The local business community in Bellville, Cape Town, was able to unlock new potential at the launch of the Bellville Business Expo held on 8 June 2023 – now a top annual business event in Northern Suburbs.
Hosted by the City of Cape Town, together with the Greater Tygerberg Partnership (GTP), the event was booked out by 300 businesses and industry leaders. The expo featured a wide range of industries – from technology to finance, hospitality, transport, retail and healthcare. Attendees got to connect with business development experts, gained valuable insights around operational growth and explored new business opportunities. Other expo partners and sponsors that made this event possible included Sanlam, TUF, Chart Your Parth, Business Partners, Coca Cola Peninsula Beverages, Get Published and Seartec.
Business growth fast-tracked through the Bellville Business Boot Camp
Selected businesses were exclusively invited to participate in the 2023 Bellville Business Expo, where all their costs were sponsored. These businesses went through an elimination process over four weeks of the 2023 Bellville Business Bootcamp , with twenty-two qualifying businesses chosen from nearly thirty participating businesses, selected out of hundred and eleven who had applied.
The proud winners are Mia Healthcare, Seartec, Medyatech, Can Marketing and Dwarfs Chain Store. These businesses walked away with business growth packages, business mentorship partnerships and business branding prizes to the value of R142 000.
Said Warren Hewitt, Chief Executive Officer at the Greater Tygerberg Partnership: “Bellville is not just home to Cape Town’s busiest public transport interchange, it is also a vibrant, busy urban centre ready for extensive growth. The response we have seen to the 2023 Bellville Business Boot Camp and Expo exceeded our expectations, and the immense positive response only confirmed the need and readiness for such business programmes and events.”
“We achieved our goal of bringing together local SMME businesses that are ripe and ready for growth to connect, collaborate and exhibit their products and services with the focus on development and access to new markets.”
Working together for economic development and cleaner spaces
The ‘better.bellville.together.’ campaign is an economic development initiative that utilises community assets, infrastructure and services to create safer, cleaner and more attractive public spaces to promote the region’s well-being and investment opportunities.
A recently completed Bellville CBD Business Retention and Expansion Study 2022 has shown very optimistic outcomes. The study highlighted that 83% of businesses in Bellville were stable in size (40%) or preparing for expansion (43%). In addition, over 80% of businesses in 2022 agreed that one of the main advantages of operating in Bellville was due to its strategic location, a 30% increase from the study completed in 2015. (The full report is available to download here: .)
Active programmes have started to cause a shift in Cape Town’s business environment. The Productivity Efficiency Programme assisted 18 businesses, resulting in the retention of 588 jobs. On a bigger scale, there were also 279 000 new jobs created in the last year in this metro, resulting in 1.7 million Capetonians now getting up to go to work every day. This is the highest recording of employment in this metro since at least 2008.
The initiative also aims to create safer and cleaner public spaces in and around Bellville, promoting well-being and investment opportunities for economic growth.
Local businesses have rallied behind the project, which began in February 2023, and are actively participating in various recycling initiatives to maintain a cleaner, more sustainable public area that preserves the natural environment. So far, the project has seen the clean-up of more than 160kg of recyclable waste such as cardboard, paper and plastic. In addition, more than 330kg of compostable waste, such as food scraps, have been collected and 595 illegal stickers and graffiti have been removed and almost 45 public benches have been repaired and painted.
“The purpose is to improve and sustain the area’s beautification, cleaner production, eradicate illegal dumping and littering, signage, promoting recycling and educating the public on the best waste management practices,” Hewitt said.
“The various new gardens planted in Bellville protects growth and the recycling initiatives help maintain a cleaner Bellville centre while diverting waste from landfills and providing a source of income for destitute people that could, over time, break the cycle of poverty. We challenge all businesses and the community of Bellville to get involved,” he urges.
Easy ways for businesses to get involved:
We are looking for partners to join this campaign to make Bellville a better place to live and work. If you or your organisations would like to support this initiative to clean-up Bellville – through extending donations or temporary use of equipment and resources – please contact ceo@gtp.org.za or call the GTP on +27 (0) 21 823 6713:
- Allow some time for your employees to arrange a clean-up, or sponsor a community clean-up to show your business cares. Be sure to share your efforts on social media with the hashtag #betterbellvilletogether.
- Show your support by cleaning your business visage, shop front and by keeping your entrance clean.
- Connect with the better.bellville.together. team at GTP – to learn more about how you can become a partner and how to support the clean-up Bellville project.
- Join the better. bellville. together. business organics waste collection service.
- Report illegal dumping tip-offs to our 24-hour toll-free number on 0800 110077.
More information is being shared amongst the Bellville residents and businesses, by means of local media. Regular updates are posted on social media platforms of CoCT and the GTP with updates to include livestreams of cleaning-up Bellville and visuals on the progress of the better. bellville. together. initiative.
Cape Town Mayor, Geordin Hill-Lewis, upon visiting the Bellville Business Expo, expressed his delight at the significant advancements observed. “I am pleased to see that the central business district and station area have undergone impressive improvements, including the installation of entrancing public art, numerous new waste bins, vibrant plants, and extensive infrastructure repairs, including lighting. The continued progress of this economic development initiative in Bellville serves as an inspiration for other communities, showcasing the power of collaborative efforts in transforming urban spaces into thriving, vibrant hubs,” he said.
Find more information on positive initiatives in Bellville please visit www.gtp.org.za or email info@gtp.org.za.
