The City of Tshwane recognises that infrastructure investment is an important component and driver of the development of South Africa and the achievement of the objectives as set out in the National Development Plan (NDP). The CoT also holds international acclaim due to its status as the capital city of South Africa. As a result, the CoT is diligently working at bolstering its standing among capital cities. The CoT is actively striving to be a vibrant place to live, work and play for both its visitors and citizens. The CoT has thus, adopted a forty year vision[1] for growth and development, in the form of Tshwane Vision 2055, to realign its current growth patterns and change the face and fortunes of the City.

 

The initiatives of the CoT can be classified into two distinct activities namely “Running the City” and “Building the City”. “Running the City” refers to every day operational issues that the CoT has to perform to ensure that the City keeps on running e.g. installing water meters, collecting and dumping of refuse, keeping the electricity lights on etc. On the other hand “Building the City” refers to large and often audacious initiatives such as establishing a new transport system for the City, developing a government boulevard, and changing the metering system of the City to Smart meters.

 

The CoT has embarked on an initiative to restructure and strengthen its balance sheet by finding innovative ways of acquiring new assets, maintaining core current assets, disposing non-core and surplus assets and using strategic land parcels and buildings to raise the cash to fund the “building the City” type projects. Alongside this initiative, the CoT is currently running a project specifically aimed at improving the strategic capability of its real estate unit which manages a significant portion of the land, buildings and various properties of the City. All these projects require large cash investments and there is only a finite amount of money available. The CoT has realised that in order to attract investors who have access to cash that can be invested in the CoT, it must create an investor friendly environment. Part of creating an investor friendly environment is to offer incentives that may serve to attract investors.