Executive mayor Mzwandile Masina confirmed that there are four cases of the coronavirus in the Ekurhuleni metro at the State of the City Address in Germiston on March 18.
The pandemic is currently spreading in some parts of the world, and South Africa is not exempted.
During the address, all precautionary measures were taken to ensure the safety of all that was permitted to attend.
All councillors and members of the media were divided into all three chambers with no more than 100 people in the room.
Hand sanitising stations were at every entrance, masks were provided and representatives from the health department, including paramedics and disaster and emergency services, were present.
Masina said health authorities are dealing with the matter.
“At this point, I wish to appeal to the community to work with us as we manage the pandemic.”
He added that as a metro, they remain vigilant in monitoring the situation, and they are ready to work together with the national and provincial government to combat the spread of this dreaded virus.
“As we do this, we re-iterate our call for people not to panic and follow the guidelines issued by the government with regard to the high standards of hygiene.
“In the meantime, we have set up a Joint Operation Centre and will soon be announcing measures that we will be undertaking in support of the announcement by the national government,” he said.
The theme of this year’s address is 20 Years of a Responsive and Modern Public Service Partner That Fosters Change Towards Building a Better Ekurhuleni.
Masina explained that it is a theme that reflects the coming-of-age of this metro, celebrating its responsiveness to service delivery issues and its significant role in fostering transformative and radical change in the building of a better metro.
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The month of April marks the 27th anniversary of Chris Hani’s brutal assassination and Masina announced that the Dawn Park home of Chris Hani has now been declared a heritage site, and the family museum depicting the life and times of this stalwart will be opened on April 10.
“The opening of the museum will present new tourism and economic opportunities for those living in the neighborhood, and as a metro, we invite them to sponsor ideas on how we can make the facility an even bigger success.”
A year from now, Masina will be delivering his last address to the council to account for the totality of the five-year term that he has been afforded.
“Our people mandated us to provide them with decent housing, proper access roads and quality services; they asked us to tackle corruption and expand health care services among others.
“The people further appealed to us to among others ensure that we make informal settlements more liveable so that we restore human dignity,” said Masina.
He said that they have heard the mandate and came up with a “Pro Poor” programme aimed at fast-tracking and sustaining service delivery.
“As an action plan to achieve this outcome during this term of office, we put in place a manifesto that is informed by the will of the people.
“As previously alluded, at the heart of this clear pro-poor programme has always been the landmark Siyaqhuba Mayoral Outreach Programme.
“This programme has made a tremendous impact in fast-tracking service delivery within our communities while ensuring an improved turnaround time to public complaints,” he said.
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Masina divided his address under the following subheadings:
Governance cluster:
The metro managed to record a 94.31 percent Capex spending against the planned 95 percent target.
As of the second quarter that ended on December 31, 2019, the total current assets amounted to R13.5-billion, whilst the total current liabilities amounted to R8.4-b.
The metro achieved an unqualified audit with a clean audit of financial statements.
Irregular expenditure has decreased from R215-m in the previous financial year to R5-m in the 2018/19 financial year;
The metro’s human resources systems have been recognised by the South African Board for Personnel Practice (SABPP) which recently awarded the metro with the Overall Winner of Public Sector for HR Standards in 2019.
As the metro migrates to become a Smart Metro, its efforts to roll out the Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP), which will integrate all systems while ensuring quality management of information, is entering its final stages.
The service delivery app has made reporting and turnaround time to service delivery interruptions much easier.
The facility has 133 000 users and the target is to have at least double this figure within the next six months.
The metro is also looking forward to the introduction of the 24-hour news portal, which is linked to the Siyakhokha app.
The portal will ensure that people get updated information in real-time.
Infrastructure cluster:
Since the beginning of Masina’s term of office, he stated that their key priority is ensuring that every citizen’s life in the metro is of value, and that all people live in dignity.
About 34 of the 119 informal settlements have been re-blocked and electrified, resulting in almost 50 000 people enjoying electricity for the first time.
This includes an additional 6 546 electrified informal settlement households under the Eskom licensed areas.
A number of informal settlements were added to the electrification programme and by June this year, a total of 22 000 homes will be connected – bringing the total number of households connected to the grid since the year 2000 to 93 000.
In the new financial year, the metro will finalise the implementation of the metro’s programme to purchase electricity from the appointed power producers.
The total of 46 companies has already been awarded a tender to generate additional energy for the City.
The Aqua-Leap Programme, which aims to address the security of water supply, is on track.
The metro is the first in the country to have embarked on a programme to construct 29 reservoirs and towers simultaneously, which will cost R1.2-b.
One of these will be the biggest in the continent and among the biggest in the world, which will be commissioned by the end of June 2020.
This infrastructure will add an additional 417 megalitres of storage to the existing 954 mega litres.
Roads and Stormwater invested R6-b on the road infrastructure upgrade programme.
A further R5-b was invested in asset management to keep the 8 500km road network in a good and driveable condition.
Among the major projects underway in the roads infrastructure are:
• 30 km of non-motorised transport completed;
• 27km of newly constructed roads across the City; and
• 309km of the existing road network was rehabilitated.
• Furthermore, a total of 121km was paved as part of the Pavement Management System, making the movement of our people easy.
• The upgrading of the N12/Daveyton CBD Interchange is expected to start soon, following the resolution of outstanding matters with the South African National Road Agency Limited.
To enable more developments to take place in places that were restrictive, the metro has unlocked 4 900 hectares of land, which was deemed dolomitic.
Contractors have been employed to assist with rehabilitation processes, and the accelerated plan to address high-risk sinkholes will yield results in the previously disadvantaged areas.
Social cluster:
The metro has recently introduced 11 Pele boxes and 115 chronic medication pick-up points at different clinics, Daveyton main clinic was named as one.
For the first time in history, the metro will host a memorial lecture in July in honour of Dr Godfrey Pitje, a former acting ANC youth league president and academic who hails from Daveyton, and his grave has been nominated as a heritage site.
The metro will invest millions into the upgrading of various stadiums, including Sinaba based in Daveyton.
All these stadiums will be renamed and members of the public are invited to assist in this regard.
Ekurhuleni Metropolitan Police Department (EMPD)
There are currently 500 recruits in training for the EMPD and the metro is in the process of recruiting 100 more.
This will bring the total of officers in the metro to 3 500 and counting.
Economy:
Over the past four years R400-m was allocated to bursaries benefiting a total of 8 189 learners.
University:
The OR Tambo University of Science and Technology in Ekurhuleni was pronounced by President Cyril Ramaphosa at the State of the Nation Address which was held on February 13.
About 43-hectare piece of land has been secured through donations to locate the university from a private developer around the Germiston and Boksburg area.
It has been 20 years since the birth of the metro and here are some of the key highlights of the past 20 years.
Among these:
• The former Johannesburg International Airport was renamed O.R. Tambo International Airport;
• Established a single city identity;
• Conferred the Freedom of the City to O.R. and Adelaide Tambo; and Chris Hani;
• Establishment of the EMPD and training academy;
• Introduced the Integrated Public Transport Network system;
• Unified the town planning scheme;
• 20 customer care centres rolled out and actioned throughout the metro;
• The migration from the provision of houses to the establishment of human settlements;
• Increased the bursary package from R10-m to R100-m;
• Consolidated the Labour Relations Policy;
• Chris Hani house purchased with the intent to convert it to a museum;
• Sam Ntuli, Chris Hani and Oliver Tambo’s graves declared national heritage sites, among others;
• Introduced the anti-fraud hotline; and
• Introduced My Ekurhuleni service delivery app.
Masina concluded his address and said they were left with just under 14 months before the end of their term.
“This is hardly enough time, but it is the time that we have to concretise the plans that we have for this metro – plans at whose heart is the commitment to build a local economy that grows in the hands of the people and to develop our communities economically, socially as well as culturally.
“I cannot over emphasise the importance of all of us employing a great degree of urgency in the work that we are doing.”
