Deputy Director General of National Treasury Malijeng Ngqaleni with with SAPOA President Mike Deighton, Nomzamo Radebe (President Elect) and Neil Gopal (CEO).
The South African Property Owners Association (SAPOA) signed a Memorandum of Understanding with National Treasury (NT) in Johannesburg yesterday. The intention of the working relationship is to focus on joint strategic partnerships, collaboration on research coordinated planning and urban management.
Both SAPOA and NT highlighted the importance of a combined strategy and pooling of resources between the public and private sector in addressing spatial transformation of urban centres in South Africa.
In his opening address, SAPOA President Mike Deighton acknowledged the importance of this collaboration with government, in precipitating this watershed joint working relationships between two very important stakeholder groups. Deighton further highlighted the four strategic pillars to SAPOA’s strategy, namely Relationships, Education, Advocacy and Leadership.
“Relationships within the industry and with other stakeholders are very important. Closely linked to relationships is research and this Memorandum of Understanding allows for fantastic working relationship where research is concerned. Education, in relation to skills development and the development of leadership enables us to improve our effectiveness with the key stakeholders within this space. Further, we have a role to advocate and understand what the issues in business are and to advocate for a successful business environment. It is a key role and is something that SAPOA must do. Advocacy is not about lobbying and pointing fingers. It is about looking for constructive and proactive ways of dealing with government in particular. Lastly, it is the development of better leadership that creates better value. Positive and constructive leadership takes us forward.”
Deputy Director General of National Treasury, Malijeng Ngqaleni, emphasised the challenges the department faces in spatial inadequacies, and how working relationships such as these will strengthen the resolve towards realising some of the most important built environment objectives within the cities. “It is not a secret that our fiscus is under enormous pressure due to a variety of challenges and the scarcity of resources faced by government in light of the current climate. It is therefore important to do more with less in tackling our development goals.”
Key deliverables that this partnership seeks to achieve, according to Ngqaleni, include:
· Spatial planning, including spatial targeting of investment across all spheres of government and the property industry;
· Alignment of planning and investment funding and financing, as key steps in the Built Environment Value Chain;
· Urban management, which is about creating a number of spatially targeted partnerships that will put in place catalytic interventions towards achieving critical mass;
· Working together on improving skills and capacity building of built environment practitioners to strengthen the realisation of the other three deliverables
“This partnership is aimed at coordinated planning, implementation and urban management. Working together, we are destined for success as we endeavour to pool our combined strategies and resources. It is in light of this that we are gathered to celebrate this relationship moving forward”.
