21K magic conjure up just over R180 000 for a good cause

|City boosts

Tech Investment For Safety

The City’s investment in its CCTV footprint is well documented, and this investment continues, guided by the CCTV Rollout Plan.

Just over R48 million has been earmarked for additional and replacement CCTV cameras around the city in the new financial year, as well as the gunshot detection technology.

The Rollout Plan advises on priority areas for CCTV installations, engagement with key stakeholders like the South African Police Service, businesses and NPOs, guidelines for the usage of data in determining CCTV locations, partnerships with private CCTV owners and a standard operating procedure for infrastructure installation.

Other technological advancements over the past decade have included: The introduction of hand-held digital devices, linked to the Emergency Policing Incident Control (EPIC) system, that has fast-tracked the logging of incidents, issuing of fines and allows for photographic evidence to be uploaded; the use of gunshot detection technology; and the introduction of dashboard-mounted ANPR devices in enforcement vehicles.

These devices, fitted with Automated Number Plate Recognition (ANPR) software, have proven invaluable, particularly to the Traffic Service’s Highway Patrol Unit that was launched in November 2022.

The Two Oceans half-marathon heroics of City of Cape Town firefighters, Jermaine Carelse and Renaldo Duncan has left the Volunteer Wildfire Service (VWS) with a very healthy cash injection from businesses and individuals.

On Sunday 16 April, firefighters Carelse and Duncan ran the Two Oceans half marathon in their fire gear. It was their second outing, but this time, they used the spotlight to drum up support for the Volunteer Wildfire Service – a valuable partner in Cape Town’s efforts to combat wildfires.

The public was directed to the VWS digital channels to make donations. Just more than a week later, the organisation has reported that more than R180 000 was raised, thanks to the firefighters’ efforts.

“We are amazed and honoured that our friends and colleagues at the City’s Fire and Rescue Service would take on such an endeavour to raise awareness to raise funds for us. We are so grateful to these two amazing men and dedicated firefighters. We rely solely on the donations from the public and corporates to keep our organisation going, so all the funds raised will go towards maintenance and operational costs,’ said VWS CEO, Claire Lötter.

With the 2023/24 budget allocation, the Directorate plans to procure more advanced dashboard cameras with ANPR functionality, and introduce body cameras. With the proposed budget for the 2023/24 financial year, it is envisioned that the Directorate will procure 400 body cams, 50 dash-cams, 10 fixed cameras and 20 mobile cameras.

In terms of Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (drones), the Directorate is using a transversal City tender to deploy drones during enforcement and emergency operations, while it completes the process of acquiring its remote operating certificate from the Civil Aviation Authority.

Over the longer term, the vision is to establish an Aviation Unit within Safety and Security.

Walking into you’ll greeted

Pierre and his staff, who will treat you like guests in our own home. Henri’s combines an inspired menu with a casually sophisticated setting in a heritage house conveniently situated on Somerset West Main Road.

We also welcome larger groups, our top floor has been renovated and can be used for private functions. Our inviting, comfortable dining room is the perfect place to enjoy a great meal.

Steenbras refurbishment and extension budget

Cape Town is the only city in South Africa to own and operate a large pumped hydro-electric scheme.

Regular maintenance and good management are imperative to ensure that the Steenbras Hydro Pump Station works well to offset high tariff and demand periods, as well as to protect City-supplied customers from stages of load-shedding where possible.

Approximately R1 billion has been set aside for the refurbishment and extension of the Steenbras Hydro Pumped Storage Scheme and approximately R200 million is earmarked for the maintenance of Steenbras.

Our menu can be described as comfort food with a modern global influence. We are well known for our aged grass-fed beef as well as the freshest local seafood. Alongside our à la carte menu, we offer a light lunch menu during the day and also have a kiddies menu. We also serve homemade, thin based pizza cooked in a wood-fired oven.

Excellent Reviews

“The investment in Steenbras and the maintenance programme is crucial to fulfilling the City’s commitment to protect customers from a stage or two of loadshedding where possible, with plans to expand protection with up to four stages in the near future as part of the load-shedding protection plan. Importantly, all Capetonians benefit directly or indirectly from the City’s power generation management and load-shedding protection as it also protects critical City infrastructure used for service provision and protects the City’s electricity network,” said the City’s Mayoral Committee Member for Energy, Councillor Beverley van Reenen.

The 160 megawatt Steenbras Hydro Pump Station (SHPS) consists of four turbines that are used to generate electricity. During peak electricity demand, it channels water from Upper Steenbras to Lower Steenbras, through the turbine generator, to create electricity. When electricity usage is low, usually between 23:00 and 07:00, the turbines pump the water back to the Upper Steenbras Dam to be re-used the next day. In this way, SHPS operates like a battery. The amount of electricity that it can generate in one day is limited by the capacity of the lower reservoir.