The City of Cape Town has postponed all City-run summer markets scheduled to take place during the festive period, including the much loved Cape Town Summer Market that has been consistently held at the Company’s Gardens for the last 20 years.
After lengthy deliberations between key internal City departments, the City has taken a proactive approach to postpone all night summer markets indefinitely to prioritise the health and safety of the public, including the vendors during this time.
“The Cape Town Summer Market, which is most popular, usually attracts an estimated 5 000 people per night during the five hours of operation. In addition to the health and safety priorities, which require us to limit the number of visitors to the 500 person capacity, and which includes all operational staff, vendors and visitors, it would also not be economically feasible for vendors as it would limit financial gains for the participants,” said the City’s Executive Mayor, Alderman Dan Plato in a statement.
The City’s Mayoral Committee Member for Urban Management Alderman Grant Twigg added: “The City has taken into consideration the socio-economic impact that the postponement of the markets will have on its residents. However, we have had to take into consideration the possible impact on the health of residents as well as the health care system in general.
“The summer markets have the potential to be super spreader events. A single super spreader event will have a much bigger impact on the economy of the City of Cape Town and we have had to make this tough call to postpone the summer markets and make responsible decisions to protect our people from this deadly pandemic.”
Picture: Facebook / Cape Town Summer Market
