Is centralised services the answer?
Budget cuts cause service delivery to suffer.
The legacy of poor planning over the years was highlighted during a stakeholders meeting by Johannesburg City Parks and Zoo (JCPZ).
With the purpose of improving service delivery, the City has announced that horticultural service will be centralised and that one entity would be responsible for this comprehensive scope of work around the City.
According to a press statement by the spokesperson of the department, Jenny Moodley, the City’s horticultural services were not coordinated centrally and green services resided with various departments and entities. “This resulted in service delivery challenges city-wide and the escalation of complaints about grass cutting and other horticultural services. It was mistakenly understood that the challenge around areas existed due to decentralisation and not from a lack of funds to service the areas as required,” Moodley said.
She added that the centralisation was aimed at establishing one-stop horticultural services and increase accountability and service delivery to a desired level. “It was also intended that JCPZ will act as the preferred service provider on behalf of the various departments and entities in the City for the maintenance of horticultural and conservation services.”
To begin the centralisation process, various stakeholder meetings were held. “At the sessions it was revealed that the City has at its disposal only R73 million to render its services, instead of the about R187 million required.”
JCPZ on the other hand has R19 million available to cover 3 348 facilities for 304 maintenance cycles instead of the required R144 million. In addition, is was also discovered that the R73 million allocation was for all the City departments, City Power and Servitudes, Joburg Water, Pikitup and some areas of JRA. JMPD, EMS, BRT, Crum, areas of JRA, Metrobus and council-owned stands, JPC, Joshco and Eskom were not catered for in the budget.”
Moodley said this highlights one of the legacies of poor planning over the years. She said JCPZ has tried to source additional funds to comply with the requirements of the centralisation directive, but the entity is hampered by budget constraints within the City.
“In the interim, JCPZ will continue to service the City based on received work orders from the departments and entities. Effectively this means that all the departments and entities in the City are responsible for generating work orders and sending these to JCPZ for any horticultural services.”
Moodley said they are working tirelessly to address the less than desired service standards. “We are pleading to the community for patience and understanding.”
She said a weekly maintenance schedule is issued and distributed to ward councillors. Residents are encouraged to familiarise themselves with these schedules for grass cutting and other services to be rendered in their wards.
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