Revitalising Bellville: transforming a city in decay into an investor's haven

There is a new energy and effort in Bellville to revitalise the area and elevate it to an attractive destination for investors and market the area as a city within a city, worthy of worldwide attention.

However the journey to get Bellville from a place of decay, with drab buildings, crime and masses of people constantly on the move to a favourite destination for investors, was the result of a partnership involving a variety of roleplayers.

Bellville  is known for its face brick buidings, variations of red, brown and mustard coloured buildings housing government departments, campuses and private companies dotted around  the Bellville CBD. These buildings don’t need paint on the exterior and the bricks act as good waterproofing against Cape Town’s inclement weather. However these cubic, autumn coloured structures, make for a not-so aesthetically pleasing sight.

The Bellville CBD experienced decay over the last two decades, especially after 1994, when masses of people moved into and through Bellville as it became a transit area for commuters using trains and taxis, and sprouting a booming informal economy. Bellville felt the strain on its infrastructure and services due to the influx of people, including refugees and immigrants. This resulted in the exodus of traditional businesses and companies out of the Bellville CBD to the adjacent and growing Tygervalley and Century City.

This is where the Greater Tygerberg Partnership (GTP) stepped in. It is a partnership involving businesses, the City of Cape Town, surrounding academic institutions and roleplayers that want to see the greater Bellville revitalised and marketed as a city-within- a-city. The GTP describes itself as a non-profit organisation dedicated to facilitating the transformation of Bellville and its surrounding areas into a prosperous, sustainable urban centre.

At the helm of it is Warren Hewitt, CEO of the organisation, who said the decay happened because the City and Province haven’t been following the trends that were happening in Bellville and haven’t been able to implement infrastructure to deal with it.

“For quite a long time the City had no intention to correct it and then private capital said we will move to Century City and Tygervalley because there is more opportunity there and they started doing that. In Bellville the base road infrastructure and transport interchange is so important to Bellville. We have 300 000 trips a day that is coming through Bellville, with the trains,  taxis and buses and we’ve got a small CBD. There no peak in the morning and peak in the evening. Our peak is from six in the morning to six in the evening, so there are always people moving around and you need infrastructure to cope with that.Because if you don’t, little things like petty crime will start happening, people won’t have space to move so they move onto the streets.

"Until you start building an environment that can cope with that many people, things start bursting. Now they’ve realised that Bellville is very important as a destination and interchange and need to cope with volume. What private investors are now starting to recognise is that there is opportunity in Bellville. They’re now seeing all the buildings now being converted into accommodation, student residences and commercial properties. There is a lot of interaction and interest from big investors from Jo’burg and outside, saying we need to be here.”

Hewitt said this was when the private sector said they need to put the infrastructure in and the City started to support it.  In a report on the GTP, Hewitt said that when he meets investors interested in exploring Bellville’s immense potential “I always say they are sitting on a gold mine. What already exists in Bellville is a potent package of affordability, connectivity and accessibility”. 

To make Bellville more attractive to investors, it had to deal with the crime and grime. One of the areas they had to deal with was the Voortrekker Road corridor, stretching from Parow through to Bellville. The Voortrekker Road Improvement District (VRICD) is funded by a top-up levy and over 10 years has collected almost 700 000kgs of illegally dumped waste, has cleaned storm water drains and removed graffiti. Crime was given a good kick with thousands of arrests and fines issued.

One of the issues that was dealt with was homelessness. Here the GTP has built a homeless shelter, started a recycling program and a food garden. Colour was brought to the drab buildings of the Bellville CBD with several painted with colourful paintings. There are numerous programs to spruce up  Bellville with recycling bins, fixed sidewalks and upgrades to pedestrian trading areas. 

Such was the rising of Bellville from the ashes of decay that the GTP recently co-hosted the 2025 International Downtown Association (IDA) World Towns Leadership Summit.

Alongside the Central City Improvement District (CCID) and other partners, GTP welcomed international urban experts to Cape Town - and to Bellville specifically - for a collaborative, solutions-focused gathering on the future of  urban spaces.