THE City of Johannesburg’s executive mayor, Clr Herman Mashaba, reassured Region F residents and businesses during an Integrated Development Plan (IDP) presentation that the city was addressing lawlessness.
Addressing scores of residents who complained about undocumented foreigners in the city, Mashaba said on April 11 that the newly adopted law enforcement strategy of Buya Mthetho was being deployed throughout all seven regions to restore law and order.
The city was also working closely with the South African Police Service and Home Affairs to deal with lawbreakers and undocumented foreigners, the mayor said during the IDP presentation.
He said the city was facing many challenges, which include high rates of poverty, slow economic growth and high unemployment and corruption. Johannesburg has a poverty rate of 37 per cent, unemployment stood at 32.3 per cent and youth unemployment was at 40 per cent. The city’s population had grown to 5.05 million from 4.9 million last year and there were about 180 informal settlements spread across all regions.
Some of the projects being undertaken in Region F included the R111-million Kazerne Parkade, which is expected to be completed in August, the R30-m Hillbrow Tower Precinct, the R1.5-m Gandhi Square BRT implementation, which is expected to be completed in June and the South Hills Mixed Housing Development of R106-m, which is spread across multiple financial years.
Mashaba told all those present that “we need to bring back that spirit of entrepreneurship where our communities are not relying on government tenders and corruption” to succeed.
He encouraged communities to create unique business opportunities that would build and sustain the community and elaborated about the importance of educating the community about the basic principles of running a business.
The mayor added that Opportunity Centres will be created to empower and educate the community of business skills and by 2021 there will be two centres in each region.
The community was also encouraged to take part in civic engagement activities such as A Re Sebetseng, the monthly clean-up campaign to make Johannesburg an attractive city for business development.
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