POLOKWANE – The municipality wants businesses to stay in the city and grow, according to municipal manager Connie Mametja, who spoke at a stakeholder meeting at the Peter Mokaba Sports Complex on Tuesday.
Mametja highlighted aspects of the Polokwane Vision 2030 plan to stakeholders from various institutions, as well as business people.
Acting on behalf of mayor Thembi Nkadimeng, Lois Hardy told attendees that the city council would be able to lift the moratorium on new developments eventually. This would be done through projects comprising public-private partnerships (PPP’s) to replace and develop key infrastructure projects such as the replacement of the aged water pipe structure in the city.
Other projects earmarked for PPP’s were the wastewater treatment plant, which needs to be replaced urgently, she said.
Smart metering for water and electricity would enhance the city’s billing system and rolling out broadband connectivity would have many advantages for stakeholders throughout the municipal area.
Hardy said new electrical sub-stations were also in the pipeline to deliver electricity to areas currently not having electricity.
The concept of a “smart city” was adopted to enhance service delivery within the municipality and was a multi-dimensional approach to the functioning of the institutional development of the city, she continued.
She further said the relationship between the municipality and stakeholders needed to be solidified, as the municipality needed business to partner and work with the municipality. She called on businesses to settle their arrears, and said the city could not deliver on most of its capital projects if water and electricity was not paid for. The illegal use of land was also of great concern to the municipality.
Mametja said the plans for Vision 2030 were in line with the provincial and national development plans.
The smart city concept’s objectives were to reduce service backlogs, replace aging infrastructure, attract investment, implement the integrated public transport network, attain, retain and create a highly skilled labour market and proactive participatory planning and outcomes-based development.
She further said Polokwane should be an innovative hub used to capacitate young people.
Mametja touched on aspects such as the integrated transport plans for the city as well as informal trading, which she said the municipality had no intention of doing away with, but should be orderly and within the confines of by-laws.
She said the municipal land audit was finalised recently and the municipality would appoint transactional advisors to advise them of the best way of utilising the land.
