The public have the opportunity to comment on the City of Cape Town’s proposed amendments to its Special Rating Area By-laws and Policy, which aims to align these with the legislative framework by removing ambiguities, duplication and streamlining processes to enhance governance and to broaden public participation. The public participation period started on 16 August 2021 and ends on 15 September 2021.

A Special Rating Area (SRA) is a defined geographical area where property owners pay additional property rates for supplementary municipal services to improve or upgrade the area they live or work in. SRAs are also known as City Improvement Districts (CIDs).

Currently there are 47 CIDS in operation.

‘The City is working strictly according to the processes and protocols detailed in our Special Rating Area By-law, 2012, Special Rating Amendment By-law, 2016, and Special Rating Areas Policy, 2017. These processes and protocols in the by-law and policy need to be reviewed simultaneously to ensure that they align better with each other, as well as the South African Constitution and national legislation,’ said Alderman Grant Twigg, Mayoral Committee Member for Urban Management.

The City proposes the following amendments to the by-law and policy documents:

Renaming

The by-law and the policy will be renamed to:

City Improvement District By-law

City Improvement District Policy

By-law amendments:

The proposed amendments to the by-law aim to make it more legislative and ensure constitutional and legislative compliance by streamlining the processes for establishing a CID, including:

running the support and objection phases simultaneously,

enhancing the public participation on the Business Plan to include the broader community, and

moving some of the processes to the CID Policy.

Policy amendments:

The proposed amendments to the policy aim to make it more operational and ensure constitutional and legislative compliance by:

formalising current practices,

strengthening governance and oversight,

providing a template for the Business Plans (already implemented),

providing a template for the Annual Report to enable uniformity when compiling the corporate Annual Report in future,

providing a mandatory Code of Conduct for all CID directors (based on the Company’s Act), and

moving some of the processes to the CID By-law.

‘We are in the process of reviewing these policies, and we want the public’s feedback on the proposed changes. As an Inclusive City and in terms of section 17 of the Local Government: Municipal Systems Act, Act 32 of 2000, we are urging the public to submit comments to the City,’ said Alderman Twigg.

Access the documents:

• Draft CID By-law:
• Draft CID Policy

Source: City Of Cape Town