Streets Ahead

Bulelwa Makalima- Ngewana, CEO of the Cape Town Partnership, is hellbent on changing not only the city itself, but – more importantly – the way people experience it.

- Anna Rich

It’s a striking panorama. The huge floor to ceiling windows in the lift foyer at the Cape Town Partnership take in some of the city centre, Bo-Kaap and the City Bowl, framed by Table Mountain, Lion’s Head and Signal Hill. It’s the perfect vantage point from which to make weighty decisions on the future of the city. Today, looking at this thriving space, with cranes swinging round the cement columns of new buildings, and trendy loft apartments crowning business premises, it’s hard to believe that it had been in decline, (no) thanks to the Waterfront and Century City. Something’s clearly working here! Much of the credit goes to the Cape Town Partnership, which emerged with a vision for a thriving, creative space for both work and play. We wanted to meet their inspiring CEO, Bulelwa Makalima-Ngewana, and had a great chat about life, the universe – and her love of cities (specially Cape Town).

For me, there’s always been this excitement about cities. Everybody from the rural Eastern Cape where I grew up went away to work. When they came back for holidays, there was a great sense of anticipation as the buses came in. I didn’t have anyone working away from home – my dad was a priest and my mum was a nurse – but all my friends did. At school the next day, their lunch boxes were full of sweets. And if you visited a friend, while they cooked round the fire, their parents told stories of city life.