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SAPOA and the City of Tshwane held a high-level business breakfast on Tuesday 20th August 2024 at the Centurion Country Club. The event was facilitated at the request of the Tshwane Economic Development Agency, known as TEDA, which recently took up membership of SAPOA.
The objective of the business breakfast was to open a clear line of communication between the mayor’s office and SAPOA and highlight the public and private sector challenges faced by both sectors. The City and SAPOA’s aim were to explore how business can effectively coordinate, together with the Mayor’s office, projects and initiatives which have maximum impact in the City.
The event attracted over 50 invited developers and investors and was facilitated by the CEO of TEDA Dr Lardo Stander. The CEO of SAPOA Mr Neil Gopal and Executive Mayor, Alderman Cilliers Brink, were the keynote speakers. The breakfast afforded the Executive Mayor and opportunity to engage directly with the key role players and investors in the city’s property and real estate sector.
The Executive Mayor, Clr Cilliers Brink stated the importance of laying a foundation for cross pollination and open dialogue between both parties where an understanding of challenges and opportunities can be realised. He further stated, “Our concern is how to get the people to build in our city because that development investment creates jobs and helps with the relief of poverty. Our cities in this country are the engines of our economy, and we want to understand what makes property owners invest, what makes them stick around and what pushes them out.”
In facilitating these discussions, the SAPOA CEO, Mr. Neil Gopal stated that the aim is to strengthen this relationship for the benefit of the industry and the City with the sole purpose of increasing and retaining Investments in the City if Tshwane in the property sector. “The underperformance of any City poses significant risks to businesses, its citizens and the economy as a whole. Infrastructure, which is in a state of disrepair, directly affects the delivery of services to residents and businesses.” Neil Gopal
The Mayor and SAPOA CEO agreed to formalise the relationship and continue with their high-level engagements to improve services, and both agreed that in order to arrest these challenges, no City nor any private sector entity, is going to do this by themselves.
The key emphasis was on the need for stronger collaboration and partnership between the City and SAPOA.