Real Estate Investor Magazine South Africa July/August 2019 | Page 15

DAN PLATO
not taking over any unfunded mandates.
It should be clear from the above that we are in the very early
stages of this process and cannot provide more detail at this point.”
With 4000 SMMEs in the Bellville/Parow area it is a key
entrepreneurial hub that is key in driving employment in the area.
Mayor Plato points to the City’s Business Hub service as
one resource that has been provided to assist SMMEs and
entrepreneurs. In addition, the City has also concluded a 3-year
collaboration agreement with the Greater Tygerberg Partnership
(Pty) Ltd (GTP) as well as the Small Enterprise Development Agency
(Seda) Cape Town branch to support enterprise development.
“We work closely with the both of these organisations, through
their respective offices in Bellville and satellite offices in Cape
Town, Khayelitsha and Atlantis.
We have also commenced implementation of an Enterprise
and Supplier Development programme to improve the abilities of
City registered vendors to compete for City SCM opportunities and
access new markets across the City. The first phase has targeted
community based vendors in all 24 sub councils,” says the Mayor.
Turning to investor concerns about crime in the area, Mayor
Plato said that the City’s Metro Police and Law Enforcement
departments have effected 58 arrests and issued 38 warrants of
arrest following crime prevention successes in Bellville and Parow
from January – June 2019 alone. Officers have attended to 702
By-law complaints and service requests including C3 notifications.
There have been 529 Section 56 notices and 5919 Section 341
notices issued over the 6 -month period. Officers have conducted
637 permit checks and issued 23 NRTA traffic fines of which
2161 items were impounded. Additionally, there have been 529
compliance notices issued, 443 street persons interventions and
171 structures removed. There are also a total of 31 cameras in
these two areas collectively which contribute towards these crime
prevention successes. The South African Police Services has two
stations covering Bellville and Parow and may have additional
information to share about their crime prevention initiatives.
Noting Bellville’s role as a key academic hub (with the highest
density of education institutions in the Cape) we asked what role
does this potentially play for investors and what is being done to
incorporate the students into the life if Bellville and Parow?
Bellville is Cape Town’s second CBD with five hospitals and
three university campuses located within the central area. The
campuses and student population could serve as drivers of urban
regeneration. The provision of affordable (social) rental housing
is therefore a vital component of our strategy – to achieve spatial
transformation, and to ignite urban renewal.
As describe above, the City will use the available public land
and existing public transport infrastructure as a catalyst for the
regeneration of these business districts; and will also invest in
capital projects in the VRCIZ. By implementing the principles of
transit-oriented development we intend to create a sustainable
living environment and economy – initiated by the City through
investment in public transport and followed on by private
investment in new developments in the immediate vicinity and
surroundings of the public transport infrastructure.
Furthermore, the City’s long-term plan is to transform the
Bellville public transport interchange (PTI) into a modern, state-
of-the-art public transport interchange that will combine all
modes of transport – from minibus-taxis, to trains, the MyCiTi bus
service, and long-distance buses – and to cater for pedestrians at
scale. This is a complex and long-term undertaking and involves
a number of role-players from different levels of government,
key among which is PRASA. The project is also reliant on the
availability of funding.
On asking why property investors and managers should turn
their interest to Bellville, Mayor Plato returned to the important
idea of Bellville as the second metropolitan node in Cape Town.
“As Bellville is one of the priority areas for the City it would be in
private investors’ interest to take advantage of this.
Given its location, the Cape Town central business district has
very limited space for further expansion, if at all. Bellville is the
obvious next CBD where investment should happen, and where
there is ample space for new developments. It is for the private
sector to see this potential and to assist us in developing Bellville
to its full potential.
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RESOURCES The Greater Tygerberg Partnership/City of Cape Town
SA Real Estate Investor Magazine JULY/AUGUST 2019
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