Cape Town mayor Geordin Hill-Lewis. Picture: Tracey Adams Independent Media
Cape Town Mayor Geordin Hill-Lewis has affirmed his commitment to working with President Cyril Ramaphosa to improving policing, passenger rail among other matters that need urgent attention in Cape Town.
Hill-Lewis was reacting to Ramaphosa’s State of the Nation Address (SONA) last night. He said Cape Town was set to have complete business plans in place by mid-2025 to take over the management of passenger rail services following the metro’s completion of a Rail Feasibility Study last year.
“We are encouraged by the President’s commitment to better passenger rail infrastructure and more trains in the coming years. This year, Cape Town will be ready to take over running of passenger rail, with complete business plans in place. We are ready to work with the President and PRASA to revive our city’s rail network in a devolved system in line with the City’s constitutional mandate of providing an integrated public transport system. This is especially urgent for lower income households, who would save an estimated R932m a year if trains worked as they should,’’ said Hill-Lewis.
He further welcomed Ramaphosa’s commitent to fighting crime. “A Memorandum of Agreement is already in place to guide policing cooperation in Cape Town, and we are already sharing valuable crime-fighting data generated by the City’s safety technology investments of over R800m.”
“We are especially encouraged by the President’s emphasis on taking illegal guns off the street to bring down violent crime in our most vulnerable communities.
While municipal officers have confiscate hundreds of illegal firearms, Hill-Lewis said more can be done to fight the scourge. “If our officers are given crime investigation powers to help SAPS and prosecutors build prosecution-ready case dockets for gang, gun, drug and extortion-related crime.
“This immediate boost for the State’s criminal investigative capacity can be quickly achieved by the Police Minister issuing regulations under the SAPS Act. Based on the President’s SONA promise to fight gun crime, we will soon approach the Police Minister with draft regulations for more policing powers for our well-trained municipal officers,” said Hill-Lewis.
Hill-Lewis also welcomed various positive housing reforms announced by the President, including the intention to release more well-located land, improve state-subsidies for affordable housing, review building regulations to enable low-cost development, and focus on reclaiming hi-jacked public buildings. The recent undertaking by the National Government to re-commit funding to emergency housing provision is also welcomed.
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