Agriculture, Economic Development and Tourism

1. Whether he collaborates with the City of Cape Town in strategising and planning for economic and job growth; if so, what are the specific mechanisms or structures in place to facilitate this collaboration;

The response to the question is in terms of the three units within Programme 2, namely, Enterprise Development (ED), Red Tape Reduction (RTR) and Municipal Economic Support (MES).

The ED unit is not involved in collaborating with the City of Cape Town in strategizing and planning for economic and job growth. However, the City of Cape Town is a member of our Provincial SMME Forum that meets quarterly to discuss and share enterprise development (including township economy) matters.

The MES unit has a focus on the district regions and not on the metro. There are no specific mechanisms or structures, instead ad hoc and per subject matter engagements occur as required.

The RTRU maintains a collaborative partnership with the City of Cape Town's (CoCT) Ease of Doing Business (EODB) programme. Through monthly meetings, both teams exchange information, share best practices, and identify synergies to enhance their respective interventions. Notable contributions include serving on the Regulatory Impact Assessment (RIA) project and steering committees from 2021/22 to 2023/24, supporting the integration of RIAs into the CoCT’s by-law and policy development processes. The team has been instrumental in reviewing RIAs for the Draft Mobile Business Policy, ECD Policy, and the Wayleaves Policy. Recently, the RTRU facilitated an accredited Lean Management training for officials from CoCT's Area Economic Development (AED) Unit, which oversees the Informal Trading Permit process — a key EODB indicator. This initiative aimed to reduce the time required to process informal trading permits and address the vacancy rate of trading bays. Phase 1 of the programme involved 35 officials, with 20 proceeding to the Lean Management Development Programme, applying Lean tools to eliminate inefficiencies. Two main focus areas were identified: reducing bay vacancy rates and shortening permit processing times. The AED Unit has proposed solutions to improve these processes, which are expected to positively impact the EODB Index. The RTRU has expressed support for implementing these solutions in alignment with the EODB Index.

(2) (a) what were the shared targets between the provincial government and the City of Cape Town for economic and job growth in the township economy for the (i) 2023/24 and (ii) 2024/25 financial years and (b) how are these targets communicated and monitored;

There are no shared targets between the City of Cape Town and provincial government (DEDAT).

(3) (a) how many jobs have been created in the township economy as a result of this collaboration in the (i) 2023/24 and (ii) 2024/25 financial years and (b) how does this compare to the targets set for each year.

Since there is no formal collaboration, joint planning and collaboration and sharing of targets, we are not able to respond to this question.

(4) (a) what measures are in place to ensure that achievements are not double counted between the provincial government and the City of Cape Town and (b) how often are these measures reviewed?

Not able to respond to this question – as per response to (3) above.