Statement by Cape Town Mayor, Geordin Hill-Lewis

I was honoured to welcome the 2022 Investing in African Mining Indaba delegates to Cape Town this week, as the 6 000-attendee conference gets under way at the Cape Town International Convention Centre (CTICC).

My message to delegates was that South Africa needs serious and urgent economic reform to grow our economy, create jobs and get people out of poverty. I also spoke about how state failure — including corruption, the mismanagement of state-owned enterprises, and poor policy choices — is keeping people in Africa poor.

State failure is not inevitable in South Africa. In Cape Town, we are showing what can be achieved with a capable state, and taking bold steps towards becoming the best place in Africa to do business. We are steadily achieving this with credible plans to end load-shedding over time, massive investments in infrastructure to ensure the conditions for economic success are in place, and programmes to increase the safety and security of Capetonians notwithstanding national SAPS failures across the region.

I also said that the City is ramping up our call for “functional federalism”. This means that where other spheres of government can perform functions more effectively than the national government, those functions should be devolved.

We see functional federalism as a patriotic duty, not a rejection of the rest of the country or continent. It will allow us to play the most effective role we can in helping South Africa to succeed, rebuild our economy, and create sustainable and inclusive prosperity.

Examples of ways functional federalism can and must be applied include the devolution of passenger rail, control over ports and freight rail, and even greater reform on the rules governing national government’s control over electricity generation.

Finally, I had a message for CEOs and executives of firms considering leaving South Africa for elsewhere on the continent or around the world: don’t leave South Africa without finding out what Cape Town has to offer. There are so many reasons to remain invested in South Africa, and Cape Town is eager to show how the country can and will work for those who want to create and sustain jobs.

Source: City Of Cape Town