Ekurhuleni mayor Mondli Gungubele said the city plans to combat unemployment within the region by partnering with business, organised labour, civil society and different spheres of government.
“These strategic partnerships are meant to incentivies these social partnerships to adopt an all “hands on deck approach to job creation.
“This, we believe, can be effectively achieved by creating a favourable business climate to promote and attract job creating investments.
The partnerships also aim to provide opportunities to communities, by providing employment and giving people the opportunity to learn skills which will help in the development of their communities.
Ekurhuleni has a population of 3.2 million and 65 per cent of the population are below the age of 34 years – this has made the focus on youth development a crucial component of the development plan for the city.
“It gives me great pleasure to announce that with effect from July 1, the Ekurhuleni community empowerment package shall come into effect,” said Gungubele.
An amount of R2.6-billion of the procurement value will be dedicated to pre-qualified businesses owned by youths, women, people with disabilities, black industrialists and community job creation initiatives.
The R2.9-b budget will be divided as follows:
- R1-b for youth-owned enterprises, targeting at least 1 190 businesses.
- R589-million for the community works programme.
- R500-m for learner contractors under the Vukuphile Programme, targeting 40 businesses.
- R500-m for black industrialists, targeting 50 businesses.
- R101-m for the Lungile Mtshali Community Development Programme, targeting community businesses in 101 wards.
- R100-m for community social entrepreneurship, through grants-in-aid, targeting at least 500 businesses.
- R115-m for job fund leveraging projects and programme implementation.
Finding solutions for energy
With load shedding having become a common part of people’s lives, Gungubele touched on the importance of communities helping to find find alternative ways of generating power.
“Indeed, we have a responsibility to use power sparingly and help to stabilise the grid and contain load shedding,” he said.
“The present power situation is not good for the economy of the country, especially for a city like ours, which thrives on manufacturing.”
He added that the city has commissioned the Biomas Power Plant at the Simmer and Jack Landfill Site, to generate electrical energy using landfill gas.
“One mega-watt of power can be generated from the landfill site and transmitted to the Wychwood Substation in Germiston, thus relieving pressure on the national grid,” he said.
A 200kVA Leeuwpan Dam solar plant has been completed at the O R Tambo Cultural Precinct in Wattville. This is the first plant fully owned by local government in the country.
“These are but some of our efforts to date, but we will soon be investing more resources, especially in the areas of solar power and landfill gas.
The Siyakhokha Siyathuthuka and e-Siyakhokha online payment system currently has 121 077 registered users, with 170 136 registered accounts providing the metro with R33-m in payment of services a month.
As part of e-Siyakhokha, the metro will be rolling out 29 self-service machines to make easier for people to pay their for services or purchase prepaid units.
A smart grid for electricity and water will also be implemented, in order to improve communication between the city and its citizens, and to curb electricity theft.
“This will increase the number of users who are on an automatic smart metering system, assist with electricity demand management on a larger scale and help ratepayers in managing their consumption, as the information will be in real time,” said Gungubele.
n R3.8-billion Capital Budget
Gungubele admitted the city has previously experienced low spending on the capital budget, but insisted the metro is targeting a 95 per cent expenditure of its Capex budget of R3.8-b for the 2014/15 financial year.
“As stated in the last State of the Nation address, problems cited with spending include poor planning, ineffective project management, lack of technical capacity and inefficient supply chain management,” he said.
The mayor gave the following plans to ensure the budget is spent:
- Beef up project implementation as well as technical capacity challenges.
- Institutional capacitation focusing on project management.
- Track project status.
The capital budget has increased by two-fold in the past four years.
The city will be investing R12-b over the medium term revenue and expenditure note period, which is formed by the capital investment framework (CIF), while R3.6-b will be allocated for urban restructuring, R4.8-b for upgrading and renewal and R3.6-b for economic development.
“We will be intensifying investments to reduce backlogs and address additional infrastructure requirements for new investments,” said Gungubele.
