Councillors not optimistic with SOCA
FOURWAYS - FOURWAYS ward councillors have expressed their mixed expectations from the Johannesburg mayor’s State of the City Address scheduled for 11 am on 6 May.
Mayor Parks Tau will deliver his address in Braamfontein where he is expected to dwell on the R100-billion capital investment.
Local city fathers, however, sang different tunes on what Tau’s administration views were of The final Push in a bid to transform the city.
Ward 96 councillor Matome Mafokwane said the R100-billion project had eluded the Lanseria Corridor, where he said the City was meant to develop an industrial sector, 40 000 residential stands and improve agricultural activities.
“The mayor will obviously talk about infrastructural development in Johannesburg, but my ward has not benefited enough because the Lanseria Corridor project remained stagnant for too long,” said Mafokwane. He alleged that funds budgeted for the Lanseria Corridor project were being diverted to other areas. “This has been happening for the past 10 years,” lamented the DA councillor.
He added that since nothing had taken off, there was nothing to expect from the mayor’s review of the progress achieved by the city’s Final Push. He, however, did say his ward got a slice of the billions along the William Nicol belt, Kya Sands, Lonehill and Dainfern where the City upgraded water pipes.
Ward 115 councillor Chris Santana lamented the occasional flash floods that hit his ward, which he said should have been curbed by the Final Push project. He expressed doubt that the mayor would mention anything about his flash floods problems. “The banks of the Klein Juskei River have collapsed due to too much concrete surfacing in the area and has even led to the collapse of one of my bridges in the area along Niven Road,” said Santana.
Councillor John Mendelsohn of Ward 94, however, is optimistic about the address. He said his ward was a historically advantaged constituency with adequate infrastructure that only needed routine maintenance. “We had a 24km water pipe upgrade,” he said
Stephen Moore of Ward 106 said the State of the City Addresses were always thick in promises but thin in delivery. “I don’t expect much from that event – except for big promises on paper that rarely get delivered. In the previous address, we were promised water pipe upgrades of 171km but we have not seen that kind of activity on the ground yet,” said Moore.
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