The City funds organisations in several industries to drive investment promotion, research, and skills development for residents and SMMEs.
‘In the City’s new ‘Building for Jobs’ Budget 2024/25, we are proposing over R64 million in support to our partner organisations driving skills and job creation in high-growth industries, including call centres, tourism, manufacturing, the green economy, and more. We consider this money well spent given the R25 billion in investments facilitated by these organisations in just over three years.
This is just one way in which we are growing investment and new jobs in Cape Town, to help more people out of poverty and into work. Already 363 000 new jobs have been created in Cape Town since the start of this term of office in November 2021, according to StatsSA. The City is further investing a record R40 billion in infrastructure over the next three years to enable economic growth, including better roads, water and sanitation, electricity services, and more,’ said Mayor Geordin Hill-Lewis.
Alderman James Vos, the Mayoral Committee Member for Economic Growth said the City’s special purpose vehicle partnerships directly created more than 32 000 jobs between July 2020 and February 2024, with 11 000 people trained for work in the metro’s fast-growing industries.
‘Cape Town’s economic story continues to be one of hope and confidence because not only does the City government deliver on its promise to build and maintain services and infrastructure that allow businesses and employees to get on with their work, but we enact programmes that allow for the stimulation of jobs and investments,’ said Alderman Vos.
SPV organisations funded by the City include:
· CapeBPO, which oversees programmes in the call centre industry
· UVU Africa operates technology-centred programmes such as Youth in Business for entrepreneurs
· BlueCape, which oversees the ocean economy
· GreenCape, which has facilitated R1,7bn in green economy investments
· The Cape Clothing and Textile Cluster (CCTC) runs initiatives such as the Business Accelerator Programme to assist small clothing and textile businesses in Cape Town to become suppliers to large retailers
· The Craft+Design Institute (CDI) works with businesses and designers in the clothing and textile industry
· Wesgro, the investment promotion agency for Cape Town and the province, oversees projects such as Air Access and Cruise Cape Town
· The Western Cape Economic Development Partnership, which is administering the City’s growth coalition initiative
· The Greater Tygerberg Partnership which is administering a community-focused place-making project to stoke investment
‘Each business development, job and upskilled person is an investment in Cape Town that helps more people to provide for their families and further opens new paths of opportunity for communities. Our distinctive model of backing these SPVs is deliberate to our mission of achieving greater economic growth all across Cape Town. Thanks to our support for business and workforce development, more Capetonians than ever before have the dignity of a job. In the forthcoming budget, we will expand on our projects and programmes, so we can continue to build a stronger economy that supports more people and makes Cape Town the easiest place in Africa to do business,’ said Alderman Vos.
