DA Delivery Daily Fact #10: Cape Town’s CBD is the best maintained, cleanest and safest in South Africa.

Lindiwe Mazibuko, DA National Spokesperson
11 April 2011

Cape Town’s Central Business District is the best maintained, cleanest, safest and simply the most viable out of any metro in South Africa.

The Evidence: Central to the City of Cape Town’s ability to maintain a safe and viable CBD has been an ongoing public-private partnership with an innovative, local business-backed NGO, the Cape Town Partnership. Together with the City, it has achieved some remarkable things. A great many of these have to do with crime. Most importantly, the partnership has seen violent crime in the CBD decline by 90% in five years. One reason for this is that Cape Town has a higher proportion of Metro Police engaged in real policing than any other metropolitan government in the country. This, in turn, has produced a number of results. For example: a huge crack down on drug-related crimes. In 2009/10 there were 955 arrests for drug-related crimes, a dramatic increase compared to the 180 or so for 2005. Cape Town has also reintroduced the specialised units – for substance abuse, land invasions, metal theft and displaced persons – the same units SAPS so unwisely disbanded several years ago. Finally, Cape Town has the largest CCTV network in Africa and continues to expand this, investing as much as R10 million every year. All of these developments have made the Cape Town CBD a safer, cleaner place. In turn, it has helped encourage investment, stimulate growth and, ultimately, generate an environment in which opportunity is fostered and jobs created.

Related Documents:
• The Cape Town Story
• The Cape Town Story Fact Sheet