The City of Cape Town has intensified its onslaught on unemployment especially in the two Urban Renewal nodes, Khayelitsha and Mitchells Plain. In Mitchells Plain, the City of Cape Town employed 125 people to clean canals and gulleys, 300 people to clean public open spaces, while 120 completed the landscaping of the area. In Khayelitsha, 220 people were employed to clean canals and gulleys and 136 people were employed to clean open spaces. All these projects were rolled out from 15 February 2005 until 28 February 2005.

More temporary posts are to be expected from March 2005 until the end of June 2005 (end of the financial year).

The Executive Mayor of the City of Cape Town, Alderman Nomaindia Mfeketo said: "It is important for the City to create these temporary jobs for our unemployed citizens. This will ensure that they have the opportunity to be able to put bread on the table in order to feed their families".

George Penxa, Director: Urban Renewal Programme said: "These labour intensive projects are guided by the principles of the expanded public works programme which seeks to create short to medium term jobs for the unemployed masses of our population".

In December 2004, during the festive season, the City of Cape Town as the implementing agent for Urban Renewal, employed 265 unemployed women and youth from Khayelitsha to clear and cut bushes and maintain the Monwabisi Beach resort.

In Mitchells Plain, 360 people were employed in bush clearing operations in June 2004. Another 240 people were employed during the December 2004 festive season to remove bushes and maintain the Mnandi and Strandfontein Beach resorts.

The National Urban Renewal Strategy was announced by President Thabo Mbeki in his address to Parliament on 09 February 2001. Focusing on the areas of greatest deprivation, eight nodes were identified throughout South Africa for special government intervention. Cape Town's two designated nodes, Khayelitsha and Mitchells Plain, house almost a third of the City's citizens.

Issued by:
Lisle Brown
Media Liaison Officer - City of Cape Town
Tel: 938-8081
Mobile: 084 888 1901