Housing in Southern Africa September 2015

News

City and Rabie partner

T he City of Cape Town Execu- tive Mayor, Patricia de Lille, opened the newMyCiTi station at Century City. The construction of the stationwas entirely funded by the Rabie Property Group at a cost of R30 million, as part of their development fees to contribute towards the cost of bulk infrastructure. De Lille said, “It gives me great pleasure to be launching yet another milestone on our journey to provide a safe, quality and reliable transport service to the people of Cape Town. It has been just over four years since we started the journey to implement an integrated rapid transport system. The word ‘integration’ in this sense speaks about the integration of a transport network to ensure a more seamless journey for commuters.” Celebrating the city’s partnership with residential and commercial property developer, the Rabie Prop- erty Group, she said: “We have found that to be able to provide a world- class transport service we need to

integrate ideas and formpartnerships and cooperate with key stakeholders in our city. Rabie shares our visi0on to provide quality transport and in- frastructure. This project is a prime example of how well private and public partnerships can work. And it is a further demonstration of howwe are connecting residents all over the city with job opportunities, as this route links to a number of residential, industrial, retail and office develop- ment areas. The developers contribution to- wards bulk infrastructure was offset against the design and building of the MyCiTi Century City station. This rep- resents the most significant private sector contribution towards public transport improvements made in the City to date. The City of Cape Town will man- age, maintain and operate the sta- tion in terms of the agreement with Century City. The station will also include retail space and those stores will benefit from pedestrian traffic

Patricia de Lille

at this prime location. The revenue derived from the leasing of this space will form part of additional income streams for the City’s Transport de- partment. De Lille concludes, “The City of Cape Town is open for business and we are open to integrating ideas and projects that will bring greater socio- economic gains tobenefit the city and its residents. By working together we are able to make progress possible through delivering a sustainable transport sector. Working with the private sector, we are able to domore quicker.” ■