Madam Speaker – Clr Patricia Kumalo;
Chief Whip of Council – Clr Jongizizwe Dlabathi;
Madame Chair of Chairs;
Chairperson of the Oversight Committees;
Members of the Mayoral Committee;
Leaders of political parties;
Honourable councillors;
City Manager – Dr Imogen Mashazi;
Leaders of business and captains of industry;
Leaders of the labour movement and organs of civil society;
Members of the media;
Last but not least, residents of Ekurhuleni;
Madame Speaker, esteemed councillors and guests, I deliver this address heavy hearted about the passing of a revered stalwart of the Revolution, Comrade Ahmed Kathrada. This happens as the nation still comes to terms with the tragic death of another icon of the arts, Bab’ Joe Mafela, fondly known in our early years as Bra Sdumo. Baba Ahmed Kathrada, fondly known to us all as Uncle Kathy, passed away in the early hours of yesterday morning.
We say to you, may you be received by fellow great giants of our revolution such as OR Tambo, Walter Sisulu and Nelson Mandela and continue to watch over us.
I humbly ask the council to observe a moment of silence for both legends of our time
Nilale ngoxolo Maqhawe!
Madame Speaker, I thank you and the council for granting me, on behalf of the Executive, the opportunity to stand here today to give an account of our plans to improve the conditions of our City and the state of its people. Today marks an important milestone in the life of the fourth administration.
It is the first State of the City Address that we table before you and the people of Ekurhuleni. Our work builds on the solid foundations for progress that have been laid by the successive leadership collective before us and indeed the committed work of the government officials of our City.
The administration has undertaken the bestowed responsibility of leading the City with a humble appreciation of the great work that lies before us. We join the growing list of citizens of Ekurhuleni who have been afforded the democratic mandate to do all that is within their capabilities to transform the lives of our people. The democratic task of leading transformation is borne of the will of the people and by implication imposes on us the need to always uphold the principle of a people-centred local government.
Madame Speaker, the democratic project that South Africa began in earnest 23 years ago, requires that we who serve as elected public officials, constantly remember that we serve at the behest of the people. This lesson of a people-centred consciousness amongst leaders has guided many men and women who served as leaders of the South African people at different points of the struggle for democracy.
Madame Speaker, our efforts to build a capable City with the capacity to transform and improve the lives of the people of Ekurhuleni, happens in a national and international environment that is constantly changing and requires simultaneous evolution from us. Our existence in this small corner of the world, as a region, is intimately tied to the fate of the people of this country, the continent and the global village broadly.
It is for this reason that we must always relate, empathise with and draw lessons from the experiences of other places and people of the global environment. I say this in part because of the important fact of the centenary birthday anniversary of the esteemed leader of our people and internationalist, President Oliver Tambo.
President Oliver Tambo successfully connected the plight of oppressed black South Africans with all struggles for liberation and freedom in other parts of the world. He plugged the moral victories of other struggling peoples of the world into the heart of the determined struggle for freedom by the ordinary people of our country.
Councillors, as we observe 100 years since the birth of OR Tambo, the global political environment is experiencing major shifts. Democratic politics in the world over, are confronted with serious questions of how to manage the tensions of economic difficulty and the need to sustain politics that uphold humanity. We have seen the rise of various shades of populist politics that uses the currently strained global economic climate to advance hatred and discrimination. The global international system of economic trade, political cooperation, peace and stability is increasingly challenged by the rise of different economic nationalisms in the United States and Europe. Whether these developments will lead to a break in the global political order as we know it, and the birth of something new, is yet to be seen.
One important thing that we must observe is the position of Africa and Africa’s economic development, peace and security in the wake of these shifts in global politics. As cities, countries and regional blocks in Africa we have to constantly observe dynamics in international trade and political leadership from the position of seeking to improve the collective condition of Africans and other suffering peoples of the world.
As the global environment changes, African economic and political solidarity that is built on effective democratic institutions, a culture of human rights, improved intra-Africa trade, economic integration and joint infrastructure programmes, will become an important pillar for development.
It is in this context Madame Speaker, that the success of the African Union in handling the political situation in The Gambia cannot be overstated. In successfully resolving a political crisis that almost descended to civil war, the African Union and other intervening African countries in West Africa, demonstrated the forward march of Africa away from a past culture of violent transitions and the rule of tyrants against the will of the people. All this within a framework of constitutionalism. The situation in Lesotho demonstrates the need for political leadership to learn the art of political compromise in order to effectively lead society. As Ekurhuleni, we are learning this art which effectively embraces the values of our constitutional democracy. Our priority should at all times remain the people we serve.
As I said Madame Speaker, this year will offer us the opportunity to reflect on the legacy of President OR Tambo and practically engage with the values that he espoused in his life. This is particularly relevant to us since the City of Ekurhuleni long adopted OR Tambo as a figure that inspires its ethical values and humanitarian approach to development and service delivery.
We therefore have an obligation to play a central role in the broad government campaign to immortalise the legacy of this eminent leader of the South African people. This implies the need for the City of Ekurhuleni to creatively centre the legacy, values and vision of OR Tambo in the lifeblood of our work in line with the centenary commemoration.
More importantly, the best tribute to OR Tambo and a sustainable means to immortalise his legacy, is best asserted through entrenching his values in the government work that we do. Our approach to political leadership, conflict resolution, sensitivity to community problems and strategic governance choices must exemplify the kind of political personality that OR Tambo represented.
It is in that spirit of learning from Oliver Tambo that we successfully established an administration in this council through cooperative leadership. In those actions we expressed that the entire political process of democratic governance must be approached with visionary and responsible leadership with the ability to build alliances and a working consensus.
Esteemed Councillors, I must once again thank our partners from the Patriotic Alliance, the AIC, the IRASA and the PAC for working with us in that regard. All of us must sustain the art of mature political engagement as a fundamental principle to sustainable pact-making, in the interests of progressive governance.
Madame Speaker, I want to say that we have to further draw from President Tambo’s values of selflessness, respect, caring, giving, unifying, empowering and visionary leadership among others. These values must translate to a practical attack on poverty, inequality and an effective delivery of services.
In his own words, President Oliver Tambo warned that the biggest threat to a future democratic project will be complacency and failure to deliver. Speaking in 1977, he said, “Comrades, you may think it is very difficult to wage a liberation struggle. Wait until you are in power… people will be expecting a lot of services from you. You will have to satisfy the various demands of the masses of our people.”
Our motto is thus “Delivery, delivery and delivery” as expressed in our Siyaqhuba call to action. Since the commencement of the administration, the City has not rested. The Siyaqhuba programme, involves the transformation of the relationship between government authorities and the struggling members of our communities. We want to build a transformed democratic institution that primarily fosters hope and extends opportunities to the poorest of the poor.
The theme around today’s address is entrenched in our duty to place our people first. The Siyaqhuba service delivery programme since from inception, has become a mechanism to understand the realities of the plight of our people. This isn’t just in the context of service delivery issues, but also to understand the hidden world which is infiltrating cosmopolitan development. Our interaction with girls as young as 12, entrapped in brothels well hidden in dilapidated buildings, demonstrated how deep the cracks of inequality have become. We witnessed the usage of businesses to conceal the perverse underground illegal world which continues to drown our youth and target the most vulnerable. It’s through the Siyaqhuba programme where Officials together with Political Heads can understand that it’s the smallest changes, which can impact in the biggest and most fulfilling manner to the ordinary man on the street.
“The fight for freedom must go on until it is won; until our country is free and happy and peaceful as part of the community of man, we cannot rest”-Oliver Tambo.
We are building a social contract based on humane values between the city and citizens in which the aspirations of our people, regardless of their current circumstances of poverty, can at least be given a fair opportunity for progress. To successfully create a liveable, delivering City as envisaged in our long term strategy (GDS 2055), The city is required that we put great effort in our systems of delivery. This means that we have to build a working social compact with all sections of the city in line with their needs and commitments to the city as a provider of services and leadership.
It is the Nthabelengs, the Thembas, the Gogo uMaNhlapho and the Ntate Mokoenas who are at the heart of hardship and neediness. Therefore, our policy interventions and service delivery plans must be informed by this understanding.
At this point, honourable councillors, I want us to imagine a scenario of two low-income citizens of Ekurhuleni, a Nthabeleng and a Themba, a young couple that live in one of the 119 informal settlements.
Madame Speaker, I believe we all agree that in the City of Ekurhuleni we must always strive to uphold the truth and honesty about the nature of our problems. Like everywhere else in our country, the face of poverty and underdevelopment in our City remains black, township, informal settlement and mostly female.
Let us imagine that Nthabeleng is pregnant with their first child and will immediately need pre-natal care, professional and safe assistance during childbirth and ante-natal care. This means that she must have access to a healthcare facility nearby without having to endure a long queue. The City through the Health Department, has managed to establish 21 chronic medicine pick-up points. This intervention has immensely assisted people like Mama Nhlapho, who suffers from a chronic diabetic illness can now easily access her medication, without worrying about spending money on the journey to the clinic, as she normally does. We are going to build 12 more clinics with modern facilities to serve all the needs of our people. We already have 94 clinics and 12 mobile clinics. We want to ensure that all our people have easy access to medical care and that our children grow up in a healthy environment.
Our aim is to also improve access to healthcare for pregnant people in order to also decrease mother-to-child transmission in the case of HIV positive mothers. Already the city, working with communities, provincial and national government, has managed to decrease this number from 3.5% to 1.4 % over the last 5 years.
Madame Speaker, our government is committed to providing comprehensive social assistance to our young couple Nthabeleng and Themba as they take care of their newborn child. As we all know, the National Department of Social Development will offer Nthabeleng and Themba R 380 in child support grant to help with their newborn baby. On our part as the City, we have an Indigent Policy. This policy is dedicated to helping people and households with income of less than R3000 a month.
As part of that indigent policy programme, in the event that Nthabeleng and Themba earn below the R 3 000 threshold, the city offers them free water, sanitation and refuse collection services. This indigent policy assists in keeping their costs of living low whilst seeking to improve their economic means.
Nthabeleng’s ageing mom, Gogo MaNhlapho lives in a council house in Katlehong that she took title to 15 years ago. She supports two of her unemployed sons and a niece who is struggling to get through college. There are also five children in the little house and she simply can’t afford water and electricity. Fortunately, our indigent policy programme assists families facing such difficulties. Madam Speaker, fellow councilors, this scenario is a vivid demonstration of reality and the scourge of socio-economic disparities in our communities. As at December 31, 2016, we had 63 014 residents of Ekurhuleni deemed to be indigent. All of these residents receive free basic services in the form of water, electricity, sanitation services and refuse collection as well as qualification for housing subsidies.
Madame Speaker, our Indigent policy is a short-term intervention that enables access to free services whilst we integrate our people into sustainable means of improving their economic conditions. By this it means Nthabeleng and Themba will get assistance until such time that their material conditions change and they are able to afford paying for these services.
It is in this manner that between 2015 and 2016, we had 15 789 people making it out of the Indigent category. It is proof that this policy, together with other job creation initiatives, are working together to improve the lives of our people.
As I had indicated earlier, we are pursuing these policy interventions and service delivery initiatives guided by our commitment to uplifting the poor. We work to give a sense of hope, dignity and a chance at a better life for all our people.
At this point Madame Speaker, I am reminded that the patron of our City, the towering President of the ANC Oliver Reginald Tambo, left us with many important lessons. Among those lessons, he taught us that “a nation that does not take care of its youth does not deserve its future.”
Indeed Madame Speaker we have a duty as a nation to satisfy the educational, social, cultural and economic needs of our young people. At this point let us first focus at their cultural, artistic and sports related needs.
We must therefore think of a progressive way by which we provide the base for a socially, educationally, culturally and artistically vibrant life to the child of Nthabeleng and Themba. I will at this point name the child, Nkateko. In this financial year, we will carry out classes and exhibitions in all the auditoriums of our libraries across the City of Ekurhuleni. This will help us cultivate a sense of artistic activism in all our learning centres.
Art in its various forms, from music to photography, serves both the spiritual and economic needs of communities. We want to grow this sector to offer a wide spectrum for Nkateko and the younger generation. We will make sure that Nthabaleng and Themba find it very easy to share our proud heritage with Nkateko as he grows up. Nkateko must also not be deprived of the history and heritage of those who came before him. In this light I wish to honour Mama Thandi Klaasen. A true contributor to the arts in not only South Africa but the world. Not only was Mama Klassen a world renowned musician she also played a role in advancing the freedom of this country during the apartheid era. Fiercely active in her community, Eden Park, she engaged the youth and assisted them to develop their talent in music, leaving a remarkable legacy for aspiring Jazz artists in Ekurhuleni. It therefore becomes an institutional obligation of the City to ensure that Nkateko learns from revered greats in the industry he chooses.
As noted earlier Madame Speaker, this year marks the centenary year since the birth of our esteemed revolutionary leader, Oliver Reginald Tambo. In his life he was a choir master, a poet, a songwriter, a maths and science genius, a teacher and a lawyer. Therefore, Madame Speaker, I dare say that President Tambo is the ultimate role model around whom we can try to shape the lives of Nkateko and others. During this year, we will celebrate the life and times of President Oliver Tambo through theatre productions, arts, writing and music competitions. Over the next five years, we will sustain these arts programmes and theatre production; deliver arts and production workshops to emphasise tolerance, social cohesion and collective citizenship in community development.
We are going to be rolling out a number of OR Tambo commemorative programmes and events planned to celebrate the centenary. All of which are based on the attributes of OR Tambo and it remains our mission as a City to preserve his legacy so that more of our people can have a clear record of our history. The Memorial Lecture is one of the main oral history events organised in consultation and in conjunction with the Oliver and Adelaide Tambo Foundation.
We will construct and install a 9M BRONZE STATUE as a fitting tribute and recognition of this great struggle icon at the O.R Tambo International Airport in October 2017.
We will develop an OR Tambo Narrative Centre precinct which will include the establishment of the OR Tambo library/Knowledge Centre. This will create opportunities and spaces for our youth to talk, debate, listen, explore and to learn from the wise heroes throughout the history of South Africa.
We will also use the OR Tambo Narrative Centre to connect Ekurhuleni with other cities of the world like Reggio Emilia in Italy that provided political support to the people of South Africa during the days of apartheid. Therefore, the narrative centre will give us access to an array of documents not previously available in South Africa and housed in the Soncini Archive in the Panizzi Library dealing with OR Tambo and the Liberation Struggle in Southern Africa. In light of the efforts initiated by the City to protect, preserve and promote the legacy of our revered giants, the City of Ekurhuleni has acquired the house of the Late Chris Hani and plans to develop it into a fully-fledged museum, where his memorabilia will be exhibited. We are also proud to announce that on March 24, the South African Heritage and Resources agency has declared the grave of Comrade Chris Hani a memorial site together with the Walk of remembrance.
Ekurhuleni has a rich legacy of leaders, heroes and heroines who deserve recognition in addition to these two iconic leaders of our struggle for freedom. We will identify and celebrate a suite of Ekurhuleni ambassadors in sport, culture, science, technology, fashion that can identify with our key attractions, investments and provide role models for our young people and aspiring achievers.
In order to reclaim our heritage and build a sense of the City that is congruent with our freedom we will be engaging with national and provincial road authorities and the public at large for the re-naming of key interchanges on the N3, the N12, the N17, R21 and R24 freeways after those heroes and heroines of our struggle that are closely associated with the surrounding areas.
We shall also confer Freedom of the City to those members of the Community who have provided leadership, have guided us and sacrificed for the community. The City has established a Conferment Advisory Committee which will work with the community to get input on who should be recognised in this prestigious manner.
As Nkateko grows up he does sport and trains to eventually become a top hurdler on the athletic track.
We are determined to increase capital investment in sporting infrastructure. We will promote and finance sporting tournaments in various sporting codes. We want to produce great talent in all fields of the arts through school and community programmes. We will spend R91-million in the three-year medium term period in the construction of community social amenities like a new swimming pool in Duduza, a Library in Etwatwa and the Germiston Theatre.
Madame Speaker, we are working hard to roll out parks for recreational activities in our communities. We have completed Environmental Impact Assessments as well as Park Designs for Nyoni Park in Vosloorus and Welgedacht Park in Springs.
In the context of sports, we have invested in local games and tournaments, which assist in addressing social-ills and also harnessing talent of young people within the sporting fraternity.
December is one month which sees the abuse of alcohol and substances due to an increase in demand for recreation and schools closing. It is therefore within this backdrop that the City has increased its sponsorship and strategic partnership in local communities to formalize and increase participation in soccer tournaments held in December. The December tournaments have become an integral part of the sporting calendar in the City. Over the years the City has given support to these tournaments. These tournaments attract in excess of 100 000, with Phyllis games in Tembisa.
In 2016 the support increased and tournaments were professionally organised and ascribed to the requirements of the Safety at Sport and Recreation Act (SASREA) of 2010 which governs all events organised within the sport and recreation space. To this end, we supplied medical services, security and public liability insurance to all these tournaments to the tune of R870 000, 00. We are proud to announce that during this coming Easter weekend from April 14 to 16, the City is hosting the Mayoral Kings of Diski Challenge at Sinaba stadium in Daveyton.
Esteemed councillors, we are committed to working with all stakeholders in promoting social development and strengthening communities. That is why we have increased our allocation for Grants in Aid to NGOs doing work in our communities from R20-m to R100-m per annum.
We have also maintained affordability of access to cemeteries by our communities for burial rites. We are not going to increase the levies that are paid in cemeteries. The tariffs will not increase at all.
We are also proud and grateful to the churches in our communities for the work they do in strengthening households and supporting them in times of emotional and social distress. In recognition of the important role that they continue to perform, we have 89 pieces of land that we are going to give away to the church community.
Fellow residents, as we build new settlements and improve the standards of existing ones; it is important to remind each other of one more thing. The health, cohesion and progress of our communities all require a safe and secure environment. When we offer services, housing and healthcare to Nthabeleng, Themba and their young child; we must also improve their safety in communities. We must strengthen community policing, community cooperation and responsible citizenship. Walking home in the evenings from the taxi rank to her home in the Winnie Mandela settlement, Nthabeleng often feels unsafe and makes sure that Themba is there to walk her home.
I personally shivered when I heard the horrific story of the Quantum hijackings. The savages and vultures that prey on the most vulnerable people of our communities. Madame Speaker, it is shameful that we have individuals that still disregard women as humans. Women who are breadwinners, women that raise children single handedly in society.
Everyday there are women who wake up as early as 3am daily to commute to work who have no choice but to use public transport due to the legacy of apartheid of disintegrating commerce from the townships. The plight of women no longer needs just intervention from law enforcement agencies, we need a social movement beyond race and class that will stand as a voice for every woman in society. Not in our name Madam Speaker, will any women be subjected to such brutality and humiliation. Enough is enough!
It is this fact that makes the work of our Metro Police Department critical. We must work towards increased police visibility, a faster turnaround in arrests and break the dominance of gang activities. In January of this year we opened the Zonkizizwe Precinct to enhance the visibility of the EMPD in communities and serve as a centre to coordinate cooperation between the police and communities in combating crime. We are currently building more precincts in Tembisa, Kwa Thema and Tsakane.
During our Siyaqhuba campaign of visiting communities and towns around the City we have carried out successful raids in Germiston and Kempton Park CBDs and closed down brothels, drug dens and illegal occupation of public buildings. We will continue to clean up our communities and towns to ensure the safety of citizens and protect our youth from unscrupulous crime syndicates.
We have established a Land Invasion Unit for the prevention and enforcement of all illegal land invasions, to address the invasion of RDP houses and the scourge of illegal connections. We have converted 729 Peace Corps into Traffic Wardens as part of our commitment to improving traffic control around the city. They will also help in monitoring our roads and enforcing speed and license regulations to decrease the number of road accidents. On traffic congestion, the Department of Roads and Stormwater is busy with studies to alleviate congestions on our road networks. This includes new timing traffic lights, upgrade intersections and planning for new road networks which include PWV 13, Vosloorus and Katlehong link and the N12 Daveyton/CBD interchange.
Honourable councillors, we have seen devastating images of houses especially in informal settlements being razed to the ground by fires. We have seen families losing homes to natural disasters like floods during the rainy season. We have to constantly improve our ability to respond timeously and effectively to such problems and limit the loss of lives and property especially amongst poor people.
In the next two years we have budgeted R94-m for firefighting, rescue operators, ambulances and primary response units to improve our disaster management. We have already put in place plans to build six new fire stations in the next five years around the City to coordinate this work effectively in the long term. We have already begun with construction of the Albertina Sisulu Fire Station in Kempton Park.
Madame Speaker, the City is now a leading municipality in South Africa when it comes to customer service through our ORIT call centre and our 20 Customer Care Centres. However, many highly trafficked and economically important parts of our City are unsafe, dirty and ineffectively managed. We are therefore launching an urban management drive to establish improved inter-service coordination in these areas and to facilitate Community Improvement Districts and local collectives that can top up our basic services package.
We as a City are also working to upgrade the spatial profile of the informal settlements that house about 164 000 households. We will give to the people all municipal land that was classified as ‘illegally occupied’ by people in informal settlements. We will legalise the security of tenure of households like Nthabeleng’s and Themba’s in order to ensure a certainty about the future, especially for their child as a future generation. We will expropriate on their behalf all private land that was not developed since 1994, and has since been occupied by our people to build informal settlements.
We are willing to defend this public-interest position in court if there is any litigation that comes our way. Vacant land that remains undeveloped over extended periods will be pursued for expropriation by the city in response to our challenge of landlessness.
After legally transferring this land to the people, we will have the informal settlements recognised as formal township settlements. We will re-block them to upgrade roads infrastructure. We will be improving gravel roads and incrementally building tarred roads as and when we increase our financial capacity. This is important to improve the movement of people, the access of refuse collection trucks, water services, roads maintenance and engineering people as well as ambulances and other emergency services. We will continue to provide sanitation services to households as part of maintaining their dignity.
Through a concerted programme of Urban Regeneration, we will regenerate our nine towns, 17 townships and scores of industrial areas by encouraging the refurbishment and improvement of buildings. In addition, we have a Bad Buildings Programme through which we identify dilapidated buildings which pose health and/or structural safety hazards. Such buildings will have to undergo rehabilitation/repairs, and those that are certified irreparable will be demolished, upon obtaining relevant court orders.
We will expropriate all abandoned buildings and all buildings that owe the City huge amounts in rates that even exceeds the market value of such properties. This will include CBD buildings which have been converted by their owners into slums.
Madame Speaker, so far I have spoken about the service delivery, healthcare and early childhood development initiatives of the city in improving the life of our young couple, Nthabeleng and Themba, and their child who live in an informal settlement. However, the City intends to have Nthabeleng and Themba living and raising their child in a decent house, protected from crime and the devastating effects of floods and fires.
It is for this reason that the City, working together with the provincial and national governments as well as private developers, is embarking on six Mega Housing projects over the next five-year period to respond to the housing and human settlement needs of our people. In pursuit of this objective, we have secured and are in the process of securing more land to enable us to provide bulk services for housing settlements like Leeuwpoort, Clayville Ext 15, John Dube, and Daggafontein. in the current financial year, the City will deliver approximately 5000 housing units and in the next financial year of 2017/18 the City will deliver additional 8000 housing units.
We also know that housing needs extend beyond the categories of the needy, the indigent and the elderly. It may happen that either Nthabeleng or Themba, if not both, improve their material conditions. They may become professionals in time or get improved employment that pays a great deal above R3000. However, this increase in income may still be below the threshold that qualifies for housing bonds from banks. This is why these Mega Projects are a comprehensive housing delivery strategy.
This strategy involves the delivery of fully Subsidized Units targeting the poorest of the poor. It includes the Finance Linked Subsidy Programme for people whose income is above the threshold for an RDP house but below qualification for a Housing Bond. This is what we call the Missing-Middle. Our housing delivery strategy also includes social housing units for middle income earners looking for rental stock and bonded units.
Moreover, we have made land available for people with economic means to build their own houses. We will provide the core services like sanitation and water infrastructure in these stands for individuals to only finance the building of top structures. This means that we are creating an incentive for Nthabeleng and Themba to invest in a home when, in future, their household income grows and they want to build a bigger home for themselves and their child.
Madame Speaker, what we have here is a multi-pronged housing delivery strategy that will transform the City of Ekurhuleni into a modern cosmopolitan urban environment. We are working to offer housing options for different social classes, depending on their unique circumstances and capacity to afford. We build a home for Nthabeleng and Themba who live at informal settlements, we give them land and a serviced-stand when they have acquired the capacity to afford top structures and we give rental and bonded options for our young professional and people who look for such options.
Our task is to build an integrated City. A thriving industrial city requires a convenient system of movement for both people, particularly workers, and the produced goods. This requires proper maintenance and expansion of our roads infrastructure. In our budgeting we have allocated money for roads and storm-water infrastructure maintenance, repairs and dealing with backlogs. We will fast-track the building of roads, construction of bridges and storm-water drainage systems.
We will also use community enterprises to patch, maintain and rehabilitate ailing roads infrastructure. We have contractors that have been contracted on an A-Need-To-Come pothole patching basis. Siyaqhuba also encompasses this rapid service delivery response approach. We will improve the quality of sidewalks in our urban centres for easy movement for pedestrians and we continue to maintain our roads infrastructure in all our existing townships on a continuous basis. We are working to improve the slopes of our roads and keeping up with the effects of storm-water over time.
Although the freeway system falls outside of our mandate we will continue to lobby for and incentivise accelerated investment in freeway access. This includes doubling up of the Barry Marais off ramp with an investment of more than R200-m as well as the construction of the much needed PWV 13. The PWV 13 road is a new road which links up Germiston and Boksburg. This is part of integrating our towns and ensuring easy accessibility harnessing logistics and transportation of goods and services.
Road infrastructure is at the hub of economic development and facilitates the movement of people and economic goods. In this light the City has completed the rehabilitation of 163 kilometers of road. The target is to complete 197 kilometers at a budgeted cost of R325-m. We have set aside R270-m for upgrading 52 kilometers of road and R83 million budget for the reconstruction of 15 kilometers of road. In continuing to integrate our townships and stimulate business, the City has invested in rehabilitating the road between Vosloorus and Katlehong which serves as an upgrade link between the two townships. Vosloorus and Katlehong have seen intense development and stimulation of the economy due to infrastructure development. We have set aside R663-m for the construction of new roads. About 49 per cent of that expenditure will go to the far east region that covers Duduza, Tsakane, Nigel, Springs, Daveyton and Wattville among others.
All of these efforts are geared towards building a reliable transport and logistics infrastructure that can support the vision of a robust manufacturing hub. As part of creating that dynamic transportation system, we are pressing on with the launch of our Harambe BRT. The first phase will be from Tembisa to OR Tambo via Boksburg to Vosloorus. The next phase will be from Kempton Park West to Katlehong.
We have to easily connect our people in the townships with the commercial and industrial districts around which our economic growth points can grow. Even young people who travel to towns for TVET colleges and high schools must benefit from a reliable and convenient transportation system. We are working to put an end to the disastrous situation in which workers spend around 30 per cent of their income on transport. The follow through of the Growth Management Strategy will be an integrated infrastructure Master Plan. It will be ensured that bulk infrastructure bottlenecks that previously prevented development are a thing of the past.
Madame Speaker, our ambitious programme for economic development, for growth and investment attraction, as well as improving household lighting for the poor requires stability in our energy sources. Our plans for the City have taken into account quite seriously the need to continually improve our capacity to generate and distribute energy. The main energy supply problem is cable theft and Izinyoka. We are working hard to find a lasting solution, working together with communities, to curb illegal connections and the cutting of our cables.
Our primary focus is to implement our strategy for Alternative and Renewable Energy. This is to limit our dependence on the national grid, improve security of energy and play our part in limiting greenhouse emissions as part of our environmental sensibilities.
In this regard we have in the past stated our objective of consolidating an energy mix that will see about 10 per cent of our overall electricity supply being generated from renewable energy. Key to this achievement will be the pooling of 10 MW of renewable power by 2021.
Our long term strategy is to build a local power station that also draws in Independent Power Producers, particularly in renewable energy. This will go a long way in expanding and guaranteeing our long term energy security.
We have begun to electrify households in our current informal settlements as per our manifesto commitment.
We have enlisted the services of contractors that are carrying out this electrification programme. We are planning to install street lights to improve the safety of our people, especially women and children like Nthabeleng and her child. Our electrification programme will start on those informal settlements located on state owned land and we will examine the legalities of extending this to informal settlements on privately owned land. The city has set aside a budget of R2.4-billion over the next five years for the electrification of informal settlements. We also have R1-b budgeted for bulk infrastructure in informal settlements.
To date we have electrified 9 943 households in informal settlements in areas such as Langaville, Inxiweni, Marikana, Winnie Mandela and Ekuthuleni. In our re-blocking of informal settlements on municipal owned land, we will expand provision of electricity in the next five years. We will complete the electrification of more than 16 000 households by the end of this financial year.
We are rolling out the installation of streetlights to create safer community spaces. We have already installed 2 263 streets lights of our targeted 3000 around informal settlements. We have also installed 156 High Mast Lights. We will now work to achieve our target of 400 High Mast Lights around these informal settlements.
The Departments of Human Settlements and Energy are working together to create the necessary settlement structures that make safe and secure electricity connection possible. As we do this investment in energy infrastructure we are also creating jobs for our communities and generating additional revenue for the City. In light of ensuring effective service delivery in our communities, our “Keep Ekurhuleni Clean” project will hire 2240 people, with 20 people in each ward at a cost of R145-m. Waste management remains a crucial aspect of service delivery. We believe the piloting of this project will ensure comprehensive monitoring of waste, driven by the community. The City will also pilot the Informal Settlement Waste Minimization project which will also drive our recycling project to be rolled out in the next six months.
This “Keep Ekurhuleni Clean” programme is going to combine and replace both the Lungile Mtshali and Clean City programmes. We want to have proper coordination of the work that was previously divided into two programmes. We have budgeted R250-m for the rehabilitation of the Kaalspruit river in view of the high levels of water pollution and other environmental degradation around the river’s catchment area. The Kaalspruit river cuts across all the three metros in province. This means that we need high level cooperation between the three cities if we are to maintain the health of that river basin and prevent future pollution.
Together with the Gauteng Department of Agriculture and Rural Development, we will be rolling out an initiative to boost our waste management efforts by supporting Waste Cooperatives and Waste SMME’s with the provision of the tools of trade that includes Recycling Infrastructure and Motorised Three Wheelers. The initiative will further bolster our portable waste collection efforts as well job creation out of material recovery, reuse and recycling -effectively reducing the amount of waste buried at our landfills, preserving the ecosystem and the already scarce airspace in order to fulfil other Socio-economic imperatives like human settlement and the construction of road infrastructure. We are making Ekurhuleni better everyday
Already, over 11000 work opportunities have been created through the Expanded Public Works Programme. These were created through both Capital expenditure and Operational Expenditure projects implemented by service delivery departments within the municipality. All of these job creation programmes are part of our contribution to Premier Makhura’s call for all cities in the province to have the Gauteng at Work programme.
Madame Speaker, we are committed and have plans to expand access to clean water for all our people, including Informal Settlements. We are aware that these ambitions of expanded access to clean water require that we work on improving our capacity for water collection, recycling and distribution.
We will need to strengthen our war on leaks and reducing the percentage of non-revenue water. Our projections have led us to strive for a reduction of non-revenue water from 34,5 per cent to about 27.5 per cent in five years. In December 2016 we opened an extension to our Waste Water Treatment plant as Ekurhuleni in Springs. That extension added a huge volume of 50 Mega Litres to our existing capacity and will therefore assist us a great deal in water purification.
We have submitted to council a Wastewater Reclamation and Reuse and Rainwater Harvesting Policy for consideration and ratification. This will assist in implementing a comprehensive water management strategy for Ekurhuleni as we work towards a sustainable water-use plan. Our Quantum Leap mega project aims to increase the security of water supply by generating an additional 635 mega litres of water. The City has budgeted an investment spending of R8-b towards the project. We are working on building 45 more pump stations for both water and sewage in the next five years. This remains a major challenge given that we are fast depleting the most important resource, water. We must preserve it and ensure that we don’t find ourselves where much needed reserves become a scarce commodity.
Madame Speaker, I want to point out that although these initiatives I have mentioned are important, they are not enough to guarantee a secure and sustainable future. We provide free basic services, healthcare, access to early childhood development and housing for Nthabeleng, Themba and their child, Nkateko, as a social safety net. For a sustainable future, we want to help them acquire the capacity to be economically productive and self-sufficient citizens; with unlimited prospects for social upward mobility.
South African cities are economic engines and dominant centres of economic activity and generate 52 per cent of national economic output with 37 per cent of the population. It remains our objective to address the high levels of unemployment, poverty and inequality as socio-economic inequalities continue to threaten long-term stability. Overall unemployment remains stubbornly high such that Black African women are mostly vulnerable, and it is particularly pervasive among the youth, specifically among coloured and African youth.
We will harness our policy approaches towards improving the manufacturing sector as a driver of economic growth and transformation here in Ekurhuleni. We will leverage pathways and strengthen policy instruments to enable entry into the manufacturing value chains for many local businesses, especially those owned by the youth and women.
Our regional economy which is valued at R301-b, achieved an annual growth rate of 0.3 per cent which is a significantly lower than those of Gauteng and National. This slow growth is attributed to the slow activity in the manufacturing sector which contracted overtime. Of the three sub-regions of the City of Ekurhuleni, the Northern region accounted for the biggest share of Ekurhuleni’s total GDP recording (R114.5-b which was 38 per cent of total GDP), whereas the Eastern and Southern regions recorded R111.5-b and R74.8-b respectively).
The manufacturing sector in Ekurhuleni remains the largest contributing sector which accounts for 21.5 per cent of the total GVA, followed by services sector at 20.7 per cent, and finance sector at 20.5 per cent. Whereas, the least contributing sector to the regional economy is agriculture, which contributed 0.4 per cent to the total GVA. We have plans to also boost the contribution of Agriculture to our employment and economic growth statistics. In view of slower economic activity particularly within the manufacturing sector, it is projected that our regional economy will grow at an average annual rate of 1.7 per cent henceforth until 2020.
Honourable Members, from the beginning of our term of office following the local government elections we made our strategic perspective clear. We have committed ourselves to cultivating and entrenching an approach to governance that expands access to services to the most needy and poor, accelerates delivery and improves the quality of the services we offer and upholds the needs of the poorest sections of our community. At the heart of this is our Economic 10 Point Plan which I will refer to throughout this address.
- Manufacturing Revitalization
- Aerotropolis Masterplan Implementation
- Acceleration of IDZ/SEZ Programme
- Land Availability for Strategic Development
- Support SMMEs through Public Procurement
- Implementation of Township Economy Strategy
- Enabling Public Transport System
- Massive Infrastructure Investment
- Promote Localization & Production
- Skills and Capability Development and institutional stabilisation
Madame Speaker, we have an obligation to build a broad economic framework that generates jobs, business opportunities and increasing levels of income for our people. As I said, we must be a city that offers basic services to households like Nthabeleng and Themba in the short term.
We must give them structural channels that make it possible for them to have an improved material environment. We must also guarantee that when we fund Nkateko to go to University or College, there is a sense of certainty about a future internship and employment prospects.
To achieve all of this, our strategic project of sustainable economic development will require a systematic pooling of private and public investment capital towards one vision. We must build a city area that will develop around our industrial capabilities.
This will have to be anchored in manufacturing and on the potential of the region to become a city with the most robust local manufacturing value chain, an efficient logistics network and a touch of modernisation to improve those outdated industrial assets that our region has whilst roping in new innovation and entrepreneurship.
We have done very well to secure an investment pipeline in excess of R 300-b. We are working to convert investor intention into development projects raising dust. We are improving our administration processes so that we can work well with investors in fast tracking project planning and implementation. We are improving the provision of bulk infrastructure in our strategic industrial sites so that we can benefit from the City’s locational advantage as a gateway to the world. In this regard, we have resolved to re-engineer the workings of our Departments, especially City Planning, Real Estate and Economic Development, wherein critical and non-regulatory functions will be consolidated into the Ekurhuleni Development Agency.
An inclusive policy will be developed which encourages and promotes investment; provides discount to previously disadvantaged areas and to community/social facilities; provides calculation of charges in a clear, transparent and simple manner.
Nthabeleng’s father was employed in a steel factory that is now under business rescue and Themba aspires to become an aircraft technician at Denel. Manufacturing is the past, present and future of decent work in our city, Madame Speaker.
Manufacturing Revitalisation is therefore a key element of our 10 Point Plan. In addition to the abovementioned projects the City has attracted increased investment in the manufacturing sector that includes new investment and expansions across industries including investments by Nampak, Twinsaver, Mpact, Unilever, Fortune Steels.
Other opportunities targeted include the Plastics and Rubber, Chemicals and Pharmaceuticals and to date the City has been engaging with the Plastics SA and the Department of Trade and Industry to promote and support the development of the plastics industry in the City.
Through the Unemployed Graduate and Youth Work Readiness Programme, we have placed 2 545 unemployed youth with various external companies and within the municipal Departments to gain work experience.
To support the development of the emerging contractors, we recruited 100 learner contractors and 100 learner supervisors to the EPWP Vukuphile Programme. The programme was launched on November 18 2016 by the Executive Mayor where the successful learner contractors were announced.
We have a working partnership with the NYDA and have established six Youth Empowerment Centers in Etwatwa, Tembisa, Duduza, Tsakane, Kwathema and Katlehong 1. The Department trained unemployed youth through the Work Readiness Programme, to run youth programmes at the centers.
As a City we have partnered with various stakeholders to conduct local career expos in order to create awareness of available opportunities for unemployed young people. Three local career expos were conducted in Tembisa for all schools in the northern region, Katlehong for all schools in the southern region and Duduza for all schools in the Eastern region.
Land Availability for Strategic Development is one of our 10 Point Plan priorities. Some 40 Strategic Land Parcels are ready for release and focus on strategic development areas including Dams and Lakes and township localities.
The City has identified the need to intervene by way of providing economic infrastructure to fast-track industrial development. This programme leverages on the City’s strategic industrial land parcels that will be further developed in to industrial parks for ease of attracting increased investment in the manufacturing sector.
The City is currently partnering with key stakeholders like Small Enterprise Development Agency (SEDA) to develop small and medium entrepreneurs in manufacturing. The City will leverage on incubators such as Lepharo, to identify entrepreneurs who are ready to graduate into the mainstream economy and provide support in the form of access to economic infrastructure including manufacturing and warehousing facilities where possible.
In our endeavour to streamline our township economies programme, we have narrowed our focus into three critical areas, namely: development of township enterprise hubs, building of new age informal trading stalls and redevelopment of township shops.
We have Automotive Centres supported by the Automotive Industry Development Corporation (AIDC) in townships such as Katlehong and Geluksdal. We are building Township Hubs at the total value of R200-m in Etwatwa, KwaThema and the Geluksdal Industrial Park.
Madame Speaker, there is another challenge to our Township Economies. Over the past 20 years we have seen the spread of big malls all over townships. They bring big supermarkets that crowd out local enterprises. There is no space for locals to trade in these malls. As a result, there are very low economic spin-offs for local households. Whilst they create jobs in the retail and security sectors, the depth of these opportunities is limited. We as a City want to introduce a Trade-In policy for malls that operate in Ekurhuleni. We want cleaning and security services to be set-aside for local security and cleaning companies. This may be done in partnership with big firms from outside as part of a skills transfer and capacity building programme in the short term.
We want malls to be designed in a manner that also reserves space for local traders outside the high rental rates. This should be part of their local empowerment and reinvestment. It is also important that township malls provide for night life and entertainment.
Honourable councillors, the City has been allocated R44-m from the national fiscus for job creation and the proposed new EPWP policy will make sure that projects generate jobs for local labour. That must be 90 per cent in the Ward concerned or within 5 km of that Ward. Currently national legislation enjoins all of us to set-aside 30 per cent of project value for local businesses.
We welcome this policy prescript. As the City of Ekurhuleni we intend on building on this national legislation by increasing the set aside for local businesses to 50 per cent of all project value. In that way we will create no less than 35 000 work opportunities per annum. This is also in line with expanding opportunities which will stimulate the township economy.
Madame Speaker, we are committed to our resolve of stimulating economic activity and to drive radical economic transformation. It is only through this resolve that we can achieve massive job creation as envisaged by our 10-point plan.
The City has resolved to ring-fence over R12-b of procurement opportunities to local-local entrepreneurs, service providers and enterprises during the term of office through The Mintirho programme. Out of this R12-b, we have resolved to specifically make commitments of not less than R1-b per annum on 500 youth owned enterprises and R500-m per annum on 100 emerging construction companies and more than R500-m on Black Industrialists. We will use the rest of the remaining R10-b for general strategic procurement from emerging black businesses and community enterprises as part of our policy of transforming economic participation. Today we have amongst our guests emerging black industrialists Mr Themba Mabunda and Mr Malwandle Siweya, who are investing in the cable production industry. United Industrial Cables, is the name of their company and it has received assistance from the Industrial Development Corporation and the Department of Trade and Industry. The company is based right here in Alrode which will also employ people locally. There are other new entrants through the Black Industrialists initiative such as a company called Electro Inductive Industries, who have started a venture into setting up a plant here in Germiston, for the production of transformers and related electrical equipment. This affirms our commitment to revitalize the manufacturing sector and also ensuring the transformation of Corporate South Africa.
We are mindful of the reality that many emerging companies continue to experience challenges in surviving the business market because of structural constraints in accessing capital and sustainable markets. However, we are convinced that by creating access to these opportunities we shall stimulate and trigger a campaign by black entrepreneurs to reposition themselves as capable and preferred service providers to government. This is why we are doing our best to make life easier for SMMEs. Tender documents are now free when downloaded online from our website. We are working towards paying SMMEs within 15 days when all documentation has been submitted. The ideal situation is to improve our systems and upgrade them to payment turnaround time of 72 hours in future.
In line with Operation Phakisa Agricultural and Rural Development focus by the State President, we are working to improve our agricultural sector with a view of growing its contribution to overall GDP. We want to use agriculture as an important platform for skills development, job opportunities, boosting household income and contribute to national food security.
Madame Speaker, we have allocated R28-m to the Springs Fresh Produce Market for market access and designs to add 20 000 m2 including an additional trading floor, a processing unit, retail, and other rental offices for agents. An investment of R100-m over three years will expand its market infrastructure to cater for distribution and agro-processing enterprises to increase trading activities, job creation, food security and farmer market support and revenue generation for the municipality.
As the City we will use our 80 farms to stimulate and grow agricultural output. We will improve them to increase productivity through a range of public-private partnerships. As the city we will lease off these farms to local farmers together with co-operatives. As part of that lease agreement, the city will fund the part of the deal that will be held by co-operatives. We will fund their training in farming techniques and the buying of farming implements and business innovation. In return we will insist on a level of productivity or we will enact an exit clause.
Our Digital City priority programme provides Information and Communication Technology (ICT) services directly to citizens and businesses to stimulate economic growth. It also provides the City with a competitive advantage by integrating ICT operations into the wider City eco-system which is known as the “Smart City”. This is being supported with accelerated free Wi-Fi rollout to libraries, clinics, Customer Care Centres and TVET 2600 Wi-Fi nodes providing both internal and public users with access to the internet will be commissioned by the end of this financial year. Of course it is access to the internet that is the most important avenue for access to information, education, business and social opportunities. Our broadband optic fibre cable roll out is targeted at 1100km by the end of June 2017. An additional 700km is planned for the next five years. We need to “operationalise” our urban fabric with lifestyle and night life centres supported with WI-FI rollout and access to the cities key-points including parks and stadia.
As Nkateko grows up he will no doubt aspire to work in a globally competitive industry and to be able to rub shoulders with the most talented professionals and entrepreneurs.
The Aerotropolis Masterplan Implementation and Acceleration of the IDZ/SEZ Programme are identified in our 10 Point Plan. In our endeavour to crowd-in strategic investments, we have approved the MSDF and have developed the Aerotropolis Master Plan to position the regional economy as an ideal destination for trade, tourism and investment. Our campaign to attract investment “Live, Work, Invest” is targeted at mainly investors who have compartmentalised the City as merely an industrial city.
We believe through the effective implementation and roll out of the Aerotropolis Masterplan, the potential and capability of the City will beam through. We are committed to the approval of the Aeorotropolis Master Plan before the end of the calendar year.
Learning from other cities in the country and around the world, we now know that we have to develop three dimensional models that will demonstrate the direction of urban development and spatial transformation. We need to build these models as visual displays of how a future City of Ekurhuleni will look like; with its industrial, human settlement and transport infrastructure designs.
This three-dimensional model of our future City will be housed in a Planning House which will showcase the direction of future development, inspiring buy-in from potential investors and the public. The Planning House will be located in the Germiston Precinct.
The Germiston Precinct will be the planned upgrade of the main City Administration block in the City of Ekurhuleni. Through the Siyaqhuba programme, the administration has managed to identify key strategic areas of transformation which will assist in resuscitating Germiston and elevating it to emulate other City Administration precincts.
Madame Speaker, the City of Ekurhuleni Tourism Strategy was approved, following lengthy consultation processes with Industry stakeholders. The Strategy outlines priorities for the City in the next five years, with an emphasis on tourism infrastructure development, targeting particular townships. It is in light of this that I can announce that work towards the establishment of the Khumalo Street Tourism Hub has started, with an appointment of a service provider being finalised. This needs to be part of a Liberation Route that connects the OR Tambo Narrative Centre, The Chris Hani House Museum and other historic symbols; as a well marketed tourism product that we as the City of Ekurhuleni sell to the world.
Madame Speaker, in our planning for the future we need to think about Nthabeleng, Themba, Nkateko and their children and grandchildren. Our policy choices must be targeting initiatives of sustainable development.
The numbers regarding population growth within Ekurhuleni have proven that our City remains a deliberate option for those seeking better opportunities in an urban environment. We will be looking into how infrastructure responds to this growth through the Growth Management Strategy for the future City and its residents. It is in this regard that we are being proactive in preparing our landscape for this population growth and service delivery for future generations.
Our best strategy to achieve this objective is to at least help Nkateko access development opportunities that are better than those of her grandparents and parents. In our view, the best starting point for this is to invest in expanded education opportunities. Although this is primarily the competency of provincial and national governments, there are important interventions at the level of local government that can be used to reinforce the work of the upper layers of government.
Moreover, for our region to achieve its development goals it must take active interest in improving its human capital and skills base. On our part, we work against the backdrop of a serious skills shortage as a region. We know from the 2011 census that only 15 per cent of the population in Ekurhuleni had post-matric qualifications, whilst four per cent have no schooling at all.
Through the Mayor’s Education Trust, we have so far extended bursary funding in 2016 to R100-m from R10-m in the previous year for academically qualifying students to go to Universities and TVET Colleges in different areas as part of this human resource development strategy. This R100-m has taken 730 learners from Ekurhuleni to Higher Education Institutions. We will continue to do our best to get private sector partnerships into the fold so that we increase post-schooling opportunities for the youth of our city.
We will work with private companies to jointly finance this Mayor’s education Trust, pooling their own education initiatives. Our aim is to increase this R100-m by three-fold in the next five years, working together with private donors.
This we do in order to give hope to elderly and hardworking parents to know that their children stand a practical chance at a better future. They must see and believe that their city works to give them basic services every day and also works to invest in the future of their children for a much better tomorrow.
Attached to this is also our campaign to have a University in the Metro that will serve as a fountain from which we draw the skills resources to serve as the human capital that will drive this development of our city. To produce the skills and human capital required to drive development needs that we work tirelessly to build tertiary institutions locally.
A University of Ekurhuleni would serve as the rallying point for this work and can assist in improving the resource base of our existing colleges. Since the expression of our desire to have a University, the team has worked on this and this vision will be a reality. As the building of Universities is a competency of the National Department of Higher Education and Training, we have begun engaging them towards our vision as a region. We are willing to partner with them by making land available for the physical infrastructure of that future University.
We must also embrace and assist our Colleges. They are an important platform for the training and production of the artisans that we need to maintain our infrastructure. As President Zuma noted in his State of the Nation Address, our country needs to produce a growing number of artisans to take up work in our national campaign to end water leakages among other things. We as Ekurhuleni have our own needs for these skilled artisans as we battle water leakages, declining roads and energy infrastructure among others.
Madame Speaker, it may be worth mentioning that all that I have said confirms that we have located our mid-term strategy for the next five years within the overall Growth and Development Strategy (2055) that the city adopted. Our perspective is to systematically reinforce the principles and objectives of that long term development strategy through a high impact service delivery programme.
We want to make it easy for Nthabeleng and Themba to access our services and we want to make sure that those services are as efficient and affordable as possible.
In order to secure Institutional Stability, we have made key appointments to our top structure including the City Manager, and 11 HODs. These are important appointments which will ensure that the city delivers on its service delivery mandate. We have complied with relevant legislation in making the appointments.
Councillors, we have also signed Performance Management Agreements between the Executive Mayor and MMCs at the level of political leadership. At administrative level, the City Manager has also signed Performance Agreements with the HODs.
We have embarked upon a process of engagements with our employees during the first 100 days of this term of office. Fundamental to the engagements held was a realisation that the City is lacking in its Employee Value Proposition. We have a long way to go in ensuring that we cultivate a culture of excellence in our City.
This we are doing by looking into the various challenges that have plagued the municipality over the years. Critical to these is the remuneration framework of the municipality. We have submitted to the Municipal Council an item that deals with the salary structures of the municipality. We are bringing all the employees of the City into one salary structure as part of our quest for One City Identity. Our proposed salary structures improve the earning capacity of employees and ensures that we have a competitive edge in the Labour Market.
The ultimate goal is to ensure that we have a working City that is fully focused on the improvement of the lives of our People. This we will attain with a workforce that is motivated and inspired to be Employees of the City of Ekurhuleni.
Our systems of delivery must ensure a value-for-money contract between us and our ratepayers in a convenient way that also builds confidence and trust. The provision of water, electricity and refuse collection, among other things, as well as how these utilities are billed need to be efficient and properly managed for ease of use.
This reflects the need to build a single, integrated and optimal administrative system that overcomes the differences of the past urban systems that existed before the birth of Ekurhuleni as a single city for the future.
The building of a Delivering City includes the need to improve our Capital Expenditure in line with the development backlogs of our communities, especially the underdeveloped townships and informal settlements.
Madame Speaker, we have also committed ourselves to fiscal prudence that reduces unauthorised, irregular, fruitless and wasteful expenditure. We are serious about maintaining a healthy balance sheet in order to successfully preserve our ability to fund future projects. To this end the Finance department has developed the Siyakhokha Siyathuthuka campaign. Within this campaign there are a number of projects, namely:
We have improved the on-line system for accessing and checking accounts and on-line payments. We have about 300 000 currently registered accounts.
Two payment kiosks have been established at the major malls – at Lakeside Mall and Alberton City Mall. Two more in process of installation at Carnival Mall and OR Tambo International Airport
Finance Open Days are held every month-end. The staff from various departments within the municipality (Finance, Energy, Water, Indigent Management) interact with members of the communities at Customer Care Centers to resolve their problems on the spot. In the current year the Open Days were held at Germiston, Etwatwa, Alberton, Boksburg, Tembisa (Phomolong and Lethabong), Nigel (Tsakane and Geluksdal).
We are strengthening Billing System’s integrity with contractors and service departments – Finance and service departments (Energy and Water) visit neighborhoods to identify where leakages occur and check, amongst others, leaking water meters, illegal electricity connections, and unlawful re-connections.
Other measures envisaged to intensify revenue collection to achieve a collection rate of 95% include:
Efficient processes and procedures for collection of traffic fines;
- Effective collection of outdoor advertising revenue;
- Installation of parking meters at public spaces;
- Roll out of SMART meters and meters at unmetered properties; and
- Elimination of interim readings
We have cut costs by freezing non-essential staff positions, gradually eliminating expenditure on non-essentials like travelling, accommodation and catering services. We have reduced these expenses by 11 per cent in the first six months of this financial year. We are also cutting down on excessive overtime payments. We are tightening control over the usage of city vehicles in order to reduce fuel costs on trips that are useless. A telephone cost management will also be implemented.
Integrity and accountability are core values for the City of Ekurhuleni. Corruption, dishonesty, misconduct and/or any unethical behaviour among public officials represents serious threats to the basic principles and values of the constitution, undermining public confidence in democracy and threatening to erode the rule of law.
It is in this regard that we are establishing an Integrity Framework Commission, to be headed by an external, independent person, the Integrity Commissioner, to, inter alia, deal resolutely with investigation of fraud and corruption, following up on findings of reports and more importantly, ensuring consequence management is implemented without fail or favour. The Integrity Commissioner, as soon as appointed, would then urgently introduce an integrated and multidisciplinary approach to prevent and combat corruption in an effective and efficient manner. A report will be submitted to Council before the end of this financial year, and Madam Speaker, your urgent co-operation is implored so that the process of appointment of the Commissioner is commenced with when 2017/18 begins.
For its efforts to promote good Governance, Risk and Compliance Management, the City was recently recognized and received the awards from the two prominent independent bodies: The Chartered Institute of Government Finance, Audit and Risk Officers (CIGFARO) (IMFO) and Institute of Risk Management South Africa (IRMSA).
Given the recent controversy over banks that have acted in an improper manner, we will undertake an investigation to review whether we should support such institutions. We will stand on the side of the people.
We have come a long way as a city in building our delivering capabilities. As I earlier mentioned; we aim to build a city that delivers on its commitments and extends services to all our people, regardless of social class. We are within our own timelines of developing a truly Delivering city by the year 2020.
Madame Speaker, we came here today to talk about our plans for the City of Ekurhuleni and how to improve the State of its people. We have given a picture of what we are aiming to do in this financial year in bringing greater dignity in the lives of the people. We are committed to providing the political leadership necessary to achieve the plans that we have outlined.
As I had highlighted at the beginning, we are always mindful of the fact that the face of poverty and underdevelopment in our city remains black, township, informal settlement and mostly female. Therefore, our plans will be rolled out in a manner that targets mostly young people who live in and around informal settlements and townships. We want to orientate our administration towards a working culture that takes very seriously the needs of girl children.
Currently the Women Directorate in the Mayor’s office is conducting a social audit on the prevalence of gender based violence in our communities. We have chosen to call it Social Audit and not just an ordinary research study as a way to show commitment to empowering communities through participatory research. Our political and social research must be led by communities as a way to build effective public participation so that the outcomes truly reflect the conditions of the people.
As President Oliver Tambo declared in 1981, “We need to move away from revolutionary declarations to revolutionary practice. We invite…the black women of South Africa, more oppressed and more exploited than any section of the population to take up this challenge and assume their proper role, outside the kitchen among the fighting ranks of our movements and its command posts.”
Therefore, Madame Speaker, our programme of action as this leadership will be about the rapid integration of the youth, especially girl-children, as well as women into the command posts of social development, in skills development and leadership of the economy of Ekurhuleni. We want to build a transformed democratic institution that primarily fosters hope and extends opportunities to the poorest of the poor.
The City remains committed to the pact between itself and Citizens in which the aspirations of our people, regardless of their current circumstances of poverty, can at least be given a fair opportunity for progress. The story of Themba, Nthabeleng, MaNhlapho and Nkateko are an intricate, organic demonstration of past injustice, present inheritance of warped realities, but also a beam of endless possibilities. These ordinary people are affected by all socio-political coordinates which make up a greater system, yet ours is to decrypt these complexities encoded in bureaucracy. Their immediate preoccupation is a roof over their heads, a chance to get a decent education, access to clean water, be able to cook through the aid of electricity, whether they will go to bed fed or on an empty stomach. For others these are no longer primary issues, but for us as representatives and servant at local government, it’s the essence of our functional and democratic existence and establishment. Themba, MaNhlapho and Nkateko are the people of Ekurhuleni.
In this light I wish to say our hearts go out to the Thole family from the Jerusalem informal settlements. February 25 will forever be remembered by the City as well as the family when their five-year-old boy, Richard Thole fell to his death in a mine shaft. The Thole family reached out to government for assistance. We did all we could and asked for the assistance of the National Department of Mineral Resources as well as the SANDF to intervene. This tragic accident highlights the negligence of business especially in mining. We must urgently deal with the issue of abandoned mines and business must be held to account after mining activities on how they benefit our communities.
On a more heartening note Madame Speaker, I humbly wish to highlight a very important citizen of Ekurhuleni Mama Flora Mokoena born in 1896 on December 26. We celebrated her birthday with her family last Christmas. It’s such people that we must draw inspiration from. The wisdom and institutional memoirs embodied in memories of our elders must at all times be cherished. People such as Mama Mokoena have lived through trials and tribulations and now blessed to see the realisation of our hard earned democracy.
Ours as mandated is to ensure we deliver efficiently, effectively and more importantly in a way which improves the City and the state of its people!!
I thank you!
