Following years of neglect, local businesses in partnership with the ward councillor have embarked on a project, dubbed City Improvement Initiative, to restore the Boksburg CBD to its former glory.
As part of the mission to get more people on board, the committee invites all property owners, business people, community leaders and other interested parties to attend a meeting to be held on September 28, at the Boksburg Council Chambers at 10:00.
According to one of the committee members, Marius de Vos, the objective of the meeting is to exchange ideas on how to breathe new life into the decaying CBD and greater business district of Boksburg.
Giving a brief overview of what the job involves, businessman Derek Fox said the initiative, driven by business and supported by council, intends to encourage all the relevant stakeholders to take responsibility and unite behind a common mission, to better the state of Boksburg CBD.
He said the programme of action includes restoring law and order to ensure safe economic activities, encouraging property owners and businesses to refurbish their properties and working with authorities to prevent property hijacking, vandalism of both private and public properties, dumping illegally and reporting illegal activities.
“Fellow residents of Boksburg, our CBD lies in ruins and it is time for us to take charge of the situation. The CBD can be restored with each of us doing our part. We each have a role to play in restoring and preventing further decay of our town.
“I’m calling on property owners to join us in this journey to upgrade our CBD and show the rest of the country what can be done when business people and council work together,” said Fox.
Fox pointed out that there are a couple of property owners who have come on board and have already started to renovate their properties in Market, Leeuwpoort and Commissioner streets.
De Vos said: “What I have done in my capacity as a councillor is that I recently raised the issue in our oversight committee meeting. We will involve the Economic Development and City Planning departments.
“We also want to partner with the SAPS, EMPD and other law enforcement agencies to tackle the spate of crime including overnight break-ins, robberies and other illegal activities.
“We also believe that installation of linked CCTV cameras around the CBD can enable better detection and response to crime in the area.”
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