City of Johannesburg Executive Mayor Geoff Makhubo visited Ivory Park on 13 April to launch the 120 Days of Service Delivery Programme in Region A.
The programme aims to alleviate service delivery issues within the set 120 days. Makhubo explained that the launch was the start of a heightened and accelerated service delivery programme which would start in Region A and would cover all the other regions in the city.
He said, “This is not a one-off thing but a launch because we believe that we need to improve the daily lived experiences of the people of Johannesburg. We realised that there was a gap between our promise and what was happening on the ground.”
Makhubo addressed the persistent issues of service delivery in the Ivory Park area and said blocked stormwater and sewer drains, cleaning of curb inlets, gravelling of roads and the installation of stormwater streams were part of the programme.
“With regards to land invasions, those have to be condemned in the strongest terms. We do agree that there are people on the waiting lists, however, the majority of the people invading land are not even on the waiting lists, some of them sell the land to foreign nationals and poor people really in need of accommodation.”
Makhubo also spoke about the maintenance plans for local facilities, adding that there was no point in accelerating development if the infrastructure was not going to be maintained. “Part of the issue is to maintain and secure infrastructure because people vandalise public infrastructure.”
He said to address this would entail working with people to ensure public property was looked after.
MMC for Roads and Transport, Nonhlanhla Makhuba spoke on the development of road infrastructure and said their target was to convert gravel roads to tar. Makhuba said initially only a few roads would be tarred because of budget constraints.
“We do, however, have a plan to do this project over a period of three years, then we will check again to see which streets are left which we will then prioritise.”
The mayoral team concluded the day by handing over a house to a community member who is mentally disabled.
