Page 16 - SA Chamber UK JUNE - Newsletter-2024

EDITORIAL
CAPE TOWN COULD SHOW

THE WAY

- By John Battersby

Cape Town could become a template for reversing poverty, creating jobs and reviving
ailing service delivery throughout the country, Mayor Geordin Hill-Lewis told the SA
Chamber UK.

Hill-Lewis was speaking to the SA Chamber UK at a lunchtime meeting at the law firm
Simmons & Simmons LLP in the City of London during a visit to the US and UK to
share his vision for the Mother City.

On the same day, January 23, he also delivered a lecture at the London School of
Economics entitled: City of Hope – Lessons from Cape Town for the future of South
Africa and African cities.

Hill-Lewis shared his vision with the Chamber to create a governance model in Cape
Town which would have as its central objective improving the quality of life for those
living in poverty and the unemployed. “That is the very point of government and of
politics,” he said.

“I define politics as the attainment of
government power for the achieving
social progress,” he said in the LSE
lecture.

Hill-Lewis’ strategy in managing the City
of Cape Town has already paid huge
dividends.

Cape Town had a record tourist season
in 2023 with 317 000 visitors.

The City has significantly reduced the
frequency of rolling blackouts due to
the energy crisis by promoting solar
energy and other renewables; by
buying in excess power from private
power producers; and it has a plan to
launch a voluntary incentive program
to reduce consumption.

Crime rates have been cut by a highly-
trained metropolitan police force of 3500
Mayor Geordin Hill-Lewis of Cape Town and SACC
member Jaco Botha, Sable International with sharpened investigative powers to

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SA CHAMBER UK NEWSLETTER JUNE 2024