Real Estate Investor Magazine South Africa June/ July 2019 | Page 17

RETAIL
purpose of formal engagement between government and the
private sector, with the sole purpose of addressing bureaucratic
and process bottlenecks. “Our association with Wesgro is
already yielding fruit. But we need to go further and to measure
performance at a practical level:”
• We want the War Room to measure and report on
the process of all statutory applications from date of
submission to decision, for all provincial and municipal
applications in the Western Cape.
• We want the War Room to report on occupancy
certificates per municipality on a monthly basis. We
need to know what projects are being realised as much
as what’s in the pipeline.
• The War Room must understand real cost items and
industry needs to be open and share industry data, and
stop hiding behind anecdotal stories. We need to call
out individuals that are stalling delivery and we need to
celebrate people who make things happen.
• The War Room must monitor all public procurement
processes and report on the time it takes to take
projects to tender and the time it takes to then draw up
tenders, and assess and award tenders.
• The War Room must consider the expenditure of
public sector capital budgets and investigate in detail
when capital budgets are underspent. Underspending
of capital budgets takes work from the consulting
and construction industries but, worst of all, it takes
food off the table of labour that desperately needs
employment. Approximately 27% of a capital project
goes to labour wages.
• The War Room must track provincial and municipal
staff vacancies, specifically those positions that are
critical to delivery.
• We want the War Room to consider conflicting and
duplication of legislation and policies. An active process
of cleaning up statutory processes must commence,
even if it means declaring intergovernmental conflict
with the national tier of government where legislation
oversteps limits or where economic investment at
ground level is being hampered by such legislation or
policies.
• We want the War Room to help each municipality in
the Western Cape to practically define and illustrate
their growth visions in ways that entice private sector
investment and inform residents of changes to come.
Stop the report writing and draw the pictures.
• We want citizens to be informed and be prepared for
future change. The ‘Not in my backyard’ responses
happen because nobody has an idea of what the plan is.
• We want the War Room to empower people that want
to contribute to the economic growth of this province
and each municipality in it to be able to contribute
constructively.
• We want the War Room to create a culture of
internal mentorship for officials to help them move
from a culture of gatekeeping to a culture of delivery
facilitation. Senior officials must be taught to guide
junior decision makers.
Deon van Zyl, WCPDF chairperson said the following:
‘Together with UCT’s Nedbank Urban Real Estate Research
Unit, we have already invested substantial time and money
in practically illustrating the plethora of hoops this industry
needs to jump through before we can hit the ground. This
work will be presented later this morning. The War Room
can hit the ground running with this work in place already.
Let’s start there.’
‘As a voluntary organisation we have already shown our
colours and willingness to roll up our sleeves and contribute.
This event is another example of our investment in the
Western Cape economy. The money and time behind this
event are private sector’s contribution.’
‘Let’s not get distracted from getting the economy working
by creating rules and regulations. Let’s simplify and make it
easier to invest in the Western Cape.’
SA Real Estate Investor Magazine JUNE/JULY 2019
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