The Cape Town Partnership was a Cape Town-based collaborative public-private partnership organisation that existed to develop, promote and manage areas of the Cape Town central business district as a place for all citizens. The Cape Town Partnership was an independent non-profit organisation (Section 21 company) governed by a board of directors. Michael Farr was the first Chief Executive of the Partnership from 1999 until 2003.

Andrew Boraine Andrew Michael Boraine (born 18 February 1959) is an international expert on economic and urban development and partnering for systems change, who has worked in the development sector in South Africa for more than 41 years. He was a senior of ...

was the Chief executive of the Partnership from 2003 until 2013. Bulelwa Makalima-Ngewana succeeded Boraine as CEO in 2013 until the organisation's closure in 2017. The City of Cape Town stopped funding for the Cape Town Partnership in 2017 leading to its closure later that same year. The Partnership was created in 1999 when the

City of Cape Town The City of Cape Town ( af, Stad Kaapstad; xh, IsiXeko saseKapa) is the metropolitan municipality which governs the city of Cape Town, South Africa and its suburbs and exurbs. As of the 2011 census, it had a population of 3,740,026. The remot ...

, the South African Property Owners Association (SAPOA), the Cape Town Regional Chamber of Commerce and Industry and other stakeholders came together to address the impact of

urban decay Urban decay (also known as urban rot, urban death or urban blight) is the sociological process by which a previously functioning city, or part of a city, falls into disrepair and decrepitude. There is no single process that leads to urban deca ...

capital flight Capital flight, in economics, occurs when assets or money rapidly flow out of a country, due to an event of economic consequence or as the result of a political event such as regime change or economic globalization. Such events could be an increa ...

and the

wicked problem In planning and policy, a wicked problem is a problem that is difficult or impossible to solve because of incomplete, contradictory, and changing requirements that are often difficult to recognize. It refers to an idea or problem that cannot be fi ...

s present in Cape Town's

City Bowl The City Bowl is a part of Cape Town in South Africa. It is a natural amphitheatre-shaped area bordered by Table Bay and defined by the mountains of Signal Hill, Lion's Head, Table Mountain and Devil's Peak. The area includes the central bu ...

/Central Business District (CBD) area. It was decided that a Business improvement district model would be best suited and so the Central City Improvement District was created in November 2000 in partnership with property owners within the central city area to provide complementary municipal services over and above what the City of Cape Town provided. Safety, cleaning and social development are focus areas of the Central City Improvement District. The Partnership promoted investment within the CBD whilst seeking to reduce the negative impact of

gentrification Gentrification is the process of changing the character of a neighborhood through the influx of more affluent residents and businesses. It is a common and controversial topic in urban politics and planning. Gentrification often increases the ec ...

and

development-induced displacement Development-induced displacement and resettlement (DIDR) occurs when people are forced to leave their homes in a development-driven form of forced migration. Historically, it has been associated with the construction of dams for hydroelectric power ...

. Projects that the Partnership contributed towards were the City of Cape Town's Bus Rapid Transit system, the revitalisation of Cape Town's central square, Grand Parade (which served as a successful

FIFA Fan Fest The FIFA Fan Festivals are public viewing events organized by FIFA and the host cities during the FIFA World Cup. FIFA Fan Festivals (initially named FIFA Fan Fests) followed the success of public viewing at the 2002 FIFA World Cup in South Korea ...

area during the 2010 FIFA Football World Cup), the successful bid for Cape Town to be designated

World Design Capital The World Design Capital (WDC) is a city promotion project by the World Design Organization (formerly named the International Council of Societies of Industrial Design )to recognize and award accomplishments made by cities around the world in the f ...

2014, and the redesign and implementation of the upgrade of Cape Town's Church Square among others. The Cape Town Partnership was involved in street-level activations such as the facilitating and co-sponsoring the first smart bench in Cape Town, performances of famous musicians in public spaces, and in making public spaces in Cape Town's central business district more convenient as places of cultural expression, as seen by the #100AfricanReads project during City Walk Saturdays.

References

Cape Town Partnership

Central City Improvement District

World Design Capital Bid 2014

External links

Cape Town Partnership

Cape Town City Improvement District
{{Cape Town, government 1999 establishments in South Africa Government of Cape Town Organizations established in 1999 Public–private partnership projects 2017 disestablishments in South Africa