CAPE TOWN - The Cape Town Partnership, a collaborative public-private partnership organisation created to promote and manage areas of the Cape Town central business district, is on the verge of collapse after the City of Cape Town cut its funding.
Chief executive of Cape Town Partnership Bulelwa Makalima-Ngewena has confirmed that the city “is no longer able to fund the Cape Town Partnership as a grantee”. She said the future of the organisation would be decided next week when the board meets.
It is understood the staff of the organisation were put on special leave and landlord Growth Point has given them notice of eviction for not paying rent.
Deputy mayor Ian Neilson has confirmed the cut in funding. Neilson said the city reviews its relationships with all its partner organisations on an ongoing basis.
“A key approach has been to move from purely funding, to funding tied to clear deliverables. A further requirement is that organisations need to develop a sustainable model of funding that does not rely solely on funding from the city. A further step is then that organisations need to bid for work from the city rather than have the expectation that they will be funded on an ongoing basis.”
Neilson said the city had engaged with Cape Town Partnership over a number of years over its concerns that the organisation relied too much on funding from the city “despite the fact that they have been in existence for nearly 20 years”.
“We further indicated to them that they would have to find other funding sources and in future have to bid for work from the city. The city then decided to reduce the funding to Cape Town Partnership to give it the opportunity to make adjustments and find alternative sources of income.”
The partnership was created in 1999 when the City of Cape Town, the South African Property Owners Association, the Cape Town Regional Chamber of Commerce and Industry and other stakeholders came together to address the impact of urban decay, capital flight and other problems present in Cape Town’s City Bowl/Central Business District.
One of the organisations within the partnership, Cape Town Tourism, said it hadn’t been formally told of the city’s withdrawal of funding.
Cape Town Tourism chief executive Enver Duminy said Cape Town Tourism had been partners with the organisation for a decade. “Our relationship is based on years of working and collaborating, and we continue to work alongside and with them.”
Mahlatse Chirwa, portfolio manager for Growth Point, the landlord of the partnership, would not be drawn on the financial woes of their tenant. “Growth Point cannot discuss the financial standing of its clients and cannot confirm this,” said Chirwa.
Makalima-Ngewena was off sick yesterday and could not discuss further details surrounding the financial position or future of the organisation.