Mayor pledges city clean-up
A CITY free of waste and hijacked buildings are just some of the service delivery initiatives that Joburg mayor Mpho Phalatse has pledged to tackle this year.
Together with the newly elected mayoral committee, Phalatse launched the multiparty government programme, in which they plan to address key areas that are broken and need fixing.
Kicking it off with “a golden start”, she said the aim was to achieve other important goals in order to get the basics of service delivery right.
“For too long, our residents have suffered the indignities of poor roads, power outages, water outages and an ever-degrading quality of life. Some have even lost jobs including many who have been without work for a long, long time.
“Our councillors are daily inundated with calls from residents desperate for assistance with one service or another. This is so because the city has not delivered in the way it ought to,” said Phalatse.
One of the biggest issues the mayor highlighted was electricity, mentioning the ongoing fight between Eskom and the residents of Soweto. She said soon the city would be free from the “curse of the Eskom monopoly”.
Most of the power outages are a result of cable theft. To tackle this, Phalatse said CCTV would be installed at substations within the city.
“When there is guaranteed certainty of energy supply, everybody wins. Frequent power failures are not only detrimental to households, businesses risk collapse, joblessness rises. Moreover, new investment is curbed but if we want economic growth that leads to jobs, then we must guarantee this crucial service,” she said.
Community Development MMC Ronald Harris has committed to intensifying support to communities through a “7amto 11am boots-ontheground” programme. The programme entails the deployment of officials from 7am to 11am every day to public libraries and parks.
“Within the next two months, residents will see more JMPD officers on the city’s streets.
“An additional 500 personnel will be deployed at business nodes. In these areas, an officer will be seen every five minutes. We are determined to ensure that we all feel safe from crime and physical danger of any kind,” said Harris.
Health and Social Development in the city was expected to receive a much-deserved focus. MMC for Development Franco de Lange said in Davidsonville the Community-Based Substance Abuse Programme will be fully operational in the next few months.
He adds that there will also be 39 clinics providing Covid-19 vaccinations across the city and that significant renovations will take place across 11 clinics in the city, expanding services and delivering a much better customer experience.
Phalatse referred to the high unemployment rate and said job-creation would be one of the top targets on which the multiparty government would seek to be judged.
She added that the creation of jobs was not the sole purview of government. In fact, government is the enabler but the private sector, big, small and even the individual entrepreneurs are the creators. In the same breath she highlights that the housing issue in the city needs attention and that through improved services and partnerships the gaps related to student accommodation, homes for the aged and hostel upgrades will be addressed.
“I am confident that we will get it done. My confidence lies in the existence of a plethora of people and organisations that have raised their hands and expressed a desire to work together,” she said.
Phalatse said the St Mary’s Cathedral would be renamed the Heritage Precinct in honour of the late global icon and Nobel Laureate Archbishop Emeritus Desmond Mpilo Tutu.