Craig Kesson is Executive Director for Corporate Services at the City of Cape Town. We explore the thinking behind the City’s Infrastructure Strategy, its scope and key elements, impacts of and lessons from the pandemic, a uniformed standard to Sector Plans, enabling innovation in alternative service delivery, reaching historically under-serviced areas, and more.
Ask how you can partner with Future Cities Africa
Discussion highlights
This episode is presented in partnership with the City of Cape Town
The City discussed its proposal for an Infrastructure Strategy with business partners at the Cape Chamber of Commerce at an engagement led by the Mayor. This draft strategy is undergoing consultations inside the city government and has been discussed at the portfolio committee.
This conversation is to explain more about the thinking behind the draft infrastructure strategy.
Impacts of the pandemic on infrastructure delivery at the City of Cape Town
Scope and key elements of the City’s Infrastructure Strategy
How the strategy is fundamentally different from previous capital programmes
How the strategy looks to enable innovation in alternative service delivery
Reaching low income and declining neighbourhoods
How the strategy ensures the capacity to spend capital budget and deliver what is planned
Major difficulties to the implementation of this strategy
Main lessons from the pandemic
This draft strategy is undergoing consultations inside the city government and has been discussed at the portfolio committee, we look forward to further updates.
About Craig Kesson
‘As Executive Director of Corporate Services my portfolio is broad. 11 directors report to me with a complement of 2,000 staff and a total operating budget of US$150 million. I am also the Chief Data Officer and Chief Resilience Officer for the organization. In the latter role, I led the strategic responses to the Cape Town water crisis in 2017 and COVID-19 in 2020. Recently, this includes the economic recovery programme for the City. Solving difficult and complex problems that have great impact and making sure solutions are data-driven is where I am at my best from identifying the specifics of the problem to crafting practical solutions and managing interdisciplinary teams to execute. As a result, I have been exposed to large scale, large budget programmes with many moving parts.
I have consistently achieved breakthrough results in all areas of my responsibility: policy and strategy, IT for the whole organization, data science and analytics, project / programme / portfolio management, knowledge management, HR and high-level OD, communications and customer relations.
HIGHLIGHTS:
Revising the outdated and unsuccessful Broadband infrastructure programme that has been presented to Council in June 2020. It proposes a five-year infrastructure build of US$10 million pa capital and US$5 million pa operating expenses.
Full upgrade of core applications IT following thorough business process and technical analysis carried out over a year and internationally benchmarked. The upgrade is valued at around US$1 billion and will rollout over 10 years. It includes a procurement strategy compliant with competition law and public procurement policy.
COVID-19 response that resulted in lowering the infection rate ahead of the curve and long term benefits of a supplementary healthcare system for the City and a new operating model for City management that incorporates new logistics platforms, decision support and financial modelling tools. I am now leading the Recovery Programme, including reviving the local economy through a package of interventions including infrastructure investment and legislative changes to ease doing business in the City.
Water Crisis: I cut my teeth on dealing with this abnormal crisis in 2017 heading the City’s cross-divisional response to the once in a 500-year drought that afflicted Cape Town. Through data-led complex problem solving, gathering the right expertise around me and careful practical implementation we brought water consumption down to unheard-of levels for a city of our size and developed a water augmentation scheme that is in the rollout.’
Source LinkedIn
Sheldon Quarmby is Founder and CEO of Interfile, the company behind solutions like uFiling and SARS eFiling. We chat about how individual tax returns on SARS eFiling was born, Sheldon's worst nightmares of Covid-19, benefits and challenges of uFiling, digitising our cities to succeed in the future, rapid urbanisation and the future of jobs.
Play NowCraig Kesson is Executive Director for Corporate Services at the City of Cape Town. He’s also the Chief Resilience Officer and Chief Data Officer. We explore the data-driven strategy at City of Cape Town, overcoming the general fear of data in public departments, emerging disrupters impacting the City and how it will remain resilient, his definition of a Smart City, what he would change if he had a magic wand, his hopes for the City 20 years from now.
Play NowProf. Nabil El Kadhi is Vice President of Academic Affairs at Khawarizmi International College and Vice President of the Future Cities Council. We explore the schema for future education, UAE education system and what Africa can learn from it, challenges that must be overcome, the difference between smart education and digital education, homeschool vs school/ university, readiness of the classic university for the future, definition of a smart city and a smart citizen, cities in 2040 and advice for students stuck in the old education system.
Play NowTshepo Kgobe is Chief Operating Officer at Gautrain Management Agency. We explore the impacts of the pandemic on Gautrain, their plans for recovery and future expansion, the future of public transport, lessons from 2020 and how Gautrain will integrate with other modes of transport.
Play NowNeil du Preez is Founder at MellowVans. He is passionate about urban transport and the development of last mile delivery solutions. We discuss last mile delivery, safer cities, entrepreneurship, autonomous driving technologies, the practicality of drones, local manufacturing and the need for a better education system.
Play Now