Ekurhuleni executive mayor, Clr Mondli Gungubele, outlined bold steps to grow the economy of the city and create jobs recently.
Addressing the Ekurhuleni Metropolitan Municipal Council at Faranani Multipurpose Centre in Tsakane and guests at the overflow area at the adjacent stadium on Wednesday morning, Gungubele outlined the three corridors of development to drive the economy of the city in areas such as logistics, manufacturing, education, trade, construction and hospitality.
“The approach of building a new city and an identity means that a significant proportion of this administration’s time was vested in the development of spatial development frameworks. This new city design has led to the conceptualisation of an effective way to reconfigure our urban spaces, and economic centres, along three key functional economic corridors,” Gungubele said.
The Thami Mnyele corridor concentrates development in a straight line from Tembisa to Vosloorus, including all surrounding areas along the corridor. The main driver for economic development in this corridor is high-level roads and transport infrastructure.
OR Tambo Aerotropolis core focuses development along the triangle formed by Kempton Park, Boksburg and Germiston, including Edenvale and Benoni. This corridor leverages on creative, gateway trade, technology research and development, and logistics sectors.
The Thelle Mogoerane corridor runs from Vosloorus to Nigel, including developments such as the Carnival Junction and OR Tambo inland port aimed at unlocking the logistic potential of the city.
The developments in this area will have mixed land uses that include industry as well as human settlements located nearby. The city is taking a new approach to densify the provision of houses through building high-rise residential units, including flats for both RDP, rental or buying through bank loans.
“This new approach will lead to a quantum leap in housing development in Ekurhuleni, enabling us to efficiently accommodate more people and provide more liveable human settlements with a full basket of services and social amenities such as schools, clinics and public transport,” Gungubele said.
The mayor also touched on the service delivery programme for the past five years, which saw all townships now having their own fire station; the roll-out of free Wi-Fi to 900 hot spots; introduction of e-Health in 40 clinics to shorten waiting time and remove the need to open files if your details are on the system; as well as investing over R2.7-billion in roads and storm-water infrastructure.
* Media release issued by Zweli Dlamini, mayoral spokesperson.
