Last Thursday Executive Mayor Parks Tau laid his grand plans for the City of Johannesburg (CoJ) on the table in his annual State of the City Address (Soca).
Tau put a lot of emphasis on turning Johannesburg in to what he called a ‘smart city’, using technology to solve the many challenges the city faces. Some of the projects residents can look forward to includes the following:
• A R1 billion high-speed broadband network that will provide Wi-Fi access across the city.
• The Massive Open Online Varsity (Moov) which will have recognised online courses offered by prestigious international institutions.
• The Tshiminlong district in Braamfontein that will cater for digital start-ups.
• Upgraded CCTV cameras across the city.
• The creation of micro-mushroom farms and a special bread baking operation that will use fruit trimmings in the flour thus making it healthier.
• The city will incentivise low-flush toilets in order to save water.
• Increasing the Kelvin power station, which provides 7 per cent of the city’s power, from 200 megawatts to 600 megawats.
Critics have called some of Tau’s ambitious plans for the future of the COJ ‘pie in the sky’, but during his Soca speech there were plenty to boast about as far as the past year goes.
This includes:
• The building of a 1000 quality social housing and rentals places.
• Resurfacing 320km of roads.
• Upgrading 44km of gravel roads to surfaced roads.
• Facilitating R1 billion value of investment and business transactions.
• A five per cent reduction in the mortality rate in fire and pedestrian accidents through rendering quality emergency services.
• In order to improve service delivery a daily nerve centre that connects all front line departments have been established in order to manage rapid responses to areas of service breakdowns.
• The city has achieved 96 per cent capital expenditure in the last financial year that translates into R7.3 billion.
• The introduction of Advocate Sduduzo Gumede as the first municipal ombudsman for the city.
• The establishment of a fraud hotline that lead to the dismissal of several city employees as well as 42 arrests.
Tau also spoke at length on how much the city has already achieved in terms of its ‘Corridors of Freedom’ project and what it plans in this regard for the near future.
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