CCID Urban Management strives to ensure that the Cape Town CBD is clean, welcoming and a risk-reduced environment. The department works around the clock to deliver top-up services to those of the CBD's primary service provider, the City of Cape Town.
Urban Management, which has three full-time staff members including a manager, a precinct manager and a precinct co-ordinator, collaborates with the CCID's two cleaning contractors, namely J&M Cleaning Services and Straatwerk (an entry-level skills training NGO). These entities work together to enable the CCID to meet urban management needs as they arise in order to maintain and improve the look, feel and functionality of the Cape Town Central City.
Department team members walk the beat daily, observing and recording changes within the urban environment, acting as intermediaries between the public and private sectors, and communicating with retailers and property owners. They also coordinate the CCID’s maintenance and cleaning teams to remedy even the smallest defects.
The range of work includes: cleaning (sweeping, litter-picking, emptying green bins and CCID cigarette-butt bins); removing waste (including waste that is dumped illegally); clearing stormwater drains, municipal inlets and drains, channels and gullies to prevent flooding in winter; removing unsightly graffiti, tags, illegal posters and stickers; and checking on the condition of rodent boxes in the CBD.
Teams also plant and trim trees and maintain tree wells, and carry out beautification projects that include painting benches, lampposts, railings, bollards and post boxes. They also install floral and festive season hanging baskets.
An upskilled road maintenance team comprising members from Straatwerk repairs or reinstates damaged or uneven pavement surfaces, fixes minor potholes and road defects, paints road signs and markings, and repairs damaged signage.
Our teams conduct proactive hotspot cleaning and check for streetlight outages and other malfunctions. They address defects in-house where possible, or pass the details to the relevant City department.
Our professional cleaning contractor, J&M Cleaning Services, provides close to 60 cleaning staff who scour the CBD’s streets day and night. The overnight cleaning shift starts work at 19h30 and ensures that by the time they knock-off, at 04h30 the following morning, all nighttime debris is cleared away before office workers return to the CBD. The day shift gets cracking at 07h30 and works until 16h30.
The CCID’s collaboration with Straatwerk creates work opportunities for around 300 individuals each year. Straatwerk provides an structured environment tailored to helping street people to establish routines, accept varying degrees of responsibility, organise their personal official documentation and be contactable by telephone. By fulfilling these responsibilities, the person becomes more employable and can rise above their present circumstances.These individuals are then presented with skills-training opportunities and connected to the broad network of upliftment NGOs throughout the city.
Every year, Urban Management highlights the importance of a litter-free inner city by educating the public on keeping the CBD clean and high environmental and financial costs of littering. In 2023, the department, in conjunction with CCID Communications, launched its anti-litter campaign with the rallying slogans, "Don't trash my town", 'Don't stink up my street", and "Don't rubbish my road." Read more about the campaign here.
Meet the Urban Management team.
DOWNLOADS:
Urban Management brochure