De Lille gets to work for the city’s poor

ADDRESSING the anti-poor criticism levelled at the City of Cape Town by civil society and the ANC seems to have been one of mayor Patricia de Lille’s main objectives in her first 100 days in office.

Today marks that landmark for her as first citizen of Cape Town and she says she has started delivering on the key promises she made during her election campaign. Central points in her manifesto were the provision of basic services to backyard residents, allocating more resources to the metro police and helping the city’s homeless.

This week, De Lille launched the Backyarder Essential Services Improvement Programme to provide sanitation and electricity to backyard residents.

De Lille said 153 families in Factreton had agreed to the plan. This area would be the focus of the pilot project. Surveys, funded by the R10 million De Lille mentioned in her budget speech, are under way to determine needs in other areas, including Hanover Park and Langa. Some backyard associations were unhappy about the plan, while the ANC in council questioned the logistics of it.

The council has also emphasised expanding a programme to prevent violence. The project has been established in Khayelitsha and De Lille has committed R5 million to rolling it out in Manenberg and Hanover Park. Nyanga has also been earmarked.

In the 100 days since she began as mayor, the administration had been working towards translating the DA’s five pillars into “actual ideas”, De Lille said. This vision was for a caring, inclusive, safe, efficient and “opportunity” city. De Lille said the door-to-door surveys were also creating employment for residents in the area. Another election promise was the allocation of more resources to the metro police.

De Lille said the city’s safety and security portfolio committee had approved a plan to introduce neighbourhood watch safety officers to complement the Metro Police. There would also be the introduction of 10 school resource officers. Their job would be to identify “schools at risk”. De Lille had written to Police Minister Nathi Mthethwa, asking him to visit the city to see how the metro police operated.

She said an expert from Holland was in the city to assess how he could help with training the Metro Police in areas such as crowd control. The metro police have been without a permanent chief since last year, when Rob Young resigned amid allegations of nepotism. De Lille said shortlisted candidates would be interviewed this month. A new chief could be appointed as soon as next month.

In her inaugural budget speech, De Lille also set aside R8m for apprenticeships in the utility services department.

In November, 90 young people are to start working in fields ranging from plumbing and welding to diesel mechanics. The municipality is also looking at the possibility of creating city-funded internships with tertiary institutions, such as Northlink College and the Cape Peninsula University of Technology.

A R1.2m pilot project for the homeless is under way. De Lille said homeless people were being interviewed to see if they had identity documents. Their health was also being assessed. “Finally, we would like to see them reintegrated with their families. Where they have a family address, our social workers are going out. The aim is to get them off the streets and back into communities.”

De Lille said she was concerned about the low spend for the Expanded Public Works Programme. “Johannesburg Metro in the last financial year used almost R100m of Expanded Public Works Programme money, compared with just over R5m in Cape Town. I said: ‘No, I am changing this immediately’.”

In the next financial year, the contracts of all executive directors would include Expanded Public Works Programme targets. De Lille credits the renaming process as one of the highlights. The resolution of the Claremont Land Claims case was another success. She was “pulling cases out one by one”. Tomorrow, De Lille will lead DA councillors in “blanketing the city” to inform residents about rates rebates and how they can apply for them. “My plan is known. It’s the five pillars I speak about. It’s about translating these pillars into actual ideas.