Outgoing mayor details the city’s successes

The Joburg City Council’s African National Congress renominated mayor-elect Parks Tau took a swipe at some in the opposition for pretending there was no service delivery in the city in the past 21 years.

In his valedictory speech Tau said they misled residents by suggesting they could miraculously, deliver things that they alone claimed had not been delivered.

Conceding that many challenges still remained, he chronicled the following as achievements in his 2011 to 2016 tenure saying they fulfilled the city’s Integrated Development Plan and its Growth and Development Strategy 2040.

• Expansion and linking of the bus rapid transit system to integrated settlements like at Lufhureng, Fleurhof, Cosmo City, Lehae and Kliptown and, the development of integrated sidewalks, cycling and driving routes.
• 1900 kilometres of roads and bridges done and upgraded including on the M1 Freeway and in deprived areas like Orange Farm, Ivory Park, Diepsloot and Braamfischerville under the city’s R100 billion- 10 year strategic infrastructure investment development plan.
• Shopping malls, state of the art recreational parks with gym facilities, up-market theatres, stadiums and multi purpose centres developed in township.
• Wifi connectivity for entrepreneurs, small businesses and school children and youth’s online education and job searching which enhanced the city’s attractive to business tourism, international conferences and events and on service delivery through new portal Maru aJozi (Clouds of Jozi), e-libraries and e-clinics.
• 1 258 Remote Monitoring Units installed at priority traffic intersections to improve turnaround time for repairs, 930 traffic signal controllers and 811 traffic signals upgraded at intersections with 297 being new installations and, 92 uninterrupted power supplies installed at prioritised intersections.
• 10 000 jobs and contracts with 1 100 cooperatives created under the Jozi@Work programme, 45 000 under the Vulindlel’eJozi programme, 45 000 in partnership with 250 private companies, 7 000 youth placed in further education or entrepreneurship skills development programmes, 50 000 job opportunities with Harambee Youth Employment Accelerator, 200 000 under the Expanded Public Works Programme and, 24 000 SMMEs supported through the SMME Hub network since 2011.
• Poverty mitigation programmes created and benefiting 150 000 people in 47 000 poor households and 30 000 informal homes with 90 000 people from the annual influx of 120 000 into the city upgraded.
• World-class infrastructure and facilities developed to support a growing middle and upper classes simultaneously with an aggressive programmes on poverty reduction, food insecurity and inequality.
• Improved billing system and fiscal responsibility which earned the city unqualified audits in the last three financial years and, in the query resolution average to 90% in 30 days.

Tau also said that the cash reserves created made the city the country’s highest capital investment place with over R8 billion of local investments, a R78 billion asset local government entity accounting for 14 percent of the national economy and, an increased capital expenditure of R10.8 billion in 2014/15 financial year from R3.7 billion in 2011/12.

He proudly announced that the city received awards from Citi Foundation and The Economist Magazine for the youth development programme, Fitch and Moody’s Rating Agency for the Green Bond listed on the stock exchange, Arbor City Award 2015, South Africa’s Greenest Metropolitan Municipality Award and, the Global Financial Centers Index which identified the Joburg as the 33rd economically powerful city globally and, number one in the continent, and the most inspiring and popular destination in the continent for a second consecutive year.

Details: mediaqueries@joburg.org.za