The City of Ekurhuleni Mayor Tania Campbell delivered the State of the City Address (Soca) on March 30 at the council chambers in Germiston, where she highlighted the city’s recent accomplishments, challenges, and upcoming priorities.
Among the key talking points were economic development, reliable electricity and water supply, maintenance of roads and renewal of infrastructure, reliable public transport, waste collection, housing, law enforcement, financial stability of the City and enhanced service delivery.
Reliable and expanded electricity supply
The mayor said they will implement a reliable and expanded electricity supply.
According to Campbell, this will be achieved by firstly investing 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 the City will be decreasing its dependence on Eskom through the recent appointment of 47 private power producers, which will sell electricity to the City from 2024 onwards.
“The energy department is investigating installing battery energy storage systems in the long term.
“Cable theft, theft of other assets and illegal connections have been identified as the main causes of electricity outages in the City. However, with current security contracts coming to an end in June 2022, we will see it as an opportunity to introduce incentives for arrests and successful prosecution of culprits, and set standards concerning patrols and guard placement.”
Frequent water outages
To counter water outages, the mayor said by June 2023 it is envisioned for the City to have constructed nine additional water towers and reservoirs in addition to the nine projects being finalised by the end of the financial year.
“The government’s target is that, by the end of this political term, none of the City’s drinking water will flow through asbestos cement pipes anymore. Over capacitated outfall sewer lines would also have been replaced in the southern and northern regions of Ekurhuleni.”
She said the City aims to reduce water losses by a quarter.
“The City 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.
“More immediate steps over the next financial year will include the replacement of 8000 water meters and the replacement and upgrading of sewer pipes across the City.”
Poor state of roads
To deal with the poor state of the City’s roads, the mayor said the multi-party government has directed that the City’s finance department increases the maintenance and repair allocation to the Roads and Stormwater Department.
“Eighty kilometres of road will be rehabilitated, and the department will chip away at the 1 200km in gravel roads’ upgrade in the next financial year.
“The Roads and Stormwater Department will, among others, aim for the completion of the Daveyton/N12 interchange by the end of the next financial year.
“The construction of a 13km dual carriageway to replace the current Barry Marais Road that runs from Vosloorus to the N17 at Carnival City is targeted for completion before the 2026 end of the political term.”
Economic development
Campbell said the grand objective is to by the end of the political term in 2026 is to facilitate at least R50-billion of investment into the City of Ekurhuleni.
The mayor said their intention is not to follow through on establishing an Economic Development Agency and a recommendation to Council to rescind such a costly and unnecessary action will follow soon. They also plan to initiate an online investment facilitation system.
“The City’s targets for the next financial year are to create 10 000 work opportunities, R100-million in grant funding, R24-m in rental revenue through municipal trading places and the empowerment of 500 SMMEs and cooperatives.
“The multi-party coalition has also resolved that the City must commence reviews of the Aerotropolis Initiative, the Economic Development Strategy and the Growth and Development Strategy 2055 for any updates that are required.”
Public Transport
She said in the coming financial year, the multi-party coalition government will support Phase 1A of the Harambee Bus Rapid Transport Network, running from Thembisa via Kempton Park to O.R Tambo International Airport.
“To be fully operational, the City will also support the extension of the network in Thembisa and the service from Kempton Park/Rhodesfield to Boksburg (phase 1B).
“The Germiston Bus depot, Germiston Intermodal Facility and the Somhlolo Public Transport Facility will all be refurbished in the coming financial year.”
Environment and waste
The City’s Environment and Waste Department has recently intensified activities to protect the environment – such as rehabilitating infested water bodies, protecting wetlands, dealing with illegal dumping and maintaining public amenities including parks and cemeteries.
“Over the next financial year, these activities will continue, in addition to rolling out 240-litre wheelie bins to backyard tenants, starting in Tembisa, to mitigate illegal dumping,” said Campbell.
“All five of the City’s landfill sites will be operable with gas wells operating at four of them. By the end of the political term in 2026, the City targets to have established a fully completed plastics recycling facility in conjunction with OXFAM SA and other investors.”
Housing
The mayor said the City will increase the number of title deeds it issues per annum from 2000 to 3000 for the next financial year.
“Breaking new ground housing units will be delivered subject to further roll-over approval and gazetting by the Gauteng Department of Human Settlements.
“Provision of serviced sites will continue, as will the provision of essential services to informal settlements across the City. 877 units will be completed across various social housing complexes in the next financial year.
“The 11 mega housing projects currently underway across the City, expected to be completed over the next three to five years, will deliver about 100 000 units.
“To ensure the sustainability of human settlements, their collection rates need to improve significantly to ensure a return to financial stability for the Ekurhuleni Housing Company.”
Safe city for all
On January 31, the City launched Operation Buya Mthetho, a multi-disciplinary initiative that involves officials from the EMPD, SA Revenue Services, Home Affairs and other law-enforcement agencies to address issues related to hijacked buildings, illegal dumping, illegal water and electricity connections and illegal drug trading, along with other crimes plaguing the city centres.
In the next financial year, the EMPD will deploy an additional 480 EMPD officers to supplement the current force capacity, thereby improving police visibility – an effective deterrent to crime and improved road safety and by–law compliance.
This number is expected to increase in future, as it was in March resolved all departments should prepare and submit reports on critical skills and human resources requirements not catered for in the 2022/23 draft budget.
Edleen and Benoni precinct stations will be opened in the coming financial year.
Communication
The mayor said certain government departments need to create mechanisms to ensure meaningful and aligned omnichannel service delivery communications relating to service delivery issues both in and outside of emergency and failure events.
“Such coordinated communication must be driven strategically from the City manager’s office.
A cross-departmental strategy and action plan will be made a priority in the term of the next city manager, for which applications closed on March 29.”
Healthy city
Campbell said the appointment process for the Local Drug Action Committees (LDAC) has been completed and the LDAC will be launched by the end of April, this year.
“This is part of a bigger behavioural change programme targeted at the youth that also pays attention to issues such as life skills, career choices, gender-based violence, HIV, and teenage pregnancies.”
Debt rehabilitation programme
The City has drafted a debt rehabilitation programme, which it plans to send to the council for approval.
“The City expects the debt relief will be available to qualifying applicants from July 1, 2022, to December 31, 2022.
“Furthermore, a 2% discount will be offered to all ratepayers who pay their accounts and keep them up to date for 12 consecutive months from July 2022 onwards,” said the mayor.
Non-paying customers
The City said the practice of sustained non-current debt not being paid up necessitates tighter control through service disconnections for any debt over 45 days.
The City is also aware that some industrial clients bypass electricity metering resulting in significant losses in the City.
The City will enact stricter controls and measures for any consumers found to have bypassed or tampered with metering equipment.
Prevention and rehabilitation of sinkholes
With 52% of the City comprising dolomitic land and with many of our settlements being built on that land, the City is making the prevention and rehabilitation of sinkholes a term priority.
“The repairs of leaking and ageing infrastructure in these dolomitic areas will be prioritised,” said Campbell.
“City Planning is hard at work to protect and improve the City’s building environment, starting with a review of the municipal and regional spatial development frameworks, to help determine where we work, sleep and play, and to protect residential areas from the invasion of harmful industrial practices and protecting local parks and open spaces from being developed indiscriminately.”
The City will be working closely with its corporate legal teams to prosecute criminally and fine those who contravene the City’s town planning by-laws.
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