The City of Johannesburg’s new administration is being led by guidelines set up after the municipal elections last year – the 10-point plan.
This plan sets out the goals the political and administrative leadership has for the City. In his first State of the City address, as he did in his first 100 days in office speech, Mayor Herman Mashaba gave an update on the progress of the plan.
On his first point, embracing a coalition government, Mashaba said he found employees understood the ‘demand for change’.
Running a responsive and pro-poor government with a focus on redress, his second point, will see 60 per cent of the Capital Expenditure budget allocated to projects in traditionally poor and under-serviced communities. The adjustment budget, passed in February, saw allocations toward increasing housing, electrification, public transport and extended clinic hours.
The third point, achieving a minimum of 5 per cent economic growth by 2021, has been called very ambitious.
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The goal is to create an environment where there is ease in doing business and the development of small businesses. Currently there are the Small, Medium and Macro-sized enterprise hubs across the City. The plan, Mashaba said, is to have 14 hubs by the end of the next financial year.
The fourth point, creating a professional civil service, has seen the near completion of the skills audit and a serious attempt at tackling billing issues, Mashaba said.
A back office was established within the revenue department to deal with the over 48 000 open billing queries of which 26 000 are 90 to 365 days old. Part of this plan also saw additional funding to repair failing road surfaces, like potholes.
The fifth point, ensuring corruption is public enemy number one, exposed corruption that, to date, is estimated at R2 billion and R10 billion more after further investigations.
Under the sixth point, producing an official housing waiting list, Mashaba has acquired a completed housing list that is still under audit and will soon be made public. The list contains the names of 152 000 residents.
The seventh point is already completed. Over 3 000 incomplete housing units have been listed and over half are set for completion before July.
Fast-tracking the delivery of title deeds is the eighth point. Mashaba said that 2 800 title deeds have already been handed out with 1 100 more to be distributed in the coming month.
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The ninth point was also already completed after establishing the extended clinic hours pilot project at Princess Clinic in Roodepoort. Since then, five more clinics have extended their hours.
The final point is to revilatise the inner-city. The appointment of 1 500 more Metro police officers will be a major breakthrough in combating crime, enforcing bylaws and easing traffic congestion, Mashaba said. These are all issues that face residents and businesses in the inner-city. Other projects under this point were to launch the refocused K9 Narcotics and Tactical Unit, the launch of the no-joint policy at traffic intersections and bringing back municipal courts.
For the mayor’s full speech, visit www.joburg.org.za
