Chris van Gass

Cape Correspondent

New developments amounting to about R30bn are planned in the Cape Town central business district in the next three to five years, of which two thirds are private sector investment, mayor Helen Zille said yesterday.

She said at the opening of the Institute of Municipal Finance Officers’ conference that the Cape metro region as a whole was expected to see 9,5% growth in fixed investment in the medium term.

Zille said public investments included the R2,5bn airport upgrade, R4bn for the 2010 Soccer World Cup stadium, the R4,2bn container harbour expansion, R1,3bn for the first phase of the bus rapid transit system, and several billion rand more for road and rail upgrades.

Developments in the private sector include further expansion to the Victoria & Alfred Waterfront, the Strand on Adderley development worth R2,5bn, the

She said the city’s latest quarterly financial report indicated that it had spent R3,1bn on infrastructure, or 78% of its capital budget.

This was a major improvement from the city’s previous annual average of R1bn and was also 50% up from the R2bn invested in capital projects during the previous financial year, which represented a rate of expenditure of 77%.

Zille said sound financial management and clean and transparent handling of public funds in local government were crucial if the city wanted to continue to improve this fixed investment trend. Conversely, corruption scandals dented business confidence in government leadership and if corruption was left unchecked, it opened the door to the criminalisation of the state — “where government becomes a patronage system, dispensing jobs, contracts and services only to members of the ruling elite and their cronies”, said Zille.

She said this severely discouraged investors and skilled professionals and lead to a rapid deterioration of services, infrastructure, and, “eventually, political stability”.

“However, we also need to find the correct balance between adequate financial controls, and excessive red tape, which slows delivery, and undermines our objective.”

She said she did not believe that the right balance had been found yet in SA.

Source: Business Day