
This is especially urgent for lower income households, who would save an estimated R932m a year if trains worked as they should.
Mayor also welcomed various positive housing reforms as announced by the President, including the intention to release more well-located land, improving the state-subsidies for affordable housing, review building regulations to enable low-cost development and focus on reclaiming hi-jacked public buildings.
It is a recent undertaking by the National Government to re-commit funding to emergency housing provision which is also welcomed.
Regarding the ports, President Cyril Ramaphosa spoke of a general intention to invest in port infrastructure to improve efficiency together with private partners. The speech was lacking in specifics regarding the urgent reforms needed at the Port of Cape Town, currently ranked among the worst in the world for efficiency.
Mayor Geordin Hill-Lewis confirmed that they will follow-up with the President on the specific plans to turn the situation around. An efficient port will raise export of locally produced products and will drive job creation in the industries and especially in the vital agricultural sector. He cleared that they need a clear and urgent deadline for greater private sector involvement in port operations for Cape Town.