The Finance Directorate is the engine room of the City of Cape Town. Sound, accountable governance and prudent financial management are crucial to the execution of service delivery and implementation of infrastructure projects. Given the dire state of the South African economy and the impact of Covid-19 and successive national lockdowns on businesses and residents, it is more important than ever that Cape Town has a well-run, caring and efficient administration with a strong focus on service delivery and zero tolerance for corruption. I plan to ensure that the City’s financial administration keeps ticking over smoothly, that we build on our successes and that we improve where necessary.

One of my immediate priorities is to ensure that we continue to support residents who are struggling financially. To that end, we have made an additional R600 million available to provide free basic services to our most vulnerable residents. In Cape Town, the City already helps more than 40% of our households with free basic services.  We also provide no-interest payment arrangements and debt write-off initiatives to ensure that we assist our customers, while also encouraging a culture of payment. Without the revenue from rates and services, we would not be able to provide services.

While we will always seek to support the most vulnerable we must, however, also look at ways to minimise rising debt levels and address the systemic factors that keep people trapped in poverty. It is important that we grow our economy to ensure that more people are employed and more new businesses are created. This will help to expand our rates base, ensuring that we can continue to deliver and expand on our service offering.

With a background in banking and a decade as a City councillor, I am well-positioned for this new role. Working in my community is a privilege, and a humbling experience. It has strengthened my commitment to improving the lives of all of our residents. I am committed to ensuring that we continue to deliver high quality services and infrastructure in the most sustainable manner possible to keep this municipality a bastion of excellence in South Africa. Through our continued well-run, sustainable and caring approach to governance, we will keep hope alive and show our residents and our South African peers what is possible.

Throughout my years of community activism, I have been motivated by the desire to bring change and positive development to our residents.

Vision:

• We aim to serve the residents of Cape Town through good governance, efficiency and zero tolerance of corruption. Public funds must be spent responsibly and accountably to deliver quality services to all our residents.
• We will enhance our provision of assistance to those who need it most, through our comprehensive indigent support and rebate programmes, and ensure the municipality remains sustainable and healthy enough to provide services while looking after its more vulnerable residents.
• We will continue to modernise and adapt our service offering to be responsive to our residents’ current and future needs.
• Our focus will be on enhancing the administration’s financial and operational sustainability, and ensuring that we remain resilient in the face of future shocks and stresses. We must do more with less.
• To create hope that it is possible in South Africa to have well-functioning, stable, corrupt-free and inclusive governments that look after the interest of the people first.
• To ensure high expenditure of capital budgets despite global economic and supply change constraints, as well as challenges on the ground, such as crime, vandalism and community dynamics.

We increasingly need to do more, with fewer resources at our disposal. We need to be innovative, to work smarter and faster and we need to do this within the legislative framework that guides the management of public finances, as well as the City’s Integrated Development Plan. We have a hard-working, competent team in our Finance Directorate, and I look forward to working with them to ensure that we continue to do better.

Source: City of Cape Town