Cape Town’s position as an opportunity city was confirmed in the latest labour force survey results issued by Statistics SA.
PriceWaterhouseCoopers (PwC) has recognised Cape Town as the top opportunity city in Africa and placed the city 6th among middle-income country cities, behind Beijing, Kuala Lumpur, Moscow, Shanghai, and Mexico City, mayor Patricia de Lille said on Sunday.
“Today [Sunday], I am encouraged to see that Cape Town is recognised as Africa’s opportunity city, but in order for us to stay globally competitive we need to take the city to the next level and create opportunities for all,” De lille said.
A key intervention was for the city to decisively address apartheid spatial planning that kept the majority of residents away from opportunities to jobs, good education, and healthcare. “We also need to improve safety in these communities and support business development,” she said.
The city should be a catalyst for better integration of communities by speeding up release of the 11 identified pieces of land in Woodstock and the city centre while developing the Foreshore freeway project. More pieces of government-owned land should also be made available for the development of affordable housing. This would bring more Capetonians closer to opportunities, increasing the talent offering to international companies wanting to invest here.
Cape Town’s standing as an opportunity city was confirmed in the latest labour force survey results issued by Statistics SA.
The report found that employment in the metro grew 4.8 percent year-on-year. Cape Town was also the metro with the lowest expanded unemployment rate at 22.6 percent, far below the national rate of 37.2 percent, De Lille said.
However, PwC Africa’s head of cities and urbanisation Jon Williams was correct to say, “Cape Town is at a crossroads between African problems and global ambitions. Its future success will depend on its ability to solve longstanding problems at home while keeping up with a rapidly changing world.” These longstanding problems included access to opportunities for the majority of residents.
“We have shown innovation in the tech fields and Cape Town is home to over 20 tech incubators. But, as the report shows, many of these opportunities are based close to the city centre or along the Atlantic seaboard.
“If Cape Town wants to remain globally competitive we must bring residents closer to opportunities and be a catalyst for job creation and investment as outlined by the city’s organisational development and transformation plan (ODTP),” she said.
“The city’s support of catalytic industries has been one of the key successes and this sector is also showing growth as we attract more investment to Cape Town and more residents find employment and receive training in key skills areas.
“In the past three months, between April and June 2018, through the city’s support of Wesgro and our special purpose vehicles we facilitated almost R1.4 billion worth of investment, created 1 236 jobs, and trained 912 residents,” De Lille said.
At the end of the 2017/18 financial year in June 2018, the city, for the first time in its 18-year history as the metro government, exceeded its housing delivery target by 62 percent.
For information as to how Relocation Africa can help you with your Mobility, Immigration, Research, Remuneration, and Expat Tax needs, email marketing@relocationafrica.com, or call us on +27 21 763 4240.
Sources: Africa News Agency (ANA) via The Citizen [1], [2]. Image sources: Damien du Toit [1], [2].
Home Affairs Responds to Service Downtime
The Department of Home Affairs is adamant that the fact its services were down across the country earlier this month was out of its control.
Speaking during an interview on SAfm‚ acting director-general Thulani Mavuso said there was nothing wrong with their systems – but that power failure at the site where the server is hosted was at the heart of the problem.
“We need Sita (State Information Technology Agency) to start up on their side‚ so that when they get the power our systems can be powered up. That’s the only thing‚” Mavuso said.
“It’s not a question of whether the Home Affairs systems are broken or the application is faulty. Nothing is faulty about that.”
He said he was waiting for a technical report to be handed over‚ which would hopefully indicate when services would be fully restored. He would also be conducting an oversight visit to the Sita site.
Earlier this month, the government tweeted that the failure was due to a massive power supply outage at Sita.
@GovernmentZA tweeted: “Department of Home Affairs is experiencing system downtime due to power supply outage at SITA which has affected all offices across the country. Offices are unable to render all services. All Birth‚ Marriages‚ Death‚ Smart ID and Passport services are affected.”
It added: “SITA and the Department of Home Affairs technicians are investigating the problem‚ and clients will be updated on when services will be restored. Home Affairs apologises for the inconvenience caused to all its clients.”
Mavuso said Home Affairs had wanted to move away from Sita for the last couple of years.
“Let’s host our system in a different environment‚ because these outages and infrastructure maintenance has always been a challenge to us.”
For information as to how Relocation Africa can help you with your Mobility, Immigration, Research, Remuneration, and Expat Tax needs, email marketing@relocationafrica.com, or call us on +27 21 763 4240.
Sources: Nico Gous via Times Live [1], [2]. Image sources: [1], [2].
MPs Challenge Home Affairs on Still Unopened Refugee Centers
Parliament’s watchdog on home affairs is seeking answers as to why the department has not opened its two refugee reception offices.
On Tuesday, MPs grilled the department on the refugee reception office and why they had failed to open the offices in Cape Town and Port Elizabeth. This was despite a court ruling to open refugee centres.
“Once public works hands over the tender installation, then we as home affairs can come in and do our installation of equipment and furniture, this process will take eight weeks to do,” acting director-general at home affairs, Thulani Mavuso, said.
The department has constantly maintained it was waiting on the Department of Public Works to provide suitable office accommodation.
MPs gave home affairs officials a grilling on what progress the department had made so far.
Advocacy groups Sonke Gender Justice and The Scalabrini Centre have recently decided to bring forward contempt of court proceedings against the Department of Home Affairs.
The Supreme Court of Appeal (SCA) found the department’s decision to close the refugee reception office to new applications for asylum unlawful and irrational, and ordered the department to reopen and maintain a fully functional office in the Cape Town metropolitan area by March 31.
It further ordered the department provide monthly reports on its progress in complying with the order.
The Nbaya case, launched in 2015 through the Legal Resource Centre on behalf of asylum seekers, relates to the renewal of the permits of asylum seekers at the refugee reception office.
This should happen even if they lodged their applications at other refugee reception offices around the country.
In this case, the Western Cape High Court found that the department’s policy of refusing to renew asylum permits from other offices was unlawful and ordered it to renew the permits of asylum seekers residing in Cape Town or to be informed of any decision relating to his or her application through the Cape Town refugee reception office.
“We never had a problem supplying monthly reports, we have concluded a discussion with the two groups to supply a report this week,” Mavuso said.
Portfolio manager of Public Works Reggie Ncobo said: “We have commenced with the procurement process, there were two options explored as a procurement model which the regional office has identified as state owned property in Maitland.
“The idea is for permanent and interim and thereafter we will be advertising a tender process.”
The department said the refugee centres would be opened next year.
For information as to how Relocation Africa can help you with your Mobility, Immigration, Research, Remuneration, and Expat Tax needs, email marketing@relocationafrica.com, or call us on +27 21 763 4240.
Sources: Marvin Charles via IOL [1], [2]. Image sources: [1], [2].
SA to Ease Visa Regime for China
In July, the South African government signed several agreements with China, including a visa agreement that is likely to come into effect October 1.
Following on from a column recently written by Malesela Leso, Deputy Director: Bilateral Relations & Co-Operation Asia and Australasia at the National Department of Tourism, confirmed with Tourism Update that South Africa was about to ease visa requirements for Chinese travellers, however have not yet been implemented.
Speaking at a media briefing in Johannesburg on Wednesday, China’s Ambassador to South Africa, Lin Songtian, said his office and South Africa’s Departments of International Relations and Home Affairs were finalising the easing of visa requirements, as agreed by the two heads of state.
Leso, who reiterated this, said once all legal requirements had been dealt with, and went according to plan, the new visa regime could come into effect.
The reciprocated agreement will see both South Africans and Chinese travellers requiring one visa, valid for five years with multiple entries allowed for up to 90 days each time.
“This will encourage people to travel between the two countries and learn from each other, and South Africa is the best tourism destination in the world,” added Songtian.
As recently reported, Chinese arrivals to South Africa showed a decline. According to Sisa Ntshona, CEO of South African Tourism, the visa regime had been holding South Africa back.
“China is the world’s second-largest source economy,” commented Ntshona. With the new Chinese visa allowances in place, SA’s Chinese arrivals will hopefully begin to show positive growth, further unlocking the potential of this major source market.
For information as to how Relocation Africa can help you with your Mobility, Immigration, Research, Remuneration, and Expat Tax needs, email marketing@relocationafrica.com, or call us on +27 21 763 4240.
Sources: Kylie Granat via Tourism Update [1], [2]. Image sources: [1], [2].
Cape Town Recognized as Top Opportunity City in Africa
Cape Town’s position as an opportunity city was confirmed in the latest labour force survey results issued by Statistics SA.
PriceWaterhouseCoopers (PwC) has recognised Cape Town as the top opportunity city in Africa and placed the city 6th among middle-income country cities, behind Beijing, Kuala Lumpur, Moscow, Shanghai, and Mexico City, mayor Patricia de Lille said on Sunday.
“Today [Sunday], I am encouraged to see that Cape Town is recognised as Africa’s opportunity city, but in order for us to stay globally competitive we need to take the city to the next level and create opportunities for all,” De lille said.
A key intervention was for the city to decisively address apartheid spatial planning that kept the majority of residents away from opportunities to jobs, good education, and healthcare. “We also need to improve safety in these communities and support business development,” she said.
The city should be a catalyst for better integration of communities by speeding up release of the 11 identified pieces of land in Woodstock and the city centre while developing the Foreshore freeway project. More pieces of government-owned land should also be made available for the development of affordable housing. This would bring more Capetonians closer to opportunities, increasing the talent offering to international companies wanting to invest here.
Cape Town’s standing as an opportunity city was confirmed in the latest labour force survey results issued by Statistics SA.
The report found that employment in the metro grew 4.8 percent year-on-year. Cape Town was also the metro with the lowest expanded unemployment rate at 22.6 percent, far below the national rate of 37.2 percent, De Lille said.
However, PwC Africa’s head of cities and urbanisation Jon Williams was correct to say, “Cape Town is at a crossroads between African problems and global ambitions. Its future success will depend on its ability to solve longstanding problems at home while keeping up with a rapidly changing world.” These longstanding problems included access to opportunities for the majority of residents.
“We have shown innovation in the tech fields and Cape Town is home to over 20 tech incubators. But, as the report shows, many of these opportunities are based close to the city centre or along the Atlantic seaboard.
“If Cape Town wants to remain globally competitive we must bring residents closer to opportunities and be a catalyst for job creation and investment as outlined by the city’s organisational development and transformation plan (ODTP),” she said.
“The city’s support of catalytic industries has been one of the key successes and this sector is also showing growth as we attract more investment to Cape Town and more residents find employment and receive training in key skills areas.
“In the past three months, between April and June 2018, through the city’s support of Wesgro and our special purpose vehicles we facilitated almost R1.4 billion worth of investment, created 1 236 jobs, and trained 912 residents,” De Lille said.
At the end of the 2017/18 financial year in June 2018, the city, for the first time in its 18-year history as the metro government, exceeded its housing delivery target by 62 percent.
For information as to how Relocation Africa can help you with your Mobility, Immigration, Research, Remuneration, and Expat Tax needs, email marketing@relocationafrica.com, or call us on +27 21 763 4240.
Sources: Africa News Agency (ANA) via The Citizen [1], [2]. Image sources: Damien du Toit [1], [2].