Ekurhuleni mayor says back to basic approach will improve service delivery

Electricity supply and frequent water outages addressed at the City of Ekurhuleni's Mayor Tania Campbell's inaugural State of the City Address (SOCA).

April 5, 2022

Busi Vilakazi 2 minutes read

Mayor Tania Campbell delivering her State of the City Address.

A back to basics approach to providing better services was the focus of the City of Ekurhuleni’s Mayor Tania Campbell’s inaugural State of the City Address (SOCA) on March 30.

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Campbell focused on three aspects in her address; stabilising the city’s energy grid and decreasing dependence on Eskom, reprioritising the city’s budget towards service delivery and infrastructure renewal and maintaining the city’s roads to promote growth in the local economy.

She gave the undertaking that by the end of her political term in 2026 the city will boast a reliable and expanded electricity supply.

“The city plans to invest in the replacement and expansion of backbone infrastructure at a rate of at least 10km of cables per year for the next four years.

“It will start with a 40% increase in capital expenditure allocation in the next financial year, with increases at an average of 12% over the outer years. Circuits and equipment will also be refurbished,” said Campbell.

She said CoE will decrease its dependence on Eskom through the recent appointment of 47 private power producers, which will now be built and sell electricity to the city from 2024 onwards.

“The city also plans to address the all-too-frequent water outages caused by drops in pressure in supply from Rand Water due to Eskom outages. By June 2023 the city plans to have constructed nine additional water towers and reservoirs, in addition to the nine projects being finalised by the end of the current financial year,” said Campbell.

Mayor Tania Campbell check officers during the parade.

She said they are targeting to achieve the following by the end of the term:
• Drinking water will no longer flow through asbestos cement pipes.
• Major over capacitated outfall sewer lines will be replaced in the Southern and Northern regions of Ekurhuleni.
• Water losses to be reduced by a quarter.

“More immediate steps over the next financial year will include the replacement of 8 000 water meters and the replacement and upgrading of sewer pipes across the city.

“We will also be tightening consequence management for the illegal water connection and unauthorised consumption and damage to services, in terms of which inspection fees and stiff fines will be levied,” said Campbell.

The mayor said the leading party has directed that the department of finance increase the maintenance and repair allocation to the roads and stormwater department.

“This will be done by reallocating savings from the salary bill considering the latest national treasury determinations. We encourage citizens to continue to report potholes via the My CoE app and other service delivery complaint routes.

“A total of 80km of road will be rehabilitated, and the department will start to chip away at the 1 200km in gravel road upgrade in the next financial year,” said the mayor.

Campbell said the city’s objective is to have facilitated at least R50-billion of investment into the city by the end of the political term in 2026.

“Our targets for the next financial year are to create 10 000 work opportunities, R100-m in grant funding, R24-m in rental revenue through municipal trading places, and the empowerment of 500 SMMEs and cooperatives,” said Campbell.