A multi-entity City team in a big clean-up drive in Midrand
19-11-2014

 

A multi-entity and integrated City of Johannesburg team led by the Johannesburg Roads Agency (JRA) carried out a massive service delivery and clean-up campaign in and around the Midrand Central Business District (CBD) in Region A despite torrential rains that fell over the city in the past two weeks.
 

The JRA Letsema, as the campaign is called, saw six teams totalling 48 of the City’s employees being deployed to various parts of the area to undertake several important service delivery-related projects.
 

“The City wants to maintain and strengthen relations with our stakeholders. That’s why when members of the Midrand branch of the Johannesburg Chamber of Commerce and Industry raised service delivery issues at a meeting recently, we made sure our teams went out to handle the issues raised,” said Member of the Mayoral Committee for Environment and Infrastructure Councillor Matshidiso Mfikoe.
 

The team’s work included the resurfacing of  parts of the Old Pretoria Road, the paving of a sidewalk along Tonetti Road towards Gallagher Estate at a cost of R97 000, the cleaning up of storm water drains, the rebuilding of kerb inlet supports and the replacement of broken and unsafe kerb inlet covers.
 

Yesterday, a City of Johannesburg team comprising Deputy Director: Integrated Service Delivery Hlobohang Gamede, Assistant Director: Citizen Relationships Pierre Nel, JRA Technical Officer Vusi Radebe and JRA Region A Inspector Anton Mampa went on a walkabout to inspect the work that was carried out by the team over the past two weeks.
 

Before the letsema was undertaken, the City’s urban inspectors and representatives of municipal-owned entities such as Pikitup, Johannesburg City Parks & Zoo and the Johannesburg Metro Police Department (JMPD) took a walk in the CBD to identify the areas that needed immediate attention. 
 

“The Midrand CBD is a vital economic hub that provides work for a large number of people and generates a lot of income for the City. It is therefore important to keep the area in good condition to ensure it is an attractive investment prospect for the business community,” Nel said.  
 

Unfortunately, some of the work was undone by “uncooperative elements” that upended some of the paving bricks and stole steel boulders around kerb inlets to sell to scrap metal dealers. 
 

As part of the campaign, a JMPD team held a meeting with informal traders to discuss bylaws. During the meeting it was emphasised that sidewalk trading was disadvantaging pedestrians.