Evening Talk

The City of Cape Town has facilitated R2.67 billion worth of investments in the last financial year. This is has helped towards creating 6236 jobs, according to the mayor.

Mayor Patricia de Lille says the City believes that they have to make sure they aggressively promote and seek out investments for the City. To make this happen, de Lille says the City designed their investment strategy to work off a checklist, so as to ensure it knows exactly what it is pitching.

We have created 6236 direct jobs, but the role of the City of Cape Town is also to make sure we invest in infrastructure, so we create an environment conducive to creating jobs in the City.

— Cape Town Mayor, Patricia de Lille

According to de Lille, many of the jobs that it has created in the business process include call centres where 4000 jobs became available, as well as the finance and property sectors.

She adds that the City spend lots of money on training trades people, like plumbers and electricians some of who they employ afterward.

While it celebrates the number of jobs that have come from investments into the City, de Lille says investment in infrastructure is also vital towards job creation.

The unemployment rate in the City of Cape Town is around 19%. It is still too high, but it is lower than the national average.

— Cape Town Mayor, Patricia de Lille

For this financial year, de Lille says she has budgeted around R301 million rand towards job creation and skills training.

Listen to the full interview below: