Cape Town Mayor Geordin Hill-Lewis extends an invitation to President Cyril Ramaphosa to relocate the G20 summit from Gauteng, citing infrastructure concerns in Johannesburg.
Image: Ayanda Ndamane/Independent Media
The Western Cape is very keen to usurp Gauteng and take over the hosting duties for the G20 summit in November from the City of Gold.
Cape Town Mayor Geordin Hill-Lewis has invited President Cyril Ramaphosa to move the summit to the Mother City if Gauteng cannot handle the responsibility.
“This is a city with a thriving central business district, offering working traffic lights, neat roads and sidewalks, unmatched natural beauty and excellent conferencing infrastructure,” Hill-Lewis said.
“As South Africans, we absolutely want to see Joburg rise to be the world-class African city it should be, but if the challenges prove insurmountable between now and the November G20 summit, you can count on Cape Town to perform ‘country duty’ and host a successful summit,” he added.
Ramaphosa warned Johannesburg officials that they have a mandate to fix several infrastructural problems in the city if they want to host the G20 summit.
“The environment that one observed was not a pleasing environment. I say this so that we can improve immensely,” Ramaphosa said.
The president met with several leaders from the province in the Johannesburg City Council chambers on Thursday.
“If we do not move with speed to address the critical challenges identified, we risk undermining the progress we have made thus far,” he warned.
Ramaphosa said that Gauteng officials need to demonstrate that he did not make a mistake in choosing the city as the venue for the G20 gathering.
“As South Africans, we are proud people, and let us get that pride that we have, self-pride, lift us so that we do present a G20 that will wow people so that when people look at what we offer and present, they must just say wow, this is how South Africans do it,” he noted.
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