Mayor prioritises service delivery during his first State of the City Address

City of Ekurhuleni’s State of the City Address (SOCA) continued in the absence of opposition party, the Democratic Alliance.
Newly elected Mayor Sivuyile Ngodwana delivered the address on April 25 in Germiston.
According to former mayor and the leader of the party’s Ekurhuleni caucus Tania Campbell, the reason not to attend was to contain cost.

Also read: WATCH: Ekurhuleni SOCA a waste of money – DA

Ngodwana said CoE’s main goal remains service delivery as recent consultations with Ekurhuleni residents on the Integrated Development Plan (IDP) identified services as a common need. He acknowledged that the recent political instability impacted service delivery.
He announced CoE plans to establish the stabilisation of electricity by exploring diversified energy sources and adding to electricity capacity to limit load-shedding through the enhancement of access to reliable, affordable and sustainable electricity.
“We will also introduce load-shedding exemptions for qualifying industrial customers to ensure revenue protection.”
Other plans include upgrading and maintaining the electricity network by ensuring assets and infrastructure are managed and tamper-proofing these assets.
To address sustainable water supply, CoE undertook to repair water leaks including fixing in-house leakages for indigent households, completing the 29 water reservoirs currently under construction, building internal capacity in respect of water tankers to minimise the impact of water outages, assigning and funding ERWAT to scale up the rehabilitation of waste facilities, reticulation and capacity expansion and upscale the maintenance of sewer networks to minimise sewer spillages.
In his address, Ngodwana said CoE also undertook:
• Consistent collection of waste and the pursuit of community-based cleaning programmes.
• To ensure that waste disposal and landfill sites are fully operational and clean.
• Treatment of landfill sites that are close to communities to address health threats.
• Transformation of metropolitan into green centres through recycling.
• The maintenance of all cemeteries and open spaces including grass cutting.
• Maintenance of cemeteries and open spaces and implementation of a well-defined environmental policy structure that can contribute with more certainty to the investment and service delivery environment.
• Accelerate the fixing of potholes on our roads and the maintenance of stormwater drainage systems.
• Implementation of the Integrated Rapid Transport Network and the Harambee public transport to be accelerated.

Also read: Ngondwana replaces Campbell as executive mayor

Local economy
Ngodwana said economic development will be addressed by re-engineering the Vukuphile Programme to focus on maintenance in the built environment and incubating 50 young people with skills development like plumbing and sewer and stormwater maintenance.
CoE also plans to release land for the local trading precinct to stimulate local trading and job creation.
“This should include the creation of a platform for flea markets in the township to promote the sale of locally produced brands.”
The city also plans the revival of its tourism route and greater access to tertiary education through the city’s bursary intervention.
CoE will pursue the implementation of the Aerotropolis master plan.
“We need to prioritise economic development through the industrialisation of Ekurhuleni as a workshop of the Gauteng province. Our unemployment rate sits at 31.6 %. We must be a city that operates differently when relating to SMMEs. Special economic zones must equally moonlight as food security hubs for economic activity.
“Township youth continue to face unemployment and poverty and thus our economic development programme is anchored on the stimulation of the township economy.
“This will also require using service delivery as a foundation for bringing investment and jobs by making it easier to do business within the municipality while formalising financial support to SMMEs.”
Ngodwana said to achieve impactful development, the city must prioritise revenue enhancement, reduce liquidity and credit risk, ensure the elimination of wasteful and unauthorised expenditures, revise the incentives for consistent payment, cost containment, smart digital billing, improved in-house collection services and a credit control policy review.