The Nelson Mandela Bay Municipality (NMBM) is eager to learn from the City of Cape Town’s best practice in Urban Agriculture, animal keeping regulations and permitting in Law Enforcement as it relates to animal keeping as well as informal trading. See the video here: https://youtu.be/Un6Cngza2gs
Recently, the City’s Mayoral Committee Member for Urban Management, Alderman Grant Twigg, welcomed a delegation from the Nelson Mandela Bay Municipality. The NMBM delegation embarked on a formal study on the implementation of the City’s Urban Agricultural Policy and the supporting Urban Agricultural programmes, the implementation of by-laws relating to stray and roaming animals particularly livestock, as well as informal trading in the City of Cape Town.
The Urban Agriculture Sub-Directorate of Economic Development Tourism and Agriculture within the NMBM, is in the process of finalising its Urban Agricultural Policy and is developing its Commonage Land Management Plan to assist in managing agricultural-related economic activities, management and enforcement of by-laws relating to roaming livestock in the NMBM. The NMBM wanted to benchmark its policies, particularly with regards to implementation to Cities that adopt best practices with regards to Agricultural Policy and related programmes.
To ensure it delivers effectively, the NMBM’s Economic Development Tourism and Agriculture Department, embarked on a study tour to identify best practices adopted by well-functioning cities and classified the City of Cape Town as one such city.
‘The City strives to be a forward-looking city and set a good example for other municipalities to learn from. We were indeed honoured to welcome and host the NMBM delegations on our shores and share our best practices in Urban Agriculture and Informal trading as well as showcase our Economic Development programmes and projects implemented for the economic benefit of our people,’ said Alderman Twigg.
The delegation had the privilege to also visit and experience the PEDI AgriHub facility which supports nearly 100 emerging and small-scale farmers located in surrounding areas with preparing, packaging, cold storage and getting their fresh produce to the market. On the other hand, the PEDI Recycled Organics Soil Enhancement facility diverts organic waste from landfills and converts it into a high quality product that is used in organic and conventional farming, sold in retail and to other markets.
In the 2020/21 financial year, the City of Cape Town launched the urban food gardens project that sought to support 730 back yard gardens with farming inputs, equipment and training. The city will continue to support more food gardens in the current financial year.
Council recently approved the Animal Keeping By-law that aims to regulate the management and keeping of animals within urban areas.