A decade later, Cape Town has emerged as a multi-award winning, internationally acclaimed city and arguably the cleanest and safest CBD of any metropolitan area in South Africa.

This transformation was largely due to the Cape Town Partnership and the Central City Improvement District (CCID).

The Cape Town Partnership is a collaboration between the public and private sectors working together to develop, promote and manage Cape Town Central City as a place for all citizens.

The Partnership was formed 10 years ago when the City of Cape Town, the South African Property Owners Association (SAPOA), the Cape Town Regional Chamber of Commerce and Industry and other stakeholders came together to address issues of urban degeneration, disinvestment and the social problems in the Central City.

The Central City’s regeneration process has been built upon the strength and pillars of successful public-private partnerships at operational and strategic levels.

The Partnership promotes inner-city investment, promotes sound urban planning principles, and aids developers and investors in their Cape Town
CBD projects.

In October 2008, the Partnership announced a R30-billion development plan for the city.

The role of the Partnership and the CCID

The Cape Town Partnership is the strategic thinking partner, and its role is to devise strategies to constantly reinvent the CBD of Cape Town. For example, it is recreating the eastern part of the city into a creative hub, which encourages the incubation of computer, craft and clothing companies – essentially bringing more people into town to work and live.

The other very important function of the Partnership is that it acts as a lobbying body between private property owners and the city and province.

The CCID is a hands-on management tool. The two – the Partnership and the CCID – are completely different, but work well in concert with each other, said Theodore Yach, director of the CCID.

The CCID stands on four legs, he said.

It provides security in the core CBD, and provides the cleansing of private/public areas, the streets, pavements, drains as well as graffiti.

It provides a very important social development service to the homeless and street kids in the CBD.

And it provides a limited marketing service for the CBD as a whole.

CCID

Tasso Evangelinos, chief operating officer of the CCID, said it employs more than 200 security officers 24/7.

They have a response time of under five minutes for any incident or complaint that comes through the control centre.

The CCID has two security firms providing it with security officers.

No begging is allowed on traffic corners and street lights, as the CCID embarked on a campaign to give responsibly.

The CCID has largely eliminated illegal dumping, as well as the flicking of cigarette butts.

At a stage, 40% of all waste collected was from illegal dumping. This has almost been eliminated thanks to a dedicated awareness campaign in the heart of the CBD.

“It is applying good citizenship, sticking to rules, discipline, enforcing the law, educating, creating awareness – for example, illegal dumping – and it is something we managed successfully,” said Evangelinos.

It has introduced a graffiti squad that eliminates graffiti and numbering on signage boards and walls in the CBD.

The CCID has a regular cleansing programme to clean out 1 200 drains twice a year. It also has used weed killer to clean the drains.

It regularly does light audits after 22h00 to repair broken lamps.

In terms of the social development incentive, the CCID works closely with non-governmental organisations to make a difference to the lives of street kids.

It works in association with Straatwerk, a faith-based concept, to create jobs for more than three people monthly to offer urban management services. The people clean rubble from the streets, but also do technical work and offer about 25 different services as part of the defects and maintenance portfolio.

Cape Town belongs to the International Downtown Association and received the Flavour of the Month Award in 2009, singled out from between 1 000 and 1 500 other downtown associations for its urban regeneration and management programme.

Enhanced business

The purpose of the Cape Town Partnership was to recreate the CBD of Cape Town for the people of Cape Town.

There has been a dramatic increase in tourism, and 12 Iziko museums are currently in operation in the CBD.

At present, several hotel groups – such as Protea Hotels – are spending hundreds of millions of rands in upgrading five-star hotels in the centre of the city.

The Inn on the Square has recently announced an upgrade of R50 million of its facility at Greenmarket Square.

Thanks to the pivotal roles played by the Cape Town Partnership and the CCID, the CBD has seen a return by big companies, retail companies, coffee shops, hotels and banks to the CBD of Cape Town, said Guy Lundy, chief executive officer of Accelerate Cape Town.

Within a three-kilometre radius in the CBD, there are currently 18 five-star hotel establishments.

“People want to work, live, play and study in the central business district and that creates a vibrancy which is a positive element for the acceleration of business in the City of Cape Town,” said Lundy.

The excellent performances by the Cape Town Partnership and the CCID have contributed to the formation of the Western Cape hub of business tourism, the Cape Town International Convention Centre (CTICC).

Thanks to the CTICC, Cape Town is the leading city in terms of business tourism in Africa, with 49 meetings in 2009, and with Johannesburg ranked fifth and Durban ranked 10th.

Fanie Heyns