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THE time has come for a major shake-up of Cape Town’s municipal bureaucracy because it is strangling growth and job creation, says the Cape Chamber of Commerce and Industry.

The negative picture was spelled out last week at a two-day conference of the Western Cape Property Development Forum where it was revealed that developments worth billions of rands had been abandoned because of bureaucratic delays.

This has contributed to a crisis in the construction industry where hundreds of thousands of jobs have already been lost.

“Our City Council is supposed to enable business and encourage good development but they have now become a disabling force,” said Mr Geoff Jacobs, President of the Chamber.

One example given at the conference was a R1.6 billion development project at the old City Park hospital which was aborted as a result of bureaucratic delays.

“This was a R1.6 billion investment which was lost because of incompetence,” said Mr Jacobs. “We have also seen how the whole Foreshore Freeway project was called off after several firms and consortiums had spent many millions of rands on some outstanding proposals. Investments would have poured into Cape Town but we lost out because of municipal bungling.

“We have an excellent organisation like Wesgro which has brought major investments to the Cape but we are let down when it takes four to eight years to get planning approval for projects. The City Council seems to have no idea of how much these delays cost and how they destroy viable projects.”

There has been a major forensic investigation into the department that deals with planning and transport and the head of the department has been sitting at home for more than a year on suspension drawing a salary in excess of R3m a year while questions about expensive Chinese electric buses and Volvo bus chassis remain unanswered.

“Contrast this situation with the on-going world-class scandal-free development at the waterfront which falls outside the municipal area and does not require planning permission or building plan approvals from the City of Cape Town,” said Mr Jacobs.

“The heart of the problem is over regulation and red tape administered by a growing staff of fabulously well paid officials who are simply not doing their jobs. The situation is unacceptable,” said Mr Jacobs.

Issued by The Cape Chamber of Commerce and Industry