As a Special Rates Area, Muizenberg Improvement District receives a fixed annual income which is predominantly spent on key top-up services like public safety, social development cleaning and environmental upliftment. But the value of a Special Rates Area is about more than just allocating a budget to services each year: it’s about maximizing the potential of the area, and a lot of this work is about forging partnerships that can help us address issues and add value beyond just the numbers.
With a City that is in the process of restructuring (again), working on relationships with key individuals in City Departments receives plenty of focus. For example, the City’s Street People’s Programme currently has an Acting Coordinator Lorraine Frost who has been tasked with looking at the programme with fresh eyes and bringing her developmental focus into the picture. MID’s Social Worker Marion Thomas met with her in February to highlight the specific issues and priorities we have in Muizenberg and obtained commitment to pick up where the last engagement session with the City in November 2016 left off.
But it’s about more than just working with the City. Cape Town has many NGO’s doing excellent work in various areas, and it’s also about how we can work with, and tap into their programmes to uplift our area, and the people in our community. The Chrysalis Academy, based in Tokai, is a youth development programme which promotes physical, emotional, mental, energetic and spiritual development. Over the festive season several of their graduates were successfully placed at our train stations to bolster access control during this season when we host so many visitors.
And there are also organizations that call on MID’s knowledge and experience to set the scene when working here: Chevone Petersen, the MID Manager, has been asked on a couple of occasions to provide awareness and training for Metrorail’s Chrysalis student inductions. This is an ideal opportunity highlighingt the key issues we want to be addressed at our stations.
Another key relationship for us is with Muizenberg Community Safety Initiative (MCSI) which is one of the crucial components in the public safety picture. Having MID Public Safety linked into the MCSI WhatsApp group provides immediate access to pick up on safety incidents and warnings so that patrollers can target their patrols to the right areas. We also collaborated very successfully with Law Enforcement and MCSI over the Festive Season by forming an Alco-Alerts WhatsApp group where alcohol by-law infringements could be reported – this helped an over-stretched Law Enforcement team to pinpoint offenders with the help of a wider public network.
MID would like to say a big “thank you” to all the partners who make things happen in Muizenberg – #TeamWorkRocks!
