Draft Business Plan (June 2026)
The draft business plan for the proposed Vredehoek City Improvement District is now open for public comment
The first public meeting was held on 24 June 2026 - watch the recording of the livestream and view the presentation.
Written comments may be submitted by email to info@vredehoekcid.co.za until 27 July 2026.
The formal vote process has not yet started and will follow later.
Business Plan Overview
The proposed Vredehoek CID is a five-year plan to fund supplementary public-space services in Vredehoek and Devil’s Peak Estate.
The proposed CID would fund coordinated public safety, cleaning, social engagement with rough sleepers, and public-space improvements through an additional municipal rate on properties within the CID boundary.
The draft plan is based on the Urban Management Survey, where ratepayers identified public safety, negative aspects of homelessness, and cleanliness as key concerns.
A CID does not replace City services. It adds locally managed services that are funded by property owners within the approved CID boundary and delivered according to an approved business plan.
Key facts
- Residential cost: about R60.38 per R1m municipal value per month, including VAT
- Main budget focus: public safety (53%)
- Term: five years
- Earliest start date: 1 July 2027
- Approval needed: support from at least 60% of impacted ratepayers
- Governance: Non-profit company, ratepayers as members, elected board, City oversight
Why is a CID being proposed?
Vredehoek is a popular, walkable neighbourhood with a strong sense of community, but our Urban Management Survey shows that residents have growing concerns about crime, safety in public spaces, homelessness-related impacts, and declining cleanliness.
Existing volunteer and donation-funded initiatives such as DPVWatch and street camera projects play an important role, but they are fragmented and difficult to sustain at the level needed across the whole neighbourhood. The proposed CID would create a stable, accountable, City-regulated way to fund and coordinate supplementary services.
Problems such as theft, muggings, drug use in parks, illegal fires, bin-picking, and litter after refuse collection days are difficult to solve on a house-by-house or street-by-street basis. The business plan proposes a coordinated, neighbourhood-wide response instead.
How the Business Plan responds to the community's concerns
The proposed services are shaped by the Urban Management Survey, where ratepayers identified public safety, crime, homelessness-related public-space issues, and cleanliness as key concerns.
The draft plan is therefore weighted toward public safety, while also addressing the inter-related issues of homelessness, cleanliness and liveability. The City’s CID by-law requires every CID business plan to cover four connected service areas:
- Public safety
- Maintenance and cleansing
- Environmental development
- Social and economic development
The proposed CID also includes two full-time staff to manage and coordinate the CID, so that these services can be delivered consistently and transparently.
What services will the CID provide?
The draft business plan proposes an integrated public-space management model, in which the services work together: safer streets need active monitoring and rapid response, practical engagement on social issues, and cleaner public spaces.
Public safety
Year 1 Budget: R3 710 451 (53% of budget)
Public safety is the largest focus of the draft budget. The proposed safety model combines active monitoring, visible patrols, rapid response, and by-law enforcement.
- Two dedicated vehicles, each with two safety officers, patrolling 24/7 and linked to a central control room for rapid response
- 24/7 camera monitoring at key points and high-traffic areas
- Integration of up to 100 suitable existing cameras, where feasible
- Installation of up to 200 new cameras over 5 years
- LPR cameras at entry and exit points, with running costs taken over from DPVWatch
- A dedicated Law Enforcement Officer (armed) contracted through the City for by-law enforcement, including issuing fines and making arrests
- A central control room to coordinate monitoring and response
- Coordination with CID staff, City services, SAPS, SANParks and neighbourhood watch structures
The goal is better public-space safety through visible presence, faster response, stronger coordination and more consistent enforcement.
Social and economic development
Year 1 Budget: R336 960 (~5% of budget)
The CID would implement a structured, street-level social engagement programme to reduce the negative impact of rough sleeping in public spaces while creating practical pathways for support and stability. This integrates directly with the cleaning programme (next section) to provide employment opportunities.
The draft plan includes:
- Contracting an accredited service provider to deliver street-level social engagement and support
- Daily engagement with people sleeping rough in public spaces
- Trained outreach workers will engage with homeless individuals and connect them to social services
- Encouraging access to shelters, health services and support programmes
- Registered social worker for counselling, case management, life skills and job readiness
- Employment pathways into the cleaning team for those who are ready and willing
The programme is support-focused and practical. It is intended to reduce harmful behaviour, prevent illegal structures, improve public-space conditions, and support people who are willing to engage with help.
Maintenance and cleansing
Year 1 Budget: R501 109 (~7% of budget)
The CID would provide supplementary cleaning and urban management services across the proposed CID area.
- Six-person cleaning team covering streets, pavements and parks with staggered shifts to cover area weekly.
- Cleaning scheduled around municipal bin days to reduce scattered rubbish and the impact of bin-picking
- Focus on litter, dog waste and weeds
- Hazardous waste, such as discarded needles, reported for safe removal
- Monitoring public infrastructure such as potholes, broken lights, damaged pavements and blocked stormwater drains, and escalatingthem to the City
- Logging, tracking and following up City service requests
These services supplement City services. Residents should still report municipal issues to the City; the CID would help monitor, coordinate and follow up where local action is needed.
Environmental development
Year 1 Budget: R306 000 (~6% of budget)
The CID would invest in specific, limited strategic improvements of public spaces to improve usability and safety. Proposed improvements:
- Strategic fencing of certain green areas to improve safety for children, pets and events:
- Plantation Park
- Edge of Jutland Avenue
- Extension of Virginia Park
- Improvements to green spaces, including Ixia Park, Chelmsford avenue and the corners of Gardenia Street and Derry Street.
The objective is not only to make public spaces safer, but to make them more usable, attractive and cared for.
CID management team
Year 1 Budget: R959 992 (~14% of budget)
The CID would be managed by a dedicated non-profit company responsible for implementing the business plan and reporting to ratepayers and the City. The draft plan includes:
- A full-time CID Manager and Assistant, based in Vredehoek
- A local CID office
- Procurement and overseeing all service providers
- Financial management and reporting
- Coordination with the City, SAPS, DPVWatch, SANParks and neighbouring areas
- Communication with members and the broader community
- Primary contact point for residents, the City and service providers
The result is a professionally managed, locally governed organisation that is accountable to the community and focused on delivering consistent, measurable services.
How much will it cost?
The CID would be funded through an additional municipal rate on properties within the CID boundary. The rate is collected by the City through the normal rates process and paid over to the CID management body if the CID is approved.
The proposed rate is:
| Annual rate per million property value (excl. VAT) | Average monthly rate per million property value (excl. VAT) | Average monthly rate per million property value (incl. VAT) | |
| Residential properties | R643 | R52.50 | R60.38 |
| Non-residential properties | R1441 | R120.08 | R138.10 |
This rate is not final and must be approved by the ratepayers, and by the City council.
Residential property examples (averages per month, including VAT):
| Property valued at R1,000,000 | R60.38 |
| Property valued at R2,000,000 | R120.76 |
| Property valued at R3,000,000 | R181.14 |
| Property valued at R4,000,000 | R241.52 |
| Property valued at R5,000,000 | R301.90 |
| Property valued at R6,000,000 | R362.28 |
| Property valued at R7,000,000 | R422.66 |
| Property valued at R8,000,000 | R483.04 |
| Property valued at R9,000,000 | R543.42 |
| Property valued at R10,000,000 | R603.80 |
How to calculate your estimated monthly rate
Note: R0.000630 represents the CID additional property rate for residential properties, which must still be approved by ratepayers and the City council.
- Municipal valuation x R 0.000630 = Annual contribution (excl. VAT)
- Annual contribution (excl. VAT) / 12 = Average monthly contribution (excl. VAT)
- Average monthly contribution (excl. VAT) x 1.15 = Average monthly contribution (incl. VAT)
More details are provided on page 60 and 61 of the draft business plan.
Note: the proposed additional rate was revised by the City on 24 June 2026 to reflect the updated valuation roll. It was revised from R61.62 per month (incl. VAT) to R60.38 per month (incl VAT).
Affordability, rebates and exemptions
The Steering Committee understands that a property’s municipal valuation does not always reflect the ratepayer's available monthly income. This can be especially difficult for pensioners or people living on fixed incomes. The same monthly amount affects households differently.
The law requires that the CID additional rate is based on municipal property valuation. The CID cannot legally exclude individual properties, charge a flat fee, or create its own exemption category.
Where the City grants a full or partial rates rebate to a ratepayer, that ratepayer is 100% exempt from paying the CID's additional rate. Find out more about ratepayer rebates on the City's website.
The CID is an investment in the area as a whole. We cannot solve the public safety problems on our own, and must work together. The balance in the draft plan is between affordability and creating a reliable mechanism to protect and improve Vredehoek for all residents and property owners.
How the budget is allocated
The draft budget is weighted heavily toward public safety. Over the five-year term, the largest share of expenditure is allocated to patrols, camera monitoring and law enforcement.
The remaining budget supports cleaning, maintenance, environmental development, social engagement, management, reporting, reserves and capital expenditure needed to operate the CID.
| Year 1 | Year 2 | Year 3 | Year 4 | Year 5 | |
| Employee-related | R959,992 | R1,007,420 | R1,057,205 | R1,109,467 | R1,164,329 |
| Cleansing services | R408,244 | R428,656 | R450,089 | R472,593 | R496,223 |
| Environmental upgrading | R96,000 | R99,360 | R102,838 | R106,437 | R110,162 |
| Law enforcement officers | R397,354 | R411,261 | R425,655 | R440,553 | R455,972 |
| Public safety | R2,041,097 | R2,112,535 | R2,186,474 | R2,263,000 | R2,342,205 |
| Public Safety - CCTV monitoring | R672,000 | R912,870 | R1,124,786 | R1,303,852 | R1,445,879 |
| Social upliftment | R336,960 | R353,448 | R370,748 | R388,900 | R407,945 |
| Urban maintenance | R92,865 | R97,508 | R102,384 | R107,503 | R112,878 |
| Depreciation | R158,000 | R292,605 | R401,517 | R486,366 | R545,709 |
| Repairs & Maintenance | R42,000 | R43,470 | R44,991 | R46,566 | R48,196 |
| General expenditure | R696,381 | R665,527 | R707,683 | R753,120 | R802,117 |
| Capital expenditure (PPE) | R950,000 | R813,025 | R644,558 | R499,246 | R346,717 |
| Rolling bad debt reserve 3% | R211,883 | R223,846 | R235,637 | R246,730 | R256,031 |
| TOTAL EXPENDITURE | R7,062,776 | R7,461,531 | R7,854,565 | R8,224,333 | R8,534,363 |
The budget is a balance between service level and affordability. A lower budget would mean fewer services or less coverage; a higher budget would increase the monthly cost to ratepayers.
Governance and budget controls
The CID is not a blank cheque. If approved, it must operate according to an approved business plan and budget, with formal oversight from the City and the CID members (us, the ratepayers).
The CID will be established as a non-profit company. Membership will be free, and open to ratepayers in the CID area who pay the additional rate. Members elect the board at annual general meetings, and participate in decisions and voting.
Governance controls include:
- An approved five-year business plan and term budget
- Annual budgets and reporting
- Audited financial statements
- Board oversight by local property owners
- City oversight under the CID by-law and policy
- Public reporting to members and the broader community
- Formal processes for material changes to the business plan, budget or boundary
The CID term is five years. Renewal requires the proper legal process.
How the decision will be made
The current stage is public participation on the draft business plan. This is not the vote.
After comments have been considered, the business plan will be revised before a second public meeting to discuss it. A formal vote will follow.
At the time of voting, at least 60% of impacted ratepayers must vote in favour of the CID. If the required support is reached, the application is submitted to the City for consideration and Council approval.
Submit your written comments
Written comments on the draft business plan are open until 27 July 2026.
Please send comments, questions or suggestions to: info@vredehoekcid.co.za
Include your name, property address, and the part of the draft business plan your comment relates to.