City Views September 2009: Cape Town Arise

September 2009

The Cape Town International Convention Centre (CTICC) was the place to see and be seen from 20 to 22 August as the Arise Cape Town Fashion Week took up residence.

CityViewsCLEAN | SAFE | CARING September 2009

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CAPE TOWN

ARISE

2 CityViews September 2009

The list of those attending the 10th anniversary celebrations reflected this clearly. As was the two-minute speech from Andrew thanking the countless people from Provincial and Council elite to the security guards and parking attendants and street cleaners for what they had achieved, no names singled out. And his speech was preceded by a board marked “APO” – “all protocols observed” so we didn’t have to listen to dozens of names arranged in the pecking order that would have started from the Premier down! Great light entertainment, they know how to party down there, and a most enjoyable evening celebrating a decade of great achievements.

Neil Fraser’s extract from ‘Citichat’, July/August 2009 issue

Unsung heroesWe look at our partners and service providers that provide employment opportunities for society’s most vulnerable.

If there’s one thing we know, we are only as strong as our partners and we therefore celebrate the peo-ple of Iliso Protection Services and Alexa Security, who keep the streets of the city centre safe. We thank our service providers J&M Cleansing and Straatwerk for the important work they do to keep the Central

City clean. All of our partners work around the clock to ensure that visi-tors and locals wake to a revitalised Central City.

The Cape Town Partnership celebrated its tenth anniversary in July and held an urban regeneration conference in August. The topic of the two-day conference was “Public -private partnerships for urban regeneration”. Speakers came as far afield as Barcelona (Jordi Sacristan, the marketing and communications

director of 22@Barcelona), while managers of other urban regeneration agencies also spoke about their lessons learned. Neil Fraser, chair of the Johannesburg Development Trust and director of the Johannesburg Development Agency (among others) was one of the speakers. Neil was so impressed with Cape Town’s CBD during a visit to attend the Partnership’s celebratory gala dinner in July, that he wrote about it in his Citichat

newsletter (see below).As an organisation, we welcome

these accolades as recognition of a job well done, but we are not infallible and welcome your feedback - positive or negative - as we strive to meet our goal of making Cape Town’s Central City cleaner, safer and more caring.

TassoTasso Evangelinos is the Chief Operations Officer of the CCID

Praise indeed

This week I experienced just how good a city can get when everyone works together, how pride can be re-engendered and, at the other end of the scale, how indifference and disinterest can set a city back.

Since moving to Mon-tagu in late Febru-ary, I have driven to Cape Town airport

en route to Jozi and back (2.5 hours driving, 1 hour waiting if you’re lucky – two hours flying in each direction) six times and for a week a time – so let no one think my passion for Jozi has lessened. In that time I have been to Cape Town and back four times, three of which have been to attend a meeting and return immediately after. The fourth, on Tuesday, was to attend the Cape Town Partnership 10th an-niversary party and I stayed overnight. What I saw in driving through the “inner city” was huge change – a city teeming with people day and night – in winter! Driving to my B&B in Kloof Nek at about 23h00

on Tuesday night appeared little different to when I had driven that way earlier in the afternoon. The place was jumping! The city’s buildings are all great again – the historic build-ings painted a rainbow of colours and, certainly from the outside, in good nick! There is a renewed sense of place and a sense of pride that I certainly haven’t experienced in the iKapi in-ner city for years. Leaving on Wednesday morning, I passed a “Squadron” of horse-mounted security ambling down Kloof Street providing a highly visible presence. Sure, there are still problems, but noth-ing to outdo this feeling of things on the move and on the boil.

Ten years ago I was very critical of the way the Cape Town Partnership was structured but there can be little doubt that it has been responsible, to a very large measure, for the turnaround of the inner city. And there is equally little doubt in my mind that the Partnership’s success has been due to Andrew Boraine, its CE, and his ability to inspire confidence from Council, community and business.

Published by:The Central City Improvement

District (CCID)

For more info: Petro Mostert: 021 419 1881

E-mail: [email protected]

Website: www.capetowncid.co.za

Design: Infestation 021 424 6701

SAVE THESE NUMBERS ON YOUR PHONE:

CCID Security Manager : 082 453 2942

CCID Deputy Security Manager: 082 442 2112

CCID 24-hour number : 082 415 7127

SAPS Control Room : 021 467 8002

CityViews

This edition of City Views celebrates the ordinary people working behind the scenes and around the clock to ensure that the Central City is clean, safe and inviting.

“In my new life I was going to keep Citichats down to once a month but some things happen that literally force you back to the keyboard! “

Neil Fraser, director of the Johannesburg Development Agency, Derek Bock, operations manager at Eurocape Holdings and Pierre Voges, chief executive of Mandela

Bay Development Agency, at the Partnership’s conference in August 2009.

T he Cape Town Partnership has teamed up with The Dreamfields Project in a joint venture that is seek-

ing 16 corporate or individual sponsors for soccer kits for 16 teams from disadvantaged primary schools. The sponsorship will cul-minate in an exciting and fun DreamEvent day of soccer and corporate camaraderie on 10th October – the first, it is hoped, of many events to come.

A Section 21 company and the brainchild of veteran journalist John Perlman, The Dream-fields Project was launched in October 2007 with start-up funding from BHP Billiton and Old Mutual. Its dream, in partnership with the Department of Education, is to put resources for playing soccer into township and rural schools throughout South Africa – as quickly and efficiently as possible.

Believing that soccer is a team game (and teams build better schools) the project provides DreamBags – full sets of kit – to schools across the country. It also stages DreamEvents to celebrate the spirit of soccer.

Each DreamBag contains three soccer balls, 15 pairs of boots and 15 sets of kit, including numbered shirts, shorts and socks. Kit is supplied in the colour chosen by the school – with the sponsor’s logo prominently displayed on shirts, and boots provided according to sizes requested by the teacher in charge of the team. The cost of a DreamBag? R6 000.

Says Perlman: “DreamBags cost R6000, but the inspiration they provide is priceless. We never stop being inspired by the way a DreamBag transforms a group of shy youngsters into a confident team of ten-foot-tall footballers.”

To date, 720 teams across the country have benefited from DreamBags, most of them outside metropolitan areas. A target of 900 will be reached by September, with a commitment to date of R1.3-million from sponsors.

The exciting new partnership between the Dreamfields Project and the Cape Town Partnership, will be the first to be staged in a central city area. Together, the Partner-ship and Dreamfields are thus calling on all interested parties to come forward and sponsor a total of 16 DreamBags for 16 pri-mary schools. Eight boys teams and eight girls teams will benefit.

While schools from as far afield as Langa, Marconi Beam and Khayelithsa will take part, for the first time in Dreamfields his-tory, the joint initiative will also see urban schools in need in the Central City being included. Taking cognisance of the impor-tance of street soccer in Cape Town (the City having been home a few years ago to the Homeless World Cup), two teams from the Western Cape Street Soccer League will also be incorporated– another first for The Dreamfields Project.

To date, the Laser Group, Weber Went-zell, Growthpoint Properties, Century City and Cape Town Tourism, together with Cape Town Partnership and the CCID, have already come forward to confirm their participation as sponsors of a total of 10 teams, with Cape Town Tourism also agreeing to sponsor transportation for teams as well as entertainment on the day of the DreamEvent.

With the joint initiative now challenging other sponsors to come forward, the next few weeks will see an intensive campaign rolled out to 2010 Central City Partners Forum members and other Central City stakeholders to ensure that the event in early October will be a resounding success.

For more information on The Dreamfields Project, please visit www.dreamfieldsproject.org or for information on how to join the joint Dreamfields/Cape Town Partnership initiative please contact Carola Koblitz on 021 419 1881 or email [email protected].

Dream partnershipA joint initiative between Cape Town Partnership and The Dreamfields Project is challenging Central City stakeholders to join them in the first soccer project aimed at benefiting disadvantaged primary school teams from the Central City region.

Email: [email protected] 021 419 1881

Contact Tasso:

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CityViews 3September 2009

How do you turn a problem into a solution? Ex-plains Hannes

van der Merwe (organ-iser of Projek OPRUIM, Straatwerk): “As a part-ner of CCID, Straatwerk provides work and an income for people who struggle to find employ-ment. In this way we help them to rebuild their lives and simultaneously solve social problems. In turn, they help to keep the streets of Cape Town clean by removing litter and refuse.”

Straatwerk is an NGO with a strong evangelis-tic focus and have been involved with the CCID since 2003. It started as a church youth organisa-tion in the late 1960s that was concerned about un-employed and homeless people. Straatwerk grew from this small initiative to playing an important role in the maintenance of the city.

“Projek OPRUIM has been in operation for eight years and performs a manual labour service to various clients, includ-ing The City of Cape Town, City Improvement Districts, schools, busi-nesses and individuals. In this way the project is reasonably self-suffi-cient,” says Hannes.

“We employ between 200 and 300 people who work in four–hour shifts, day and night. An important part of the work we do is the ‘dawn patrol’ where we clean up at nightclubs.” The cleaners are also used for special projects such as graffiti removal, removal of posters and drain cleaning.

The impact is a gen-eral clean-up of the city, where litter and refuse are removed from the streets, a sense of pride is restored to the desti-tute, and social circum-stances are dealt with on the streets. “And we are proud of the visible effect: everybody notices that Cape Town is much cleaner in many ways.”

But this project reaches further than just a clean-up service. “Projek OPRUIM teams render this wide spectrum of services while also being giving opportunities for life-lessons to be

learned,” says Hannes. “The employees earn an income and learn to live with dignity.” Straatwerk operates in close collabo-ration with the CCID’s Social Development field workers and other organ-isations to form a whole network of concern. “Herein lies the secret of successful partnerships,” says Hannes. “It takes a joint effort to make an impact and to accomplish our aim to make Cape Town a cleaner place for all. These partner-ships achieve both urban management and social development objectives.

“We are very dedicated to this cause,” says Han-nes. “And this partner-ship shows the CCID’s commitment to care for the residents of Cape Town and to address the needs of the poor and destitute. We are proud to be a part of the drive to clean up Cape Town, and at the same time help people in need.”

Straatwerk turns problems into solutions

The CCID provides a dedicated top-up cleansing service in the Central City, which

forms part of the CCID’s urban management services where they are partnering with NGOs and other complementary services.

Their partner in grime, J&M Cleaning Services, is responsible for cleaning up the central part of Cape Town. Sharon Fortune is the owner and managing director who started the com-pany 19 years ago. “I am really proud to say that since we have been awarded this contract two years ago, we have grown from strength to strength.” Their services include street cleansing; refuse removal; recycling; water spraying; reporting faulty street/traffic signs; retail cleaning; merchandising; hotel cleaning and industrial and commercial cleaning.

“We have an excellent relation-ship with the CCID’s manage-ment,” says Sharon. “They really are thoroughly involved on a daily basis and have a passion and strong commitment to the City of Cape Town.” And that is also what the people of J&M be-lieve in – being hands-on, being sincerely involved and walking the extra mile. “Whenever there is a crisis, we all pull together as a team. We are all very commit-ted to this valuable project.”

J&M has a staff complement of 65 who work day and night to keep the streets of the Central City spanking clean. Sharon is very proud of the fact that J&M has recently been awarded a BEE Level 1+ rating – which means that they have reached the top-notch BEE requirements. “Through the CCID and J&M partnership we empower people by making them proud of what they do.”

So what is the secret of this successful partnership? “Well,” explains Sharon, “I think that both partners uphold the same values and work towards the same goal. There is passion in what we do, we all love our city and it is our proud responsibil-ity to keep it clean. By helping to make Cape Town a better place to live and work – and the best destination for South Africans and visitors alike, we add value to our country as a whole.

“My perception is that in the same way as clutter-clearing raises the energy levels in your office or home, clearing the litter from streets significantly raises the energy level of an entire area.”

The J&M team removes about 150 to 200 tons of waste per month from the streets of Cape Town. J&M, the CCID and the South African National Defence Force (SANDF) also established a recycling plant at Youngsfield where ten full-time employees assist with the recycling of 40 to 45 tons of waste per month. “We are pleased that we can contrib-ute to get rid of waste in the city and accelerate the global recy-cling movement,” says Sharon. “A clean city should be a shared priority, and we hope that our brightly dressed employees who work day and night to keep Cape Town clean will be an inspira-tion to all who pass them on the streets.”

But remember, keeping Cape Town Central City clean and beautiful is up to all of us. Remember to do your bit.

From left to right:Straatwerk workers Obey Togarepi and Johannes Pickering with foreman Japie Moos, supervisor Mphumzi Dibela and Hannes van der

Merwe, organiser of Projek OPRUIM.

TOP: Straatwerk workers are easily recognisable in their bright uniforms. BOTTOM: Sharon Fortune, Managing Director of J & M Cleaning Services.

As members of the public, we rarely realise how clean our streets are, even after a major event, a storm or south easter in the Central City. The next morning the streets are immaculate, as if nothing happened the day or night before, and we often take this for granted. how does this happen?

T: 021 8055 F: 021 930 7690Website: www.straatwerk.co.zaEmail: [email protected]: Po Box 910, Parow, 7499

Contact Straatwerk:

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It takes an idealist to dream about a society where people are empowered to earn their own keep. But it takes a visionary with a practical approach to turn that dream into a functioning reality.

When nicole marie Iresch, an Algerian-born Frenchwoman who used to work for Air France, visited south Africa for the first time more than twenty years ago, she was struck by how township women told her that they wanted to work instead of asking for handouts.

The Township project was born. nicole established an nGo in France in 1997 under the name Afrique du sud Bidonvilles, and approached French companies for funding.

since then, the nGo has become a south African one. Run by nicole marie, the Township empowerment model works through three distinct components: a non-profit nGo, where women are trained in sewing and business skills, several co-ops based in the townships, where mostly women sew a variety of bags,

and Township Patterns, a CC that markets, sells and distributes these bags locally and abroad. Township’s mission is to economically empower people through job creation, skills training and business development in south Africa’s townships.

victoria Ward is the executive director of Township’s non-profit arm. since she joined them early this year, the project has grown from 27 to 57 workers. By December, there will be 67. she explains how they recruit and train women and help set them up in co-ops. “The women do a 12-week training course in sewing and business skills. once they have graduated, they form their own co-ops. We’ll mentor them after graduation – facilitate their first board election, help them set up a bank account, formulate a constitution, etc.” And no, the project isn’t only open to women; the first male recruit is currently whipping up bags at a cracking pace!

once the recruits have been trained, and mentored, they continue working in their respective co-ops, as a fully independent and empowered entity, with Township Patterns supplying the orders, fabric and designs. There

are currently six co-ops functioning in the Cape Town area: two in Khayelitsha, two in manenberg and two in Blackheath.

“The project is geared towards productivity – co-ops are paid per bag, so the more bags they produce, the more they earn.” victoria mentions that the average monthly salary for a trade machinist is R2 250 per worker per month. In the co-ops, workers gross an average of R3 500 per person per month, and at the longest-established co-ops, they can make up to R5 000 each per month.

often, people manufacture beautiful products but then have nobody to sell these to. This is where Township’s CC, Township Patterns, comes in. Run by nicole marie’s husband Christophe, it’s their job to find markets for the bags. This CC is registered with the World Fair Trade organisation, has a strong “green” focus and is Proudly south African, using only natural – and, where possible – local materials.

Their target markets are divided into business solutions, retail and fashion. For business solutions, the bags are mostly produced for conferences or staff incentives. For retail, Pick ‘n Pay has placed an enormous order for shopping bags. And in the line of fashion, bags are sold at boutiques, locally and

overseas. even the French First lady, Carla Bruni sarkozy, boasts a Township bag in her collection – she was given one during a visit to Khayelitsha. To order bags for a conference, contact Township Patterns on 021 422 4828 or email [email protected].

Township non-profit can support existing co-operatives, but needs to find capital investment to help set up new cooperatives. If you’d like to GIve responsibly, you can become a member of Township non-profit – it costs R500 a year for individuals, and between R1 000 and R10 000 for companies, depending on their size. For more information, contact victoria on 021 422 4828 or visit www.township.co.za.

Bottom line: safety firstIliso Security forms part

of the security arm of the CCID. General Man-ager, Louis Rademeyer,

has been involved with CCID for many years, and was very excited when Iliso was chosen as primary service provider for security a year and a half ago. “We are the first private security company that has been appoint-ed as a partner to do hands-on security work in a public do-main,” he says. “We are actively involved in crime prevention and work hand-in-hand with all relevant stakeholders such as SAPS, the Metro police, the traffic department, law enforce-ment and other private security companies. And I’m sure all will agree that there is markedly less crime in the City of Cape Town as a result of this tight security network.”

The company has a stringent training programme for its 115 security guards. There are

more than 60 foot officers, bicycle patrols and motor patrols in the Central City, day and night. The guards are in radio contact with a control room manned by two officers. They all attend a briefing session every day to discuss the day’s activities and which areas to concentrate on. “We also work with other partners in the area, for instance, we have helped to find missing children and assisted in tracking down wanted criminals,” says Louis.

“It is great to be a partner in this seamless operation. We all work together to make Cape Town a safer, cleaner and pleasant city. A few years ago I would have been hesitant to walk the streets alone at night, but these days it is much safer.

“Efficient cooperation is key

in this initiative, and the level of commitment from the CCID is amazing. What really makes this partnership so successful is the fact that we don’t work in isola-tion. We have the buy-in of other partners, the police and Cape

Towns’ service departments, which form an integrated web. We all have the same objective – to minimise crime and make the city a safe place to work and play – and that is the bottom line,” concludes Louis.

Iliso’s General Manager, Louis Rademeyer (second from right)

with some of his guards.The safety of Capetonians

and visitors is paramount to

the Central City Improvement

District (CCID), as a safe urban

environment encourages

investment and brings people into

the city. one of the ways that the CCID endeavours

to allay safety concerns is

through visible policing and

crime prevention, by Marina Mcdonald.

On Patrol... some of Alexa security officers in the Central City.

To protect and defendAlexa security solutions (previously known as Alexandra security) is the Central City Improvement District’s (CCID’s) second security service provider. According to the company, the name Alexa means “protector and defender” in ancient Greek mythology. This name choice reflects the company’s commitment to and defence of their clients, writes Marina McDonald.

T he company has a longstanding relationship with the CCID,

although it was only awarded the CCID security contract in August 2008. The two organisations and Iliso Security work closely together to ensure that the CCID fulfils its mandate and public responsibility to the City of Cape Town, its

visitors and its locals.Alexa is responsible for

the security within two of the four CCID precincts. This area encompasses the busy Loop Street and the Company’s Garden. A special robbery squad is deployed at hotspot areas during peak times.

A total of 115 Alexa officers are deployed to the Central City – foot patrol

officers, mobile officers and supervisors. Mervyn Bezuidenhoudt, the new contract manager, is based on site in a joint operations area. Officers focus on enforcing municipal by-laws and have effected numerous robbery, theft and drug arrests.

In a high turnover industry, Alexa recognises that its staff are its

biggest asset. This philosophy has resulted in a proactive and driven workforce. Furthermore, as a socially responsible company, Alexa works closely with the CCID’s social department to assist homeless people in terms of housing and employment opportunities.

Making dreams come true

Women empowered by the Township Project.

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By Madeleine Barnard


Bottom line: safety firstIn your opinion...

Retail Survey reveals confidenceA survey completed in July this year by the CCID has revealed that many retailers in the Central City remain optimistic in spite of the current economic climate.

Conducted over the period of one week among 173 businesses, 84% of business owners believed that they had made a good investment to have a business in the Central City, with nearly 92% confident that they would still be open and trading in a year’s time when the 2010 FIFA World Cup hits town.

of those companies that had similar operations elsewhere in Cape Town, the majority (44%) said that their Central City businesses were doing as well as their businesses in other areas, in spite of the fact that 49% said they were doing ‘nothing beyond the norm’ to ensure their continuation. The remaining 51% have however taken initiatives to improve business growth, most frequently offering special discounts or promotions to attract more business – wise even in the most vibrant of economic times! other initiatives included additional advertising, improved or new product offering and a continued focus on good service and quality.

says Tasso evangelinos, Chief operations officer for the CCID, the results of the survey are extremely heartening overall: ‘It’s always sad to see businesses anywhere in south Africa struggling under a recession – one of the negatives revealed by our survey shows that 49% of Central City businesses have seen a decline and a number will close as a result if the current economic climate. But optimism is definitely now on the rise and in the Central City we have seen a number of new operations open and we have strong confidence in their future growth and diversity of offerings.’

84% Businesses who say they have made a good invest-ment in the Central City.

92%Businesses confident they will still be trading by July 2010.

By Carola Koblitz

In April this year, the CCID undertook a survey among Central City residents to gauge opinions regarding security in the area. The survey took the form of a web-based questionnaire. Consisting of eight questions the results provide valuable insights into the gender mix of residents, ownership and feelings regarding personal safety in the Central City

With a total of 172 responses received and 124 deemed suitable for further

analysis, the most positive result coming out of the five-week survey was that nearly 70% of all respondents were aware the CCID has a dedicated team of security managers and foot offic-ers - the highly visible, branded

and uniformed teams that patrol the Central City

on a 24-hour basis.Respondents

revealed an interesting gender mix, with 61% indicating they were male, and 38% female (the remaining 1% not specifying their gender). Age-related results indicated that 46% were in the 20-30 years’ age group, 40% were in the 31-40 years’ group, 11% in the 41-50 years’ group, and 7% over the age of 51, indicating a vibrant population mix particu-larly among the categories most common to young as well as well-established professionals.

Only 4% of respondents felt ‘un-safe’ to walk in the City Centre, although admittedly a number of respondents indicated that, while they felt generally safe during the day, they nevertheless experi-

enced a sense of reduced safety at night, particularly in areas such as poorly-lit alleys and side streets. Specific problem ‘hotspots’ had also been highlighted, such as the area around the Grand Parade, bus terminus and the Castle, as well as the Senator Park complex on Long Street. Commenting on these hotspots, Tasso Evangelinos, Chief Operations Officer for the CCID, says: “We are very aware of these and, together with our much-valued partners (such as the City of Cape Town and SAPS), we are

currently devising strategies to address these problem

areas as soon and effectively as

possible.”

...nearly 70% of all respondents were aware the CCID has a dedicated team of

security managers and foot officers

Residential Security Review highlights CBD safety

essential Central City security numbers

CCID 24 Hour Number 082 415 7127

CCID Security Manager 082 453 2942

CCID Deputy Security Manager

082 442 2112

SAPS Control Room (Cape Town):

021 467 8002

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“If you want to convince people to be part of urban

regeneration in a par-ticular area, you must put the rational before the emotional,” says Jordi Sacristan, Marketing and Communications Director for 22@Barcelona.

Sacristan was the keynote speaker at the Cape Town Partnership’s 10th anniversary confer-ence on public-private partnerships for urban regeneration, which took place in Cape Town from 18-19 August 2009. The conference focused on the lessons from the past ten

years in the Cape Town Central City.

Sacristan presented examples from Barce-lona’s own innovative 22@Barcelona project. Conceptualised initially in the mid-1990s by the Barcelona City Council and formalised in 2001, the development of 22@Barcelona follows in the wake of that city’s success-ful hosting of the 1992 Olympic Games, working in particular off the strong relations formed between government and private entities as they strove together towards 1992.

Today a public-private partnership itelf, the major players behind 22@Barcelona have been – along with its City Council – academic institutes, private property owners and a number of small, medium and micro enterprises (SMMEs). To-gether, they have achieved the regeneration of what had become 198ha (115 city blocks) of unused “downtown” industrial space, turning it within the next 15 years into an “innovation district” and a high-quality environ-ment for working, living and learning.

The key behind the project’s success, says Sac-ristan, has been the way in which its purpose was communicated to pos-

sible stakeholders. Its first challenge was to convince local landowners (most of the industrial land being privately held) that by considering the incorpora-tion of their land into the project, they stood not only to see it rezoned from industrial to multipurpose use, but would also see it increase substantially in value.

And the condition for in-corporation? One-third of the value of the property would have to be given to the City for develop-ment into facilities such as social housing, public spaces, and to house learning institutions.

“But even in spite of this prerequisite,” explained Sacristan, “landowners could see the beauty in the deal, as it meant the over-all value of their property – even with a portion going to the City – would still escalate by up to four or five times its industrial value!”

Attracting businesses to the region was the next challenge. “It’s very important that you first communicate the rational reasons for an area to be a business destination before you try to sell its emotional attractions. For businesses to want to be in an area, they need to know – for instance – what the availability and

cost of labour will be, who their potential partners and/or competitors will be, and what knowledge-based institutes will they be able to draw on. Once you have convinced them that these exist and can service their require-ments, then you present the emotional experience: the beauty of Barcelona, the lifestyle and the all-encompassing experience

of being based in an area such as 22@ on a social and cultural level.”

Another important com-munication tool used by the 22@Barcelona market-ing team, is the concept of promoting the City of Barcelona first, and then the 22@ region – which in particular targets the media, ICT, med-tech, en-ergy and design industries – second.

“Barcelona is the brand we are selling, first and foremost,” says Sacristan. “Once we have sold this City brand to prospec-tive stakeholders in the 22@ project, then we show those stakeholders who are involved in the targeted industries, where they should be located.”

Selling a Central City idea

Lessons learnt from BarcelonaThe City of Cape

Town established a formal relationship

with Barcelona in 2008 and a City

delegation (which included the Cape Town Partnership)

travelled to Barcelona in June this year. The 22@Barcelona holds a

number of lessons for our own Central City.

“The key behind the project’s success has been the way in which it’s com-municated.” - Jordi SacristanABOVE: Andrew

Boraine, CE of the Cape Town

Partnership, Mayor Dan Plato and

Jordi Sacristan, marketing and

communications director of 22@

Barcelona (right).

ABOVE: Delegates at The Cape Town Partnership’s Anniversary Conference

As the Central City of Cape Town continues to strive for ways in which to stimulate and grow the economic,

social and cultural fibre of the CBD, an important lesson has come out of a

partnership with Barcelona, by Carola Koblitz

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Powerful lessons for effective partnerships

“P eople can achieve objectives more effec-

tively and efficiently through strategic alliances with others rather than acting independ-ently,” Andrew Boraine said in opening.

“We did not theorise a particular model when we set up the Partnership, it was getting people together who were driven by the notion of crisis,” said Boraine. “Now, ten years later, it is possible to draw lessons from the work of the Partnership about what constitutes a successful public-private partnership.”

Drawing on work by UCT’s Dr Ralph Hamann and his col-leagues from the Environmen-tal Evaluation Unit, Boraine said the first lesson was that partnerships change over time and there must be “flexible and light” arrangements so that people can adapt to changing circumstances.

Another key factor is the ability to build and maintain trust between participants in partnerships, because partners will need to take risks when fulfilling explicit agreements or implicit expectations.

He said it was important, when building trust, to under-stand reasons for underlying mistrust. Public sector percep-tions, for example, included uneasiness about being seen to allocate too many public re-sources to what were regarded

as already privileged and well-resourced areas.

The private sector could also view the public sector as inher-ently inefficient and taking a long time to make public sector decisions. Property owners were also concerned that the provision of extra services would lead to a withdrawal of municipal services.

Boraine spoke of “critical co-operation” and “collaborative competitiveness” to manage cooperation and conflict in the same relationship. There had to be room for differences of interest and opinion.

He said that for a successful partnership, credit should be given on a regular basis. It was better to promote the collective efforts of the partners, rather than the organisation itself. “If needs be, forego credit for a successful project in order to build stronger, non-threatening relationships.”

He said it was essential to have a mutually agreed under-standing among partners about media communications, and it was advisable to operate below the radar. “Differences are best not fought out via the media. A strategy of ‘name, blame and shame’ does not work with the public sector, or any other organisation, and is usually counter-productive.”

“Identify roles and responsi-bilities and have a clear division of labour within the partner-ship. Don’t try and do every-thing yourself as an organisa-tion, even if you do it well.”

It was also useful to adopt a networking approach, and not to just rely on formal structures and leaders, he advised. “Cre-ate multiple entry points into organisations and government administrations, and have a keen understanding of who deals with what, and who can make things happen.”

The calibre of the people working directly and indirectly for a partnership was also important. They had to be partnership-oriented, should place a high premium on team work and networking, should be able to work in a flexible structure and not be driven by profit.

SHARINg THe PARTNeRSHIP’S URbAN RegeNeRATIoN leSSoNS:

l 1. geT THe bASICS RIgHT fIRST

Safety, security, urban management and social development. “If the area in question is not safe, clean and well-managed, and seen to be these things, it is not easy to convince property investors to risk their investments – and drivers their motor vehicles and shoppers their wages.

2. SoCIAl DeveloPMeNT IS A CoRe PRINCIPle of URbAN RegeNeRATIoN

Stakeholders have to address issues such as poverty, home-lessness, unemployment and substance and alcohol abuse. “In the context of a develop-ing city it is essential to make service delivery programmes as labour-intensive as possible to address issues of unemploy-ment,” says Boraine.

l 3. CUlTURe AND URbAN RegeNeRATIoN

Urban regeneration is about people, not just buildings and infrastructure, Boraine says. “History and memory, and the shaping of a new common city identity, often form an in-tegral part of successful urban regeneration strategies.”

Many people and com-munities who contributed to the building of the city were previously written out of its history. “For a divided city like Cape Town, local culture is an important source of stories, enabling people to explore their commonalities and deal with past hurts. Inclusive proc-esses around memorialisation not only create images of the city that position it in powerful new ways, but they contribute towards local healing.”

l 4. PUblIC SPACe foR PUblIC lIfe:

In an urban regeneration programme, the space between buildings is as important as the buildings themselves, Boraine says. Access and mobility into and around the Central City were crucial for its economic

sustainability, liveability and quality. “The goal is to ensure that the Central City is easy to reach and to move around in, especially on foot and by public transport.”

5. CoMMUNICATIoNS: Boraine believes it is vital to become a trusted source of information and be committed to knowledge management and sharing, internally and externally. Effective com-munication channels include digital images, video clips and walking tours.

l 6. MARkeTINg AND bRANDINg

It does not make sense for Cape Town to adopt a globally homogeneous culture when one of its comparative com-petitive advantages is its local differentiation. It is important to first meet the needs of local citizens, and through this to cater for visitors, tourist and potential foreign investors.

Boraine says there is still a great deal to be done in areas such as District Six and the unfinished Foreshore free-ways. While “tremendous strides” have been made to upgrade public spaces, and 2010 transport projects would significantly improve pedestrian networks and non-motorised transport, there is still “a critical weakness” with maintenance, management and marketing of public space in the Central City.

“City development is about bringing resources and job opportunities to where people have been historically located, and bringing people closer to jobs and economic opportunities, through ini-tiatives such as better public transport and well-located, affordable housing. It is not either/or.

“In the long run, low den-sity urban sprawl, and the continued location of poor people towards the urban periphery, is not sustainable. There is a need for a clear and strong public policy of approaching urban densifica-tion, particularly near public transport routes.”

executive Mayor Dan Plato applauds urban regeneration conferenceSpeaking at the Cape Town Partnership’s 10th anniversary conference on public-private part-nerships for urban regeneration, Executive Mayor Dan Plato noted that forums such as these “were vital in providing advice” to gov-ernment.

Referring in particular to the housing crisis in the Western Cape, he said: “We are dealing with an influx of between 18- to 20 000 people into this region annually, and yet our current housing model only delivers 8 000 houses per annum.

“Conferences such as these, that look to the examples of cities such as Barcelona and their concept of urban densification, make us realise that in South Africa we do not yet understand what densifica-tion means. No adequate blueprint yet exists in this region to deal with our housing crisis. I believe if we do not begin to follow interna-tional best practice, we will con-tinue to face the same problems. We need to understand what the optimal use would be of a hectare of land.”

Commenting on the work done by the Cape Town Partnership, Mayor Plato stressed: “The City of Cape Town is proud to be associ-ated with an organisation such as this. This is a real public-private partnership that is working, and we look forward to the outcomes of this conference and to sitting down with the Partnership after-wards to continue discussions.”

ABOVE: Andrew Boraine, CE of the Cape Town Partnership (3rd from the left) on a walking tour with conference delegates.

ABOVE: Mayor Dan Plato congrat-ulates the Cape Town Partnership

on its 10th anniversary.

Andrew Boraine, Chief executive of the Cape Town Partnership, addressed delegates at the Cape Town Partnership 10th anniversary conference on urban regeneration, on the powerful lessons learnt during the non-profit organisation’s decade in existence, by Judy Bryant.

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September 20098 CityViews

City HallFor years the fate of the beautiful old Italian Renaissance-style City hall has also been in the balance; its interior increasingly worn. now a report has been submitted, and approved by Council, which will also enable the preferred use of the facil-ity. This public participation process should take six to seven months and the next phase of the process should start around march next year, depending on public input.

A media 24 company - will also move from Green Point to 19 Bree street (the former mCs building, next to the old moulin Rouge) in september, occupying the entire 6 000m² space, following a Georgiou Group first phase renovation. “We are optimistic about the Cape Town CBD,” confirms the Group’s Russell Faye.

The City has given the go-ahead to mixed-use developments which will set new city records for both the tallest skyscraper at 150m, and allowable bulk at 60 000m². Portside will be built between hans strijdom Avenue and mechau street, along Buitengracht street, in a development (benchmarked accord-ing to the Green Building Council of south Africa’s Green star rating system) comprising 24 office floors (33 000m²) above a ten-storey hotel (14 000m²) and retail (2 500m²) component. Parking will be on five basement and eight above-ground levels. Construction should be completed by 2012.

In the hotel sector, heavyweight international hotel brandswill offer luxurious accommodation, as well as have comple-mentary lifestyle offerings such as spas, premium boutiques, elegant jewellery stores and top restaurants.

The 15 on orange development, near the Company’s Garden, for example, will combine hotel suites and luxury apartments plus commercial, parking and retail space. The Rezidor hotel Group too is developing a new lifestyle hotel missoni featuring 157 designer rooms, opening its doors in 2010. The group has signed a worldwide licence agreement with the iconic Italian fashion house missoni and the hotel will feature a signature missoni Cucina restaurant, bar, rooftop terrace with a cantilev-ered swimming pool with views of Table mountain, a spa and small meeting and private dining facilities. It aims to capture the celebrity market as well as business travellers looking for an exciting and trendy destination. The hotel missoni Cape Town is owned by Phelan holdings, a property development company formed by Irish businessman Paschal Phelan.

As the Partnership marks ten years of making the Central City a clean, safe area for residents and visitors alike, property own-ers, while cautious under current market conditions, are clearly still forging ahead with developments that will continue making the city a desirable business and residential locale long after the final 2010 vuvuzelas have blown.

security services. The restoration of charming listed buildings will also add to the long-term appeal of the historic central environment.

A complete R22-million refit of 101 hertzog Boulevard, the old De Beers building, is currently underway for the metro-politan Police headquarters. The eight-storey building will offer four storeys of parking, and four of office space, totalling some 6000 m² and costing about R70-million, confirms Faye.

energy consumption and sustainability have been taken into consideration by redesigning air-conditioning and circula-tion with a new flush, glazed façade with sun shading and uv filtration. The metro Police will occupy the full building from end-July.

A national government-owned building in harrington street, which is currently underutilised and houses the sAPs vehicle panel beaters, will be taken over by the national Intelligence services during the lead up to 2010 and throughout the 2010 FIFA World Cup as its command centre for handling all secu-rity issues. Temporary road closures between longmarket, harrington and Canterbury streets has been approved and a basic R4-million revamp is taking place under management of the Public Works Department.

Director of dhk Architects, Peter Fehrsen, confirms that his firm has prepared an office/commercial/retail concept for a full city block within Bree, leeuwen, loop and Dorp streets. This site was sold in August 2008 to the Province by a private devel-oper and it is now owned by the Department of Public Works.

Property surrounded by Bree, mechau and loop streets and hans strijdom Avenue has been bought from the Farber and Curry owners and will be developed by its joint owners Ingenu-ity Property Investments and Redefine Property Fund, says Bielich.

Farber buildingThe original Farber dealership building, one of the last remain-ing examples of modern movement architecture in Cape Town, is being retained in its entirety. Construction of a new building will start as soon as possible once outstanding local authority approvals and a certain amount of pre-letting have been final-ised. It will consist of a basement floor of parking, ground floor retail, nine floors of parking and 11 commercial area floors suitable for office, hotel or even leisure usage. “The design and quality of the finishes and services to the building will be of the highest standard and will achieve a premium/ AAA grade,” says Bielich. “many green building standards will also be included in the design by architect Dennis Fabian.”

Architectural firm dhk is also preparing an urban design master plan for “an enormous piece of property” representing six city blocks, says Fehrsen. The whole development will be some 200 000m² of bulk in the oswald Pirow/Culemborg area. edge Properties and a number of partners have secured the lease. This is a mixed-use scheme with office, retail, residential and hotel opportunities, and concepts are being developed for individual site buildings. A number of appropriate-height buildings will flank the highway, with the possibility of a few taller towers as well. Parking will be in a super basement and will also fit neatly under the highway. It will have strong links to the Integrated Rapid Transit (IRT) system, and is being planned from the outset as a sustainable development that will include “a hierarchy of public spaces”.

As for cultural heritage, the neoclassic building in Buitenkant street known as The Granary is finally receiving much-needed maintenance and restoration work. It started off as a customs house and is considered one of the most important archi-tectural buildings in the city: It was designed by French-born south African architect and engineer, louis michel Thibault, and was one of the last buildings in which he collaborated with architect herman shutte and sculptor Anton Anreith. The City has signed an 18-year lease with the Cape Town heritage Trust for redevelopment and management of this important building. The Granary will house creative and cultural industries and form part of the east City Design Initiative.

New landmarks are being developed and heritage buildings buffed up in the shadow of the greatest skyscraper of them all, Table Mountain.

New transport system“The City’s new transport systems will dramatically improve access to and from the city, helping to make the CBD the most desired commercial node in the metropoli-tan region. The Cape Town CBD has unique features that very few worldwide CBDs have and that no other local decentralised commercial nodes can provide. We have a lot of faith in the successful future of the Cape Town CBD and hence are preparing to make a significant investment into its future,” says Bielich.

Developments continue to be underpinned by the ten-year partnership between the City of Cape Town and the Cape Town Partnership (CTP), which ensures that the Central City is a clean and safe area to live and work.

A key focus of the Partnership is attracting domestic and foreign investment into the Central City by network-ing with property owners, developers, brokers, investors, bankers and statutory planning authorities.

more than R1 billion of development has been com-pleted, or has been under construction, in central Cape Town during the past year. A proportion of the develop-ment, such as the one&only, Cape Coral (the first luxury ‘dry’ hotel targeting middle eastern guests) and Taj hotels, is clearly geared at the very top end, hard currency visitor niche. numerous other developments, however, will meet more modest yet essential needs such as Central City housing accommodation, plus office space for police and

By Judy Bryant

Robust local and foreign private investment projects in central Cape Town, coupled with public infrastructure development as the city gears up for 2010, indicate that large development projects

still retain strong appeal despite the current risk-averse economic climate.

“There has been a certain amount of down-scaling by exist-ing (Central City) office tenants, and some have moved to the new Boulevard Development in Woodstock, all resulting in increased vacant areas,” comments John Bielich, director of Ingenuity Property Investments. “Property, however, has a long-term time horizon and one has to look to the future when conditions will improve and there will be a take-up of existing vacant space, which will result in demand for new developed space.”

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This three-day event kicked off with The Gradu-ate Show, pre-

sented by the Cape Town Fashion Council (CTFC) and funded and support-ed by the Western Cape Provincial Government. It featured the work of graduates from the Cape Peninsula University of Technology, the Design

Academy of Fashion and the Cape Town College of Fashion Design.

The CTFC also pre-sented The Fresh Show, featuring first-time de-signers, and Cape Town brands such as Misfit, Sway, Doreen Southwood and Tart.

Other highlights in-cluded the Foschini/No-kia Design Awards New

Taking African fashion to the world

The Arise Cape Town Fashion Week, held from 20 to 22 August 2009, is the result of a partnership between African Fashion International (AFI), the organisers of the Joburg, Durban and Arise Africa Fashion Weeks and Arise magazine, which focuses on global Africa culture and style. The aim of the partnership is to take African fashion to the world.

This stately 18th century masterpiece, with its unusual staircase sweeping up to the

entrance from two directions, could most definitely be likened to a looker, albeit a looker most definitely in need of some TLC.

There’s good news in this re-gard: this elegant old dame is go-ing to be fully restored, and put to excellent use. Not only will it be regaining its former glory; it will also be managed by the Cape Town Heritage Trust (CTHT), and welcoming a variety of crea-tive tenants to form an exciting hub of industries.

The City of Cape Town has concluded a long-term lease agreement with the CTHT to completely restore the building and manage it in the future. The Heritage Trust has proven itself as up to the job – just look at what they’ve managed to achieve with Heritage Square, where creative businesses, a boutique hotel, restaurants, shops and wine bars have been operating successfully since 1998, with the historical integrity of the build-ing unscathed. Heritage Square

was originally a site where tobac-conists, coach makers and bakers had thriving businesses and is considered by most to be one of the most outstanding urban renewal projects in the country.

The Granary has had many guises since 1814. At first, it operated as the Cape Customs Office. From 1817, it served as a grain storage facility for ten years – hence its popular name – then, as a women’s prison.

From 1837 onwards it func-tioned as the Caledon Square magistrate’s court and police headquarters, and then as the Caledon Square Post Office, until the Department of Public Works took over the premises. The Department used it as a depot for 118 years, from 1876 to 1994, when the building was vacated. It was declared a herit-age site in 2000.

Laura Robinson, Executive Director of CTHT, explains: “The mission of the Cape Town Heritage Trust is to conserve the architectural heritage and cultural landscape of Cape Town and its environs for the benefit of the inhabitants of the City and of

the nation.” And this is exactly what they have done with Herit-age Square, which has proven itself over the past ten years to be both a heritage site and a work-ing structure.

Established in 1987 by the City Council with the backing of the then Cape Provincial Admin-istration, the CTHT has been actively involved in a partner-ship scheme with the City and individual property owners for the upgrading of streets in the West City. As an influential lobby, the Trust is frequently

consulted on planning, con-servation and environmental issues. It maintains close contact with various organisations in the public and private sectors, including the Cape Town Part-nership, the City of Cape Town, the Cape Institute of Architects, the South African Heritage Resources Agency and Heritage Western Cape.

The Granary project has two distinct components. The histori-cal building, which has its façade on Buitenkant Street, will be fully restored. As this is one of Cape Town’s Heritage sites with Pro-vincial Heritage status, the Trust will be employing a recognised heritage architect and consultant team to give it a sensitive restora-tion. The second component involves the utilisation of the rear portion of the building, which

will eventually house tenants involved in creative industries, in line with the objectives of the East City Creative Industries, which is driven by the Cape Town Partnership. The scope of creative expertise for tenants will include the arts – which encom-passes film and media, visual and performing arts – culture, in the context of museums and heritage, fashion and design and education. The Trust has already received and is currently consid-ering proposals from potential tenants.

Commenting on when work on the building will commence, and completion envisage of the Trust. Laura says that the timeframe is flexible – they’re still waiting for the final lease document from the City, and are in the interim working on the financial plan and rental structure. Although she acknowledges that it would be great to have something ready for 2010, Laura says that

they would probably only start work in the new year, and that they would need 12 months to complete the project. “We hope to do the entire project at once, but the historic front portion is our immediate priority.”

Once they have found two anchor tenants, there will be opportunities for smaller enter-prises to establish businesses. The beautiful old courtyard with its historic vine would offer an ideal space for coffee shops, res-taurants and wine bars to visit. “We think that the building will create a great vibe for creatives in the East City and that it will complement some of the existing institutions such as the District Six Museum and Homecoming Centre, the new Library, the soon-to-be-revamped City Hall, the East City Design Initiative as well as other small creative busi-nesses operating in this historic and vibrant part of the city,” says Laura.

An elegant old dameBeautiful buildings are often like beautiful people. They turn heads. And, if you’re stuck in a late-afternoon traffic jam in Buitenkant street, The Granary is bound to make you look, and look again, by Madeleine Barnard.

Generation Show, recent winners of the Arise Fashion Awards, David Tlale and Suzaan Heyns, while the ever-popular Craig Port presented his full summer collection. A swimwear collection,

underwritten by Southern Sun and including collec-tions by Lovewaterlove, Dax Martin and Tracy B, was another high point.

The Arise Cape Town Fashion Week ended on a high note with the day-

wear and eveningwear of heavyweights Car-ducci Women, Gavin Rajah, Klûk CGDT, Fabiani and Stefania Morland.

...this elegant old dame is going to be fully restored, and

put to excellent use.

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Cape Union Mart has generously donated plants to the City of

Cape Town, to beautify the ‘Paddocks’ area in the Company’s Garden. The Paddocks is situated behind the Jewish Synagogue of which the CEO of Cape Union Mart, Philip Krawitz is a member. Due to Philip’s involvement in the synagogue he and his staff members created a symbolic landscape by planting the plants to represent

the Jewish Menorah. The candelabrum is one of the oldest symbols of the Jewish faith.

The staff has volunteered their time for this project, one of many that Cape Union Mart is involved in focusing on improving the environment. Their involvement in such projects around the country will not only improve the environment but also hopefully get other companies involved in similar projects.

After a break of a six months and following a successful three-day in-tensive Creative Cape Town Clusters at the Design Indaba Expo, Creative

Cape Town Clusters are back again. This time it meets at a new venue – the Cape Town City Hall in Darling Street for a very Creative Cape Town Clusters. At this event, Creative Cape Town will be launching three new products: the Creative Cape Town Annual in partnership with Bell-Rob-erts Publishing; the Explore Creative Cape Town map published by A&C Maps with designs by Design Infestation; and the new Creative Cape Town website designed by Beanbag Media will all be made public. These products have been made possible with the support of Cape Town Tourism and the Central City Improvement District (CCID).

As always, there will be three dynamic speakers at the Clusters, and for the next session, each of the speakers have some connection to the new products. Michelle Matthews, who edited the Annual and wrote for the Creative Cape Town website, will be speaking on words and creativity; Jason Bagley who designed the new website, will speak on websites, blogs and social networking; and Phillip Todres and Christo Maritz, who cre-ated the map, will speak on Cape Town, maps and design.

ABOVE: Members of Creative Cape

Town Clusters at the previous event held at Wooltru head

office in town.

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Creative Cape Town Clusters meet again

Where: Cape Town City Hall, Darling Street, Cape Town. Parking: on Grand Parade and in Darling Street. Security by the CCIDWhen: 8 September 17h00 for 17h30RSVP: [email protected] or 021 4191881

The Company’s Garden was the scene of creative inspirations during the month of August. some oak Trees were “dressed” in “designer wear” and a local retailer decided to beautify the Paddocks as part of their “giving back to the environment” campaign.

Staff of Cape Union Mart in the Company’s Garden.

Cape Union Mart beautifies Company’s gardenABOVE AND BELOW:

Messy Monkey Arts, a creative agency based

jointly in Cape Town and Oakland, California, created

fresh installation pieces they called OAK COUTURE in the Company’s Garden

in the built up to Cape Town’s Fashion week. They

gathered local creatives together to “dress” 5 of the

big oaks in the Company’s Gardens. Ralma & Prelude

Textiles has donated generous quantities

of fabric to make this happen. Showcased here is a

design by Stiaan Louw.

CReATIve gARDeN

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Eastern SensationA jit Kanakia may be the

man behind upmarket restaurant chains Passage

to India and Jewel of India, but nothing could have prepared him for the instant success of his newest addition to the restaurant scene.

The Eastern Food Bazaar is located in The Wellington on Darling Street. Utilising the alley feel of the building, Kanakia de-cided on a typical Indian Market theme with food stalls on the one side and antique doors and furniture on the other. “The idea is to provide normal people on the street the opportunity to enter-tain their families. Dishes range between R10 and R30 each,” says Kanakia. There is no lack of variety here and stalls range from Bombay Bites, which offers Bombay street food to a Tandoori stall and even Indian-Chinese

offerings. To end off, The Eastern Food Bazaar has a big selection of ice-creams made from all-natural ingredients and a variety of lassis (milkshakes).

“We are currently running at 130% capacity after only four months in operation. We don’t even have a sign on the building yet!” Kanakia says. The lunch time clients are mostly people who work in the city centre, while families flock here in the early evenings. Cape Town’s city centre certainly surprised Kanakia. “The potential to do good business here seems very promising indeed, especially if your product is good and you concen-trate on value for money.”

Find The Eastern Food Bazaar at The Wellington on Darling Street. Contact them on 021 461 2458 or [email protected].

founded in 1967, City Coins has always called Tulbagh Square

home and has established an international reputa-tion in the numismatic (study or collection of currency) trade. The shop sells coins, medals, bank notes as well as books, collectors’ accessories such as albums, scales and cleaning kits, and gifts such as money boxes, cuf-flinks and key-rings.

Shop owner Natalie Jaffe says that as a specialist business, word-of-mouth brings in most of their cus-tomers. “We were the first shop in South Africa to specialise in coins and are still the only shop covering all areas of numismatics,” says Jaffe.

“Cape Town’s city centre has changed a lot over the last four decades but with the phenomenal success of the Cape Town International Conference Centre, the establishment

of the Medical Centre and the Fountain, and other hotels in the Fore-shore, it feels as if this part of the city is coming alive again. In fact I think this is the beginning of a renaissance for Cape Town as a whole.”

Natalie says that there are many misconceptions about rare and valuable coins, noting that one of the most valuable coins in South Africa today is the Afrikaans 1965 one-cent coin, of which only 1 000 were coined. “Coins have such historical value and the beauty is that every-body has a collectable coin in their drawer or purse. You don’t need a lot of money to start a coin col-lection, and collecting is a great hobby for anybody,” concludes Jaffe.

Find City Coins on the ground floor at Tulbagh Square on Hans Strijdom Avenue. Con-tact them on 021 425 2639 or [email protected].

Lighting up Long StreetIt is impossible to miss Eagle Lighting if you are driving up Long Street at night. In order to conserve energy, only about 15% of the display lights are on, but with a floor space of over 1 000m2 the effect is magical.

Eagle Lighting has been supplying lighting and lighting accessories all over South Africa and neighbouring countries for over 85 years. From

humble beginnings as a corner store that opened in 1924, the company now boasts five more super stores in Tygervalley, Maitland, Retreat, Somerset West and Hermanus.

Shop Manager, Francois Snyman has been with Eagle Lighting for the last 15 years and calls it a Cape Town institution. “We have been an anchor store for Cape Town’s

CBD for a long time and stock the widest range of lights and accessories in the country. What makes the shop special is that you can buy most of our products and walk away with them as we have two underground storeys of storage space stocked with products.”

The CCID is doing phe-nomenal work in making Cape Town the best place to succeed in retail, says

Snyman. “There was a time when being in the Central City was not great but the presence and work of the CCID has made it a safe place again. I strongly believe that Long Street is the future of business in Cape Town.”

Find Eagle Lighting on the corner of Long and Hout Street. Contact them on 021 424 4071 or [email protected].

Making a Mint

Storage solutions for every budgetImagine the owner of Pax’s sur-prise, when eight Buddhist monks walked into her store, especially since the name means peace or re-solve. “If I had a camera, it would have been a fantastic shot,” says Carol. “And the best is that they actually bought some very funky gadgets!”

Carol has been in retail all her life. “I have a passion for storage solutions and one of my biggest problems in my previous shop in the Gardens Centre was that I didn’t have space for everything I wanted to showcase and demon-strate, as well as the endless trips to people’s cars with four or five trolleys of goods!”

After conducting much research,

Carol realised that storage shops in-ternationally are destination stores. Ample parking is crucial and she loves having the space to display everything, as well as the panoramic views of Table Mountain from the back windows of the building.

Business has been great and Carol ascribes the success to return customers. “My clients range from young mums to those who are

downsizing. They buy one product and realise that it simplified their lives. One client found 16 jars of cumin and another realised that she had 16 white T-shirts. Tidying brings them peace and resolution and customers come back to buy more of the same!”

Find Pax at 125 Buitengracht Street. E-mail: [email protected]

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Behind the counter: Carol of Pax

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The staff of Eagle Lighting are ready to advise on all your lighting requirements

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Natalie Jaffe of City Coins at the storefront

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Mr Kanakia and a few of the tasty Eastern treats.


BELOW:Marathon

runners take in the views on route.

The third Nedbank Cape Town Marathon will take place on 27 September. The

standard marathon distance is 42.195km. However, a 10km race, which starts at the same time and finishes at the same venue, is an option for the less fit or less ambitious! Or perhaps you are more ambitious and would like to participate in the 100km Hewat Festival of Running, or the 100 miler (160.9km) Hewat Festival of Running. These events are held on the

day before the marathon and are supplemented by an inter-

club relay, inter-schools relay and a 5km fun run. The Cape Town leg

forms part of the national Nedbank Marathon series.

The marathon starts outside the Golden Acre, goes through Woodstock, Salt River, Mowbray and Rondebosch, as well as sites such as Observatory, the Liesbeek River and the Rondebosch Common. The race progresses though Athlone, between Langa and Pinelands and back through an industrial part of the City. After return-ing to the centre of the City, the race runs through the Waterfront and down the Promenade, taking in the sea and also setting a contrast to the industrial side of Cape Town and the route. The final stretch through Sea Point and into Cape Town takes the race past the new football stadium. The race finishes near the City Hall in Darling Street. The aim of the organisers is to showcase Table Mountain and the sea.

Please note that entries close on 7 September 2009 for postal entries and 14 September 2009 for online entries.

City learns vital lessons from 2009 fIfA Confederations CupCape Town may

have missed out on hosting

any of the Confederations

Cup matches, but there were

nonetheless vital lessons to be learnt from

other cities that took part, by Carola

Koblitz

A record crowd attending the most recent of Cape Town

Partnership’s 2010 Central City Partners Forum (held on Thursday 23 July), were treated to a first-hand account of the Confederations Cup experience by Lesley de Reuck, Director 2010: Operations (City of Cape Town). Although not a Host City for the 2009 event, De Reuck’s Cape Town team neverthe-less attended not only a number of matches in other cities but, more importantly for 2010, the debriefing sessions held in Gauteng, where two key ingredients were identi-fied, namely coordination and communication.

Says De Reuck: “It is very evident that coor-dination of all aspects and working groups

is key to the success of an event like the World Cup and, in addition to this, communication has to be strong, clear and sustained from this day onwards.”

With these factors in mind, De Reuck high-lighted the lessons to be learnt from the Confed-erations Cup, as well as examples of how his team hoped to handle the chal-lenges.

Signage must be easy to decipher and abundant, and the City of Cape Town will ensure that an explanatory legend be in-corporated into the Host City booklet, to be passed out to all visitors as they arrive at key points such as airports.

Strong communication programmes are required, for example, to educate locals about the impor-tance of arriving at park-

-and-ride facilities and even at stadiums on time.

It was important to ed-ucate everyone – from the public to politicians and officials – about the very strict protocols in place during a FIFA, event that deal with everything from

access and accreditation, to who was allowed to sit where inside stadiums.

De Reuck believes that huge opportunities had been missed with the media, with Con-federations Cup media centres being “sterile” and uninteresting, lacking South African flavour and tourist information. Says De Reuck: “The way media are treated is key to an international event

of this magnitude and the City of Cape Town needs to get this right – already in time for the Final Draw in December when the eyes of 700 000 million viewers across the globe will be focused solely on Cape Town.”

Public Viewing Areas (PVAs) are very weather-dependent, and therefore any PVAs planned for Cape Town will have to be robust enough to adapt as required.

There had also been a number of “heated debates” around volun-teers as many had pitched up to sign in for their R2000 kitted outfits, only to disappear thereafter. A careful plan is required to

roll out, train and moni-tor 2010 volunteers, and contingency plans put in place for “no shows”. De Reuck also noted the need for reliable transport for volunteers who (in the case of the Confedera-tions Cup) were them-selves assisting at trans-portation nodes up until public transport came to an end each day.

Not having had the benefit of experiencing the 2009 event, the City of Cape Town 2010 team will now start to depict possible scenarios and the outcomes of these, via a series of what De Reuck called “very robust desktop tests, at which we will throw as many situa-tions as possible. We can’t do enough to prepare ourselves.” And it also wouldn’t hurt, De Reuck concludes: “To keep our sense of humour!”

Running through the town

“Communication has to be strong, clear and sustained

from this day onwards.”

The third nedbank Cape

Town marathon route

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Documents

City Views September 2009: Cape Town Arise