OPINION: #Soca2023: Will the mayor deliver on his promises?

• Thabile Mange writes:

On Friday, July 7, the new Mogale City Mayor, councillor Danny Thupane delivered his maiden State of the City Address (Soca). The mayor made his opening remarks in Setswana.

He then read the unemployment statistics to the attentive audience and revealed that the city’s unemployment rate is at 47%, which is unprecedentedly high.

While the unemployment rate is high, he said, malls in Mogale City are being built and expanded. However, it seems the business boom in the city is not making any dent on jobs.

To fight unemployment, Mogale City is engaging in partnership with other government departments. The city will partner with the Gauteng government in a green army project, which will unlock job opportunities.

• Also read: New Mogale City mayor delivers his first State of the City Address

The mayor raised concern about the manual indigent system used by the city, which sometimes duplicates applications. The council plans to introduce an electronic system. He also revealed that residents have a grave concern about the Kagiso cemetery problem. Many sections of the cemetery are waterlogged. The last and recent winter rain has made things worse.

The council has budgeted R1m to deal with the Kagiso cemetery challenge and intends on employing the service of a hydraulic engineer to get “a long-term solution”. In addition, the city is planning to convert the Kagiso hostel into family units – 10 0000 units will be built. A taxi rank, shops, and educational facilities will be added.

A housing project in Noordgedacht is breaking ground, wood is being used to build houses there. Japan is using the same model. Therefore, wood is good for building houses, said the mayor allaying fears about the durability of wood.

The first citizen of Mogale City said Soca was compiled with the inputs of residents. He dubbed it “The People’s Soca”. Will the mayor deliver on his promises? Only time will tell.