Approved SDBIP sets stage for Joburg’s Final Push
11 August 2015
The City of Johannesburg is to intensify its delivery of services following the approval by Council of its 2015-2016 Institutional Service Delivery Budget and Implementation Plan (SDBIP).
The SDBIP is a legislated tool that provides strategic guidance and commits resources for the municipality to fulfil its mandate for the year.
It stipulates indicators to hold the Mayor, City Manager and Senior Management accountable. The Municipal Finance Management Act requires each municipality to develop an SDBIP as “a management and implementation tool that sets in-year information such as quarterly service delivery and monthly budget targets, and links each service delivery output to the budget of the municipality, thus providing credible management information and a detailed plan for how the municipality will provide such services and the inputs and financial resources to be used”.
Executive Mayor Councillor Parks Tau describes the SDBIP as a reflection of the priorities outlined in his State of City Address and subsequent budget allocations.
He has pledged that in this financial year, the City will accelerate service delivery by achieving more with limited resources.
“Through our community-based planning approach, we have engaged our communities in order to listen to their concerns and needs. As a result, we have integrated their views and concerns into our strategic planning processes. “We are a City inspired by its people. We have collectively adopted flagship programmes that will advance the lives of the people. The flagship programmes have been conceptualised as the House. The House is the strategic route to get us thinking and moving into one direction – to improve service delivery.”
"I encourage residents of Joburg to not only familiarise themselves with the City's SDBIP, but to study it. This is because the SDBIP is such a crucial document through which residents could access information about what services the City plans to roll out. To be ignorant of this plan is to be ignorant of the City's work. We encourage residents to engage with the City through the SDBIP and give us continuous feedback."
He says the 2015-2016 SDBIP forms the foundation of the House and advocates the principles of going back to basics – good governance, public participation, putting people first, creating conditions for decent living, sound financial management and building capable institution and administration.
The Mayor says the rolling out of Wi-Fi hotspots to enable communities to have free access to the internet will assist communities to access job opportunities and extend communication channels through social networks. He adds that Corridors of Freedom programme addresses the spatial segregation left by the apartheid legacy.
City Manager Trevor Fowler concurs, saying that the SDBIP encapsulates the priorities that are a culmination of both the City’s strategic planning processes and community consultations.
Fowler says the City has undertaken a rigorous process to ensure that the service delivery needs of the residents are catered for.
“Our concerted efforts have resulted in the achievement of unqualified audits for three consecutive years, demonstrating how well the City is governed. True to our commitment to the people, we have built houses for the underprivileged and rental social houses for low- to middle-income earners.
“The City has improved the quality of water and upgraded electrical infrastructure to ensure that our residents are spared from the effects of stage 1 load-shedding. Furthermore, the introduction of the ‘load-limiting' approach has contributed to the reduction of load-shedding. Sound financial management practices have also enabled the City to deliver on its objectives,” he says.
The 2015-2016 SDBIP comprises 10 priority implementation plans that will drive the City towards its goals for the remainder of the term of office.
The strategies and priorities set in the SDBIP are very specific. Among notable targets is the City’s commitment to create 50 000 job opportunities in the 2015-2016 financial year. It is about becoming more customer-centric in such a way that the city deliver services to the community.