Most of MCA’s work involves developing policy for the public sector that deals with issues such as growth, inequality and job creation and our orientation is towards improving the quality of life of the communities we serve. 

MCA is two-thirds black-owned, and more than 50 percent of our staff are from historically disadvantaged communities.  The company is committed to assisting are employees with education and skills development as we recognise that our staff is an extension of the communities we serve.  We believe in supporting and empowering our staff through:

• Employing and promoting staff on merit;
• Recognising the impact of previous policies on historically disadvantaged people and women;
• Support measures such as continuous assessment, mentoring, financial assistance for additional training courses and further studies and time-off for studying.

MCA has sponsored skills development programmes in town planning; local economic development, project management, heritage management, accounting and bookkeeping over the 10 years of its existence.  We also accommodate and provide students with in-house training and mentorship on an ongoing basis within the fields of urban planning, economic development, office management and bookkeeping.  MCA has also hosted exchange students from the US and Denmark, in order to expose our staff to international best practice.

In undertaking our professional work, MCA is committed to empowerment and social upliftment by endeavouring to:

• Work in close association with communities through inclusive public participation processes;
• Develop proposals which are implementable and will lead to an improvement in the beneficiary community’s quality of life;
• Improve and use the skills that exist in communities, for example through employing members of poor communities to assist with undertaking field surveys;
• Assist with local economic initiatives as outcomes of the planning process.

We have also provided financial assistance, donations of computer hardware, advice and support to a number of sport, educational, social and recreation organisations in Cape Town.  These contributions include equipment and personal computers to soccer clubs; gear for action cricket clubs; publication of school magazines; personal computers to schools; and tuition fees for historically disadvantaged individuals at Further Education and Training Colleges for skills development and training programmes. We have also undertaken pro-deo planning work for community-based organisations such as religious institutions and child care centres. 

MCA has a policy of working with majority black-owned firms who have empowerment policies and we recommend these firms to our clients.  We are also in a position to sub-contract components of our work to specialists and we target historically disadvantaged individuals and firms in this regard.  We provide logistic support, low rental office space, mentoring and support for emerging firms and we have already assisted a number of firms in this regard.  We refuse however, to compromise on the quality of the products we deliver and require others to deliver high quality work when partnering with us.

We believe at MCA that it is important to contribute towards the development of our profession. Cecil Madell has served on the WC Association of Consulting Town and Regional Planners and is a past Chair of WC SABTACO. Matthew Cullinan served on the Western Branch Committee of the International Association for Impact Assessment and also served on the WC Planning Advisory Board. MCA also employed its office resources to assist with the SAPI 2006 Conference in Cape Town.

MCA's first decade of existence was focussed on developing our profile and a sustainable client base.  Now that this has been achieved, further expansion of our staff and community development programmes can be vigorously pursued.