Page 17 - SA Chamber UK JUNE - Newsletter-2024

augment the under-resourced national police. High-tech drones are radically improving
crime detection and cutting access times to the scene of the crime. Tourism was
creating jobs and there were more tech start-ups in Cape Town than in Lagos and
Nairobi combined.

The Mayor said he was testing the limits of devolution under a Constitution which
provides for a degree of federalism the powers of which have never been tested. He
said he believed in ‘functional federalism’ which meant that governance was most
effective and most accountable when delivered at the local level.

Cape Town is returning to a merit-based state and is promoting the notion of a
professional civil service, restoring pride in being a civil servant.

The financial administration and provision of services in Cape Town has moved way
ahead of other major cities where service provision is collapsing, and poverty and
unemployment are on the rise while life expectancy is falling and protests endemic.

Hill-Lewis said failing government services were the result of ‘cadre deployment’ and
had drastically reduced the capacity of government to deliver.

The success in the strategy Cape Town has adopted had led to an influx of people
from other parts of the country in the hope of jobs and a better life.

“We know that we have to invest much faster for growth in the future,” Hill-Lewis
said. Adding that R120bn would be spent on infrastructure by the end of the decade.
“The golden thread in all that we do is to get people into work opportunities and out
of poverty.”

Cape Town should demonstrate to all South Africans not to lower their sights. South
Africa had defied pessimistic media views in the past and would do so again. It was
important that the country developed a clearly defined national goal and did not
accept that the current downward trajectory was inevitable.

“South Africa is trying to overcome the legacy of a painful past and seeks to build a
truly prosperous future for all who live in it.”

Hill-Lewis said that the task he had undertaken was “extremely difficult” but he was
optimistic that it could be achieved. “It’s a very meaningful and exciting thing I am
trying to do so that is why I am enjoying it so much.”

But he added that the single goal of lifting people out of poverty in time remained
central to his strategy. “We will judge our progress by the poorest in our city,” he said.

“We envisage a better future for them and their families...we believe it is still possible
to achieve that vision. Cape Town is bucking the national trend. The future lies in
showing there is another path for South Africa.”

Geordin Hill-Lewis is a member of the Democratic Alliance. His full lecture at the LSE can be found
on https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gSdPHcDNwmU

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SA CHAMBER UK NEWSLETTER JUNE 2024