A damning report by an international forum of democracies on Cape Town's regional development gives all three spheres of government a hard-hitting "wake-up call" about the risks of letting politics get in the way of housing delivery, job creation and economic development.
The regional review of Cape Town by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) paints a bleak picture of the city's sustainability, highlighting rising unemployment, income inequalities, growing poverty and a high crime rate.
ANC MP Ivan Turok, of the African Centre for Cities at UCT, said the report, which highlighted the neglect of economies in the townships and growing poverty, was a "wake-up call".
The OECD said co-ordination efforts between the province and the municipalities in the region "could be improved".
Relatively few agreements seem to have been designed to address multilevel governance problems with respect to traffic, the environment, infrastructure and housing, the report said.
Deputy director-general in the Department of the Premier Laurine Platzky said the authors of the report were "diplomatic" about the region's politics. Their findings suggested that highly-politicised processes stunted the region's development. Looking forward, she said the debate about the future of the region had to be "elevated out of narrow politics".
Platzky said the provincial government had paid for the study, which was supported by then-premier Ebrahim Rasool. (who like many other premiers before him did not survive his term.)
Director of the African Centre for Cities at UCT Edgar Pieterse said that while the report was written before the provincial and national elections in April, it was still important to resolve the contradictory competencies of the government.
The city's executive director of economic, social development and tourism, Mansoor Mohamed, said political games and political institutions incapable of delivering would impede development.
Although the socio-economic conditions in the Cape Town City region are at their most favourable since 1994 and the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) in the region is 40 percent higher than the national average, unemployment is at 22 percent and nearly one-third of the population lives in poverty.
Between 25 to 30 percent of households live in informal settlements and 16 percent of the population suffers from HIV/Aids. The report said many sectors in the city region are short of skilled workers.
The city's "sprawling" and low-density expansion means that many informal settlements are cut off from economic opportunities.
The report found that Khayelitsha, which houses 12 percent of the total urban population, contributes less than one percent to Cape Town's GDP.
This isolation of the townships has created a "cycle of economic and social decline" which affects the whole region.
"As a result, Cape Town cannot take advantage of this large potential supply of labour, or benefit from future growth in consumption and productive activity within these areas."
The city's built environment policy has not created accessible and affordable neighbourhoods, the report said.
Land use planning is shaped by apartheid practices and cheap parcels of land on the urban edge are still used for social housing.
The OECD warned that the city region remained "highly segregated", with ageing infrastructure, maintenance backlogs with respect to water and sewerage, and a road and rail network that hindered further growth.
The provincial government had under-invested in road maintenance and this backlog was estimated at R2.5-billion in 2006.
Housing policies have not been able to meet the growing demand for housing. In addition, housing units are built in areas far away from employment opportunities.
The forum noted that land use regulations hampered housing delivery. The City of Cape Town owned much less land than the province and parastatals such as Transnet.
Land use also "suffers" from "unclear and contradictory plans", a multitude of building plans, conservation processes and provincial planning ordinances, each with different procedural requirements.
The OECD recommended the creation of a new regional planning authority to co-ordinate regional development planning. It would comprise representatives of the national, provincial and local government tiers.
- Cape Times
The regional review of Cape Town by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) paints a bleak picture of the city's sustainability, highlighting rising unemployment, income inequalities, growing poverty and a high crime rate.
"Despite well-developed policies and strategies, government, as a whole, is often unable to deliver services effectively and efficiently in all areas. Frequent political shuffles have made governance in the region unpredictable, policy priorities are often changed before programmes can be implemented," the Paris-based think tank said.At a seminar on Tuesday to discuss the report's findings, representatives from the city and the province agreed that politics should be left out of future debates about the region's economic growth and sustainable development.
The forum said political stability and improved capacity building would help build a bureaucracy that would operate independently of political changes.
ANC MP Ivan Turok, of the African Centre for Cities at UCT, said the report, which highlighted the neglect of economies in the townships and growing poverty, was a "wake-up call".
The OECD said co-ordination efforts between the province and the municipalities in the region "could be improved".
Relatively few agreements seem to have been designed to address multilevel governance problems with respect to traffic, the environment, infrastructure and housing, the report said.
Deputy director-general in the Department of the Premier Laurine Platzky said the authors of the report were "diplomatic" about the region's politics. Their findings suggested that highly-politicised processes stunted the region's development. Looking forward, she said the debate about the future of the region had to be "elevated out of narrow politics".
Platzky said the provincial government had paid for the study, which was supported by then-premier Ebrahim Rasool. (who like many other premiers before him did not survive his term.)
Director of the African Centre for Cities at UCT Edgar Pieterse said that while the report was written before the provincial and national elections in April, it was still important to resolve the contradictory competencies of the government.
The city's executive director of economic, social development and tourism, Mansoor Mohamed, said political games and political institutions incapable of delivering would impede development.
Although the socio-economic conditions in the Cape Town City region are at their most favourable since 1994 and the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) in the region is 40 percent higher than the national average, unemployment is at 22 percent and nearly one-third of the population lives in poverty.
Between 25 to 30 percent of households live in informal settlements and 16 percent of the population suffers from HIV/Aids. The report said many sectors in the city region are short of skilled workers.
The city's "sprawling" and low-density expansion means that many informal settlements are cut off from economic opportunities.
The report found that Khayelitsha, which houses 12 percent of the total urban population, contributes less than one percent to Cape Town's GDP.
This isolation of the townships has created a "cycle of economic and social decline" which affects the whole region.
"As a result, Cape Town cannot take advantage of this large potential supply of labour, or benefit from future growth in consumption and productive activity within these areas."
The city's built environment policy has not created accessible and affordable neighbourhoods, the report said.
Land use planning is shaped by apartheid practices and cheap parcels of land on the urban edge are still used for social housing.
The OECD warned that the city region remained "highly segregated", with ageing infrastructure, maintenance backlogs with respect to water and sewerage, and a road and rail network that hindered further growth.
The provincial government had under-invested in road maintenance and this backlog was estimated at R2.5-billion in 2006.
Housing policies have not been able to meet the growing demand for housing. In addition, housing units are built in areas far away from employment opportunities.
The forum noted that land use regulations hampered housing delivery. The City of Cape Town owned much less land than the province and parastatals such as Transnet.
Land use also "suffers" from "unclear and contradictory plans", a multitude of building plans, conservation processes and provincial planning ordinances, each with different procedural requirements.
The OECD recommended the creation of a new regional planning authority to co-ordinate regional development planning. It would comprise representatives of the national, provincial and local government tiers.
- Cape Times
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