Today, 11 March 2020, the City of Cape Town’s Executive Mayor, Alderman Dan Plato, and Mayoral Committee Member for Energy and Climate Change, Councillor Phindile Maxiti, received a delegation from Buffalo City municipality looking at some of the ways that the City of Cape Town is tackling the challenges of urbanisation and informality.

Tomorrow, 12 March 2020, the delegation will be conducting various service delivery site visits across the metro.

‘Of great interest is the City of Cape Town’s firsts in service delivery, such as its provision of basic services to backyarders residing on Council-owned properties. Cape Town was the first city in South Africa to introduce basic services to backyarders residing on Council-owned properties. The backyarder programme entails the provision of one-to-one water, refuse and electricity services to backyarders residing on Council-owned property, such as rental units,’ said Councillor Maxiti.

The Municipal Finance Management Act determines that public money may not be used for enhancing private properties. Therefore, much work still needs to be done to see how backyarder services will be rolled out to those residing on private properties within the framework of the law.

The City reiterated its stance that urbanisation is not a municipal challenge alone, all levels of government, the private sector and civic organisations, must work together to tackle the challenges of rapid urbanisation, informality and general vulnerability of residents.

Some highlights

• More than 40 000 backyarder dwellings have been electrified since 2011 to date

• The City’s Energy Generation and Distribution Department has installed 557 000 prepaid meters to date and 100 000 credit meters to all households in Cape Town

• The City’s electrification efforts of its supplied areas where the City is able to supply electricity (apart from settlements in wetlands, retention ponds, under power lines for example) is above the national average

Source: City Of Cape Town