Masina talks progression of municipal projects

Mayor of Ekurhuleni Mzwandile Masina kickstarted his State of the City Address by honouring the nine deceased ward councillors who died between 2020 and 2021.
The address was delivered at the Germiston Civic Centre on Wednesday.
Masina, who is nearing his term in office, said his office demonstrated the courage to deliver quality and sustainable services.
When he took office on August 3, 2016, he put forward an action plan mapping his plans during his five years in office.
“The plan is to systematically and deliberately drive programmes to position the City of Ekurhuleni as the primary anchor and footprint of the provincial economy,” he stated.
He explained the impact of Covid-19 has necessitated downward budget adjustments within the metro.
“This has created additional strain on the already-strained municipal revenues.
“We were forced to adjust the budget downwards from an approved MTREF Capex of R7.4-billion in the previous financial year to R4.9-b in the coming financial year – a move that has massive impact on the City’s infrastructure delivery programme.

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“This has affected the infrastructure projects budgets, as a result, there were not enough projects to be allocated to learner contractors.
“It has also shown the importance of the operational resilience when faced with the threat of service delivery in the midst of a pandemic.
“It is under these circumstances that business continuity management measures have been put into place to ensure areas of critical to normal municipal operations have been identified and are capacitated to ensure service delivery is not disrupted.
“Efforts were intensified to promote the metro through the hosting of mega events and activations at trade shows.
“We are confident that post Covid-19 other projects which were in jeopardy will be reactivated,” he explained.
Masina added during his term he prioritised the electrification of informal settlements, re-blocking and the general improvement of living conditions in these areas.

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“We have electrified 40 informal settlements, increased the number of mobile chemical toilets to 1:5 from 1:10, and we have re-blocked 46 informal settlements.
“This means we can now roll out incremental services in these areas.
“Thirty-nine townships have been regularised, with 33 605 titled deeds distributed to beneficiaries.
“A 2.5MW peak has been installed in terms of rooftop panels and more than 10 000 geysers were installed at council-owned properties,” he said.
The mayor added they encountered numerous challenges with the supply of power in areas such as Germiston, Springs and Boksburg.
“For the area of Germiston, R283-million has been spent in the upkeep of the electricity infrastructure, while R225-m went into the infrastructure in Boksburg.
“We are investing a further R100-m in refurbishing the electricity network in Springs, with the project expected to be completed by June this year.

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“An allocation of R63-m is being spent on the Kempton Park network,” he added.
Through the Aqua Leap programme, the metro is building 29 new reservoirs.
“Five are completed and another 10 will be completed by June this year.
“This intervention will add 417ML of storage, thus increasing our water storage capacity to 36 hours from 24 hours.
“Over 914 000 households are being provided with access to clean, piped water and sanitation services; 88.9km of water pipes were replaced/refurbished, 364km of water pipe constructed and 95 per cent leaking water pipes were repaired within 48 hours,” he said.
In the fight against HIV/Aids, Masina said a total of 12 136 anti-retroviral treatment (ART) patients were started on ART during the second quarter of 2020/21.
A total of 12 136 ART patients were started on ART during the second quarter of 2020/21.
“All our public healthcare facilities are availing access to pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) to minimise HIV transmissions.
“A total of 2 089 clients were initiated on PrEP between July and January,” he explained.

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