In an effort to reduce the spread of COVID-19 during a period of resurgence, the City of Cape Town has taken a difficult decision to postpone all City-run summer markets scheduled to take place during the festive period, including the much loved Cape Town Summer Market that has been consistently held annually over the last two decades.
After long deliberations between key internal City departments, the City has taken a proactive approach to postpone all night summer markets indefinitely to prioritise the health and safety of the public, including the vendors during this time.
Hosting the summer markets during these uncertain times of COVID-19 resurgence would potentially risk compromising the Disaster Risk Management regulations and the lives of the people and it would not be economically feasible for vendors, given the limited number of people allowed to attend big events under Alert Level 1 regulations.
‘The Cape Town Summer Market, which is most popular, usually attracts an estimated 5 000 people per night during the five hours of operation. In addition to the health and safety priorities, which require us to limit the number of visitors to the 500 person capacity, and which includes all operational staff, vendors and visitors, it would also not be economically feasible for vendors as it would limit financial gains for the participants. As a responsible and proactive City, we need to abide by the national health and disaster risk management regulations and adhere to the recent call by President Cyril Ramaphosa to avoid high risk events in order to avoid a possible resurgence of the pandemic,’ said the City’s Executive Mayor, Alderman Dan Plato.
‘The City has taken into consideration the socio-economic impact that the postponement of the markets will have on its residents. However, we have had to take into consideration the possible impact on the health of residents as well as the health care system in general. The summer markets have the potential to be super spreader events. A single super spreader event will have a much bigger impact on the economy of the City of Cape Town and we have had to make this tough call to postpone the summer markets and make responsible decisions to protect our people from this deadly pandemic,’ said the City’s Mayoral Committee Member for Urban Management Alderman Grant Twigg.
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Media enquiries: Alderman Grant Twigg, Mayoral Committee Member for Urban Management, City of Cape Town, Tel: 021 400 4699 or Cell: 072 171 1033, Email: Grant.Twigg@capetown.gov.za (please always copy media.account@capetown.gov.za)
Media enquiries: Greg Wagner, Spokesperson to the Executive Mayor, Tel: 021 400 9459 or Cell: 072 623 4499, Email: Greg.Wagner@capetown.gov.za; (please always copy media.account@capetown.gov.za)