The Johannesburg multi-party government adopted a report of the mayoral committee to strengthen the fight against corruption and the theft of city resources by renaming and reconstituting the Disciplinary Board as the Financial Misconduct Board (FMB).
Executive Mayor Mpho Phalatse said this deliberate action recognises the shortcomings of the now-former board to fight and eradicate nefarious acts by city officials and eliminates the confusion between the FMB and other disciplinary structures within the city.
“The new structure will strengthen our fight against corruption as the new structure delegates certain powers to the executive mayor, mayoral committee and the city manager to improve the implementation and functionality of the board,” said Phalatse.
“The delegated authority of the executive mayor and mayoral committee will enable them to appoint members of the FMB. To ensure its independence, at least three of the five members of the FMB will be external appointments.
“The appointment process will be an open one, where adverts will go out for the public to apply, this is similar to the appointment process of members of other advisory committees, for example, the group audit committee.”
Budget
The mayor said at the council sitting that the multi-party government also confidently passed its R77b budget for the city and its residents.
“In this regard, I would like to thank MMC for Finance Julie Suddaby. The budget is practical, inclusive, yet generous where it matters most to our more than six-million residents.
“The focus of the budget is about ensuring that we have a foundation upon which we can build our city of golden opportunities. This means focusing on what is broken. Hence, the budget is called the golden repair.
“To sustain economic activity and protect livelihoods, City Power had been allocated a capital budget of R1.2b to refurbish and upgrade the city’s energy infrastructure.
“This follows from the Joburg Energy Indaba, where we committed to making sure our infrastructure can support the onboarding of independent power producers. Equally, Joburg Water has been allocated a capital budget of R795m to maintain its infrastructure,” she said.
Highlights of the golden repair budget are as follows:
• 122km lane roads to be resurfaced
• 15km of gravel roads to be upgraded to surface roads
• 1 000 public lights to be installed
• An operating budget of R500m for improved waste management collection
• R200m for the 20 new fire engines and associated equipment
• R1.3m to recruit and train 150 park rangers to keep open spaces safe
• 1 200 by-law enforcement operations and 6 400 traffic enforcement operations
• R21.5m to implement the eHealth programme to digitise medical records at the city’s clinics
• R10m to upgrade inner-city informal trading stalls
• R35m to guarantee free Wi-Fi at the city’s libraries
• A R1.9b operating budget for housing projects across the city
• R15m to further upgrade the JMPD Integrated Intelligence Operating Centre
• R1.7b over three years for housing and housing opportunities
• Opex of R1.8b for health and social development programmes
“We will also be reviewing all our unfunded mandates to ensure that the city is devoting resources to its core mandates and infrastructure upgrades. Where we are spending money on national and provincial competencies, we will be requesting the necessary funding from National Treasury.
“The multi-party government is committed to working with and for all residents to restore Joburg’s golden shine,” noted Phalatse.
