These were the words of City of Johannesburg’s executive mayor Mpho Parks Tau as he was speaking at the City’s 14th annual general meeting of the City’s business units at the Wanderers Cricket Stadium.
Tau reminded the entities that the council was elected based on a specific mandate and that this ought to be evident in the conduct of these units.
He said, “The political mandate must come through a fundamental social transformation effort.” The mayor was addressing accounting officers of Johannesburg Social Housing Company, Johannesburg Theatre, City Power, Johannesburg Property Company, Johannesburg City Parks and Zoo, Johannesburg Development Agency, Johannesburg Water, Johannesburg Roads Agency, Metropolitan Bus Service, Johannesburg Metropolitan Police Department, Johannesburg Fresh Produce Market and Pikitup.
He said the work of the city was a ‘compartmentalisation perspective’ which refers to a Johannesburg that conducts its affairs well and applies generally-accepted business principles while carrying out its political mandate.
“This requires organisational competency to carry out the work required by a municipality. The city was on track with its service delivery programmes, including its commitment to spend R100 billion over a 10-year period on infrastructure development. It is important that the city does not lose focus of how it is constituted and the promises that have been made. The primary agenda of the governing party, and by extension, was to transform the old order.”
Tau said he wanted to see all the entities creating work packages for co-operatives and community-based companies registered under the programme. “We want the residents of Johannesburg to be co-delivery agents of municipal services,” he said.
Addressing the audience, Tau also mentioned aspects of ‘political economy of space’, explaining that it influenced people’s lifestyles and their proximity to education. It was on the basis of the skewed structural architecture of the past that the city was accelerating the programme of the Corridors of Freedom, an initiative that seeks to create mixed use residential areas at a number of identified locations.”
He said extensive work at redesigning the outlook of the areas had already started at three spatial nodes. These were Empire Path (Empire Road through Auckland Park, Westbury/Coronation); Louis Botha Avenue through Alexandra/Marlboro and Turffontein/Rosettenville.
