It is great to dream ideas but the challenge always lies in converting them to action. The risk comes in when you make too many promises but deliver few because slowly but surely residents begin to question whether these ideas are intended for implementation or whether these ideas are intended to buy time and confidence?
In the last two years, Johannesburg has been treated to some very innovative concepts, the Joburg10+ community-based ward plans, Corridors of Freedom and Sustainable Human Settlements, to name a few. If these projects prove successful, Joburg would have achieved bringing council closer to the community; community having an active say in what takes place in their ward; bringing workers closer to their work and eradicating the backlog in housing. Briefly put, if we achieve all of this now then the last two years would have seen more productive innovation then the sum of all the years that Johannesburg has been a uni-city.
However before we bring out the champagne we need to ask ourselves a vital question. Can these projects be delivered and if not fully will half way do? When we use a tennis racket with a tennis ball on a tennis court we can safely assume that we are playing tennis. If we just change the ball to a rugby ball or cricket ball are we still playing traditional tennis? If a car manufacturer leaves out one bolt of an engine mounting does that small error or compromise have an impact on the future safety of the vehicle?
The answer of these two questions lead me to a conclusion that when our projects are introduced to us in their entirety, we need to expect the full picture because every piece in the promise has a place and reason for being there. If we compromise on this we compromise on the efficacy of the project. To me, it is therefore critical that we only judge a project being successful in implementation when the picture on the drawing looks like the model in front of us.
One of the many tasks of a councillor is to monitor such projects and constructively comment until such time as the residents are seeing the benefits of the intended consequence. A rate payer should arm themselves with the knowledge and understanding of these projects as they give you a fair sense of the future direction of the city and also answers a question of whether the council has delivered in that term of office or not. It is a joint responsibility of public representatives, and the public, not to accept anything less but the full delivery of the promised projects because the currency of a municipality/citizen relationship is delivery and we must ensure that these projects do not leave us short changed when it comes to delivery.
