The City of Cape Town’s Mayoral Urban Regeneration Programme (MURP) hosted a Community Ambassadors Recognition Event at Edgemead Hall, in Edgemead, to recognise the efforts and selflessness of Community Ambassadors deployed in Gugulethu, Nyanga, Kraaifontein, Atlantis, Joe Slovo and Kensington.
The Community Ambassadors Recognition event sought to celebrate, recognise and encourage active citizenship through volunteerism in keeping our communities safe. It brought together various stakeholders from the City’s departments, Community Policing Forum, South African Police Service, Department of Community Safety, Deputy Mayor and around 189 Community Ambassadors deployed in the 2022/23 financial year.
Community Ambassadors are unemployed community volunteers who are given an opportunity, through the Expanded Public Works Programme (EPWP) and Department of Community Safety (DoCS), to be the City’s ears and eyes on the ground. Community Ambassadors are deployed in crime hotspots to increase visibility and to deter crime. They also serve to identify service delivery failures, report them and follow up on resolutions.
For their effortless and selfless daily contribution in ensuring that there is safety in our communities they receive R180 per day, reflective jackets, reflective vests, beanies, thermal mugs and safety boots.
Yesterday they were further awarded with recognition certificates and additional protective clothing.
‘The existence and deployment of the Community Ambassadors in the identified hotspots has made their communities safer spaces. They have also provided a sense of safety for communities in the commercial precinct. This project has created more than 100 employment opportunities for local communities and we look forward to seeing it grow,’ said Alderman Eddie Andrews, the Deputy Mayor and Mayoral Committee Member for Spatial Planning and Environment.
About MURP
The Mayoral Urban Regeneration Programme (MURP) was established in 2012. It is an amalgamation of two similar area-based development programmes in the City, namely; the Violence Prevention through Urban Upgrading (VPUU) programme and Urban Regeneration Programme (URP). MURP is a targeted programme that targets geographic spaces such as CBDs, Town Centres, Civic Nodes, PTIs, TOD corridors and activity streets. MURP targets previously disadvantaged areas such as townships as well as the economic centres that are regressing rapidly as a result of neglect and poor urban management. MURP’s investments are strategically deployed into public spaces, public realm and shared spaces as leverages and enablers. In a nutshell, MURP is aimed realising the following broad objectives, namely; uplift former neglected and dysfunctional areas, redress inequalities, improve safety and security and improve the lives of the people through the implementation of evidence based interventions as well as thru testing innovative interventions for mainstreaming.
