The City of Cape Town has signed a Memorandum of Understanding with two organisations which will encourage the parties to work together to improve informal settlements and backyard communities throughout the city.
Executive Mayor, Alderman Patricia de Lille, signed the agreement with the Informal Settlement Network (ISN) and Community Organisation Resource Centre (Corc) at the Vygieskraal informal settlement in Athlone on Thursday, 19 April 2012.
De Lille said the City of Cape Town was committed to being a caring and inclusive city, and that this meant being innovative and dynamic, as well as building relationships and forming partnerships to get things done.
“As local government, we are enjoined by the Constitution and legislation to be the agent of service delivery… the City of Cape Town is committed to helping those who need our assistance the most, people who need us to be strong partners.”
The significance of this MOU is that it will help the parties achieve their delivery objectives on the ground, she said.
There are more than 220 informal settlements and backyarder communities in Cape Town, and even though a “great deal” has been done to improve these, there is still more to be done.
“Our extensive electrification, water provision and waste management systems have meant that informal settlements, where we can act on unencumbered land and where we are not prevented from acting by national legislation, experience maximised service delivery,” she said.
The City has launched its Backyarder Strategy which will extend services to those waiting for formal housing. And there are currently 22 pilot projects where households have been enumerated in order to prepare for upgrading.
The Executive Mayor said that while Cape Town welcomes everyone to the city, the pressures of urbanisation mean that it is difficult to keep pace with the growing number of people moving here.
“The arrival of new people brings with it shifting delivery targets every year, and so we have to constantly adapt and revise our strategies to keep up to date with the needs of all of our people.”
“Our partners in this MOU will help us deliver more services to those in informal settlements and backyarder communities. And working with our partners, we will continue to be national leaders in service delivery, making a great city even greater,” De Lille said.
