Statement by the City’s New Mayoral Committee Member for Corporate Services, Alderman Theresa Uys

About 27 800 people are employed by the City of Cape Town. They count among the most skilful, experienced and professional public servants in South Africa. They serve residents with dedication and enthusiasm, regardless whether it is to fix an electricity outage after hours, to restore a water main in gusting winds and pouring rain, or to answer the phone when you need assistance.

However, as is the case with everything in life, there is always room for improvement.

As the new political head of this directorate, I will be prioritising areas for improvement and excellence to make sure we meet and exceed the very high service delivery standards of residents and the business community.

The Directorate for Corporate Services can be described as the administration’s nerve centre – it enables the City to be responsive and adaptable; provides support to other directorates to deliver on their mandates through the development of policies and data analysis, and serves as the hub for innovation, and information and knowledge management.

During my term of office, I will be focusing on improving our interaction with residents; to make the administration more accessible, responsive and accountable; and to raise the bar for a professional public service.

First off: it should be easy and convenient for residents to contact the City when they need us – be it in person, on the phone, email, sms or through the City’s website to report faults, or log service requests. We have made great strides thus far, but we need to do more to keep residents informed about the progress with resolving faults or requests.

Earlier this year, the City improved its Customer Relationship Management (CRM) system so that residents can receive regular status updates about their service requests. Since June 2021, residents have been receiving status updates via SMS or email to inform them what is happening with a service request they have logged with the City – be it a pothole, electricity outage, water supply disruption, a malfunctioning streetlight or traffic signal, sewage, damaged wheelie bin, illegal dumping, flooding, or a building work complaint. We are now finalising service level agreements with the different City departments. Meaning, there will be a service standard for each complaint: a commitment if you will, from the City to repair or attend to a complaint – depending on what it is, within a specific time.

With regular feedback, residents are more at peace, knowing their complaint or service request is receiving attention from dedicated teams on the ground. Regular communication is pivotal in fostering a relationship of trust with residents.

Secondly, all of the great cities around the globe are built on collaboration. For collaboration to be effective, we need to be honest about our challenges so that residents can join us in our efforts.

We cannot do this task on our own. The City needs the 4,5 million Capetonians to be our eyes and ears on the ground, to report faults, vandalism, and theft, and to bring us bright ideas and solutions. The City has a Collaboration Platform (http://www.capetown.gov.za/ideas) in April 2021, to promote innovative, design-led approaches to service delivery and effective engagement with our customers on matters that affect them.

Great ideas can come from a variety of sources, from employees to residents, businesses, NGOs, and civil society. So, we have created the City of Cape Town Collaboration Platform to gather useful information, ideas and solutions to help us deliver the best service to our citizens. Once registered on this platform, members can submit their ideas and track how these are prioritised. Members can also interact on the platform by commenting on, and voting for the ideas submitted by others.

Solutions and ideas can cover any of the City’s services, including water and sanitation, energy and housing, parks and recreation, transport and safety. The main objective of this platform is to facilitate creative problem solving, make smarter use of limited resources and further enhance decision making.

I want to encourage residents to register and participate.

Cape Town is becoming more and more resilient. The City approved its first ever Resilience Strategy in August 2019 – only the third City in Africa to do so. We have seen during the drought in 2017 how resilient Capetonians can be. But we need to become more prepared to weather unexpected storms such as the Covid-19 pandemic.

The City’s Resilience Strategy is our roadmap to strengthen the administration and residents against sudden shocks, from storms and heat waves, to cyber-attacks, global financial crisis and other unforeseen challenges. We keep on improving on the strategy to ensure we strengthen the capacity of individuals, communities, institutions, business and systems within Cape Town to survive, adapt and thrive no matter what kind of chronic stresses and shocks we experience.

The lessons we are learning from the Covid-19 pandemic will be absorbed into the Resilience Strategy, key of which is adaptive management, reflective learning and the use of data for resilient decision-making.

Then there is the commitment to assist residents, in particular young people, with internships and other work-related opportunities at the City to acquire skills and to learn from some of the best officials in the country. These professionals, employed by the City of Cape Town, are experts in their fields and they have a wealth of knowledge and experience they can share with the youth who will make Cape Town even better in the future.

I have announced on Friday last week that the applications for various skills development and training opportunities at the City are now open. These are golden opportunities for graduate students, those with a Grade 9/10/11 or National Senior Certificate, students who need to integrate academic learning with application in the work place to obtain a formal qualification, and Engineering and Science graduates in the scarce skills categories.

I am looking forward to working together with City officials and residents over the next five years.

Cape Town is one of the best cities, if not the best in the world, to live work and play. We are hopeful for a bright and inclusive future where all have access to opportunities, are safe, and being cared for.

Source: City Of Cape Town