Western Cape Business 2019 edition

INTERVIEW
and also drive higher accountability on these critical
issues
• Connect business, government and higher
education to find opportunities to collaborate and
co-create, generating greater economies of scale
• Tap into the depth of expertise found in universities,
ensuring we remain innovative and relevant as a city.
How can Accelerate Cape Town’s
Enterprise and Supplier Development
(ESD) programme benefit corporates as
well as the local economy?
South Africa greatly needs jobs and economic
development, but with government coming under
increasing pressure to reduce its wage bill, and
the corporate sector similarly pushing for greater
efficiencies in a recessionary economy, the only
remaining hope for job growth is the SME sector. In
order to significantly grow SMEs, we need to provide
them with access to market opportunities, finance,
technical support and mentorship.
Identified as a key economic driver globally, the
development of SMEs is probably the most meaningful
way to grow a more diverse and sustainable
economic landscape for South Africa. Accelerate
Cape Town’s Enterprise and Supplier Development
(ESD) Programme aims to encourage greater socioeconomic
transformation.
How can SMEs be supported?
SMEs require support and resources that include
access to suitable market opportunities, access to
finance for upscaling, access to technical support
required for upscaling and, most importantly, access
to best-of-breed mentors.
Is something being done to tackle Cape
Town’s traffic problem ​holistically?
There have been numerous collaborative attempts to
improve Cape Town’s transport crisis in the short term,
including everything from carpooling and corporate
shuttles, to non-motorised transport solutions such as
bicycle lanes. These solutions have started chipping
away at the problem; however, they remain short-term
interventions and will not shift the needle over the long
term as they remain largely inaccessible or impractical
for the majority of commuters.
Cape Town will always be constrained
geographically when it comes to building new road
infrastructure as our city centre is wedged between
the mountain and ocean, and most of our major
highways converge on the Foreshore, resulting in
significant daily bottlenecks. Improvements to our
roadways in other parts of the city simply result in
motorists getting to the bottleneck sooner, thereby
extending the daily congestion further and further
down the road. Interestingly, recent research has
shown that nearly 80% of motorists arrive at the
CBD in single-occupancy vehicles. Increasing levels of
vehicle occupancy, through initiatives like carpooling
and shuttle services, will have a significant downward
impact on the number of vehicles clogging up our
roads, but with Cape Town being the fastest-growing
city in South Africa, this will provide a temporary
reprieve at best.
The solution is a clean, safe and efficient commuter
rail system. This will only be possible through
unprecedented collaboration between the public
and private sectors. We need innovative thinking,
new models of public infrastructure development,
and unwavering political will to see this done.
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WESTERN CAPE BUSINESS 2019